Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-10-21
AUTUMN COLORS As
seen FROM THE AIR
Pictures of Undesirable Beauty
Seen by Burlingtonian Flying
from Queen City to New York
at Average Rate of Is Miles
an Hour

City AZ an average speed Of u miles an
hour In an air palace, with all the COM
forts OF pullman car. was the expert
ence Thursday Of Mason G. Beebe of this
city, who is the first Burlingtonian, so
far as Is known to take the air trip
from here to New York. Mr.. Beebe was
one Of the eight passengers in the big
flying boat, piloted by w. n. Alexander
which stopped here Wednesday night on
it's way south
1T was most delightful trip" said
Mr. Beebe The ride down the Cham.
plain Valley and over Lake George was
lndescr'bable for tie beauty" Mr.. Beebe
went on to say that Mr. Alexander the
pilot. who is one of the most experienced
Of the younger pilots In America to-day.
declared that he had never In all his
flying in Europe and on this continent
taken more picturesque flight than that
Of THURSDAY
only once IN my flying experience
have ] seen anything which even rivaled
this scenery Of the valleys Of Champlain
and Lake George" declared MFR. Alex
ander and that was when flying over
the marvellous mountain scenery of
Italy"
The atmosphere seemed to he iust right
on Thursday for getting the most out
NJ the flight, and Mr. Alexander express
sed the opinion that not once in hum
dred times would the atmospheric con
dtions the colors on the landsc ape. and
all other phenomena of nature be 80
perfect as they were on this fight. Mr.
Alexander has piloted planes over prac-
ticalN every state In the union. includ
ing the much-heralded scenic beauties
of California and the Pacific Coast. and
he has done considerable flying In Cuba
and Haiti. also, and his unsought opin-
ion was given AT the end OF the trip
Thursday that the scenery encountered
in the trip from Burlington to New York
was the most beautiful OF any he had
seen
The hying-boat left Burlington shortly
after nine o'clock Thursday mornins,
and arrived in New York between one
O'Clock and 1870 In the afternoon They
made only one stop, that being on the
Hudson River to put water In the radia
tor.
1t Was very uneventful trip" de-
clared Mr.. Beebe. There were no thrills
TO ride In one Of these large flying boats
Ia about the same as to ride in the com
partment Of a pullman car. except that
the ceilings are not quite so high"
As showing how little excitement there
Is in trip of this kind. Mr.. Beeoe cited
the case Of Mrs Mangan. the mother OF
the assistant pilot Of the flying boat
She Is a woman about n yeare OF axe
AMI had never before seen an airship un
ri SHE saw this big ship of the air, In
which she took the trip 20 New York
with the others. After the passengers
were safely In the cabin and the flying
boat had TAXED out of the harbor and
taken to the air. there wa. a little lurcr
vii
pockets Mrs. Mangan appeared a hi,
nervous at this. but when she saw Mr.
Beebe laughing. she reeained her conn,
dence and started reading the Free Press
which lay in the cabin. From that time
until the end Of the trip Mrs. Mangar
paid no more attention to the movemen,
OF the ship than ~ she had been ridins
In railroad train. She watched tn,
| scenery and seemed to enjoy herself
thoroughly.
Another instance Of how STANDARDIZED
and commonplace this mode Of travel
has become was we'll illustrated In the
attitude of Captain Narrower an Eng.
ltshman. who had come with the part,
as passenger from Montreal After
| the flying boat had gotten we'll under
way, Captain Narrower tipped his chair
back against the side OF the bulkheat
engines throbbing in his ears.
! Mr. Beebe we'll describes the efYec,
which the noise Of the engines has upor
the passenger. Although their noise IL
so loud that it forbids conversation. ex
cept under difficulties, the passenger
soon becomes quite accustomed to II and
the effect is that OF the buzzing of a mum
Der of bees in ones ears. The result is G
great desire to sleep,
The course taken vas directly dowr
the Champlain valley near to the end OF
Lake Champlain. then across a narrow
strip of land TO Lake George and dowr
the length Of that lake. across to Glen.
Falls and thence down the Hudson riveI
into New York, where the landing wal
made near slst street.
Al no time during the fight was the
flying boat more than 1900 feet in alti
tude according to Mr.. Beebe. and man,
| times they came down within A hundred
feet or less Of the water and few alonf
! the surface.
While going down Lake George, thu
! hydroplane was so close to the tops o.
the mountains on one side that one couIt
almost have stepped from one Of tn.
! huge wings on to the ground On tn,
other side. however. one could took dowr
hundreds OF feet to the waters below
| The blended colors on the hills on thi,
stretch Of the journey were beautiful
beyond description.
| When the Hudson vas reached. tn,
pilot brought the plane down to within
a hundred feet OF the water and few
close to the ground for long distance
IN this way those in the plane wer,
sols to see everything. As they overlook
boats on the river, NV Alexande
brought his plane still lower and some
times skinned along the water besid,
the boats.
! one very interesting experience was
race with one Of the fast passenger train,
on the New York Central. which run,
parallel with the river for miles A.
the plane came alongside this particular
train the engineer looked out and saw
1t and motioned the flying boat TO com,
along Then he opened up his throttle
Gradually the plane gained until II wa,
| even with the cab of the engine and the
passengers could plainly soc the engi
neer at the throttle. II was straight
stretch Of track and tho engineer opened
her up to the very limit. At this chal
lenge, tho pilot Of the plane. who had
been simply keeping alongside sho
ahead at full speed and in a moment the
passenger train was in the rear MI
Beebe. looking hack, saw the engineer
throw up his hands In gesture Of des
pair and laugh,
The aviation party had another inter
esting experience With great hocks OF
black ducks along the Hudson, The
| ducks would keep ahead OF them ir
Aocks for miles. then suddenly break &c
I the right and left and turn back. Tins
In kA nil