The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1920-04-08

rider, and SILVER with delicious fear
as the plane whirls completely over.
You don't know you have turned
over. You see the head of the plane
go up and you lay back comfortably |
in your seat Next thing you know
Ocala is spread out five thousand feet
above you. 1t is a perfect mosaic
the houses of many colors set in green
trees and white streets. You are lit
tie scared-just a little, because you
can't understand why the courthouse ,
ard some of the other big buildings
don't fall out of the mosaic and come |
umbling down on you. But before |
you can assimilate the idea, the plane |
has returned to an even keel. But |
before you realize this, its head is |
going up again, and again the picture |
flashes up above you. Five times in |
all you loop the loop, and the last |
three times you enjoy it to the full,
for you are sure your little old town
is stuck too fast to the earth to fall
off, and you will find it all when you
go back.
Looping the loop, so far as we
know, is the smoothest and most
magnificent of airplane stunts. Very
likely only minority of aviators
have Lieut.. Johnson's proficiency. He
seems to cut a perfect circle in the
air-a circle with absolute smooth
ness. About the only thing to make
you aware you are turning over is
that your feet leave the floor of the
plane for perhaps a second. There is
hut little strain on the belt. The
centrifugal motion in the plane helps
to hold you in, and you are probably
aware that centrifugal motion is one
Of the great powers that makes the
universe move in orderly course.
But there are other stunts to take.
The plane stands on it's tail and
spins. This is the tail spin. and the
fellow on the ground thinks it's about
to twist your head off. But you are
comfortably sitting on your back,
looking up and unaware of any dis
comfort. If there is a nice little
cloud right above you. you will laugh
to see it making show of itself, spin
ming around in a very unorthodox
fashion for cloud.
| The pilot now marks out in the air
an invisible mountainside, about a
thousand feet high. or rather low, and
proceeds to roll himself, the plane and
you down it. When you and another
boy were playing on top of hay
stack, did he ever grab you and roll
over into pile of straw at the bot
tom? This matter of rolling down the
aerial hill is the same only its diff
Iferent. That section of the United
States in which you vote comes around
in graceful curves, spaced with sky,
and there are no bumps.
This stunt closing, you observe the
ground has climbed up. quite percep-
tibly in the last minute or two. It
then proceeds, to climb some more,
for the pilot points the nose of the
plane directly at the roof of the fed
eral building, and begins to pull the
face of the earth up so fast that you
wonder how he hitched it to the plane.
Suddenly coming to the conclusion
that he might overload the machine
with several square miles of terri
tory, he let it go. banks, turns two or
three invisible corners on one wing,
and then slides you gracefully to the
ground, with scarcely a bump.
When you started up, you decided
that if you became dizzy you would
shut your eyes, but now safe on earth
Iagain you realize you haven't, even
winked. You were in a new world,
and couldn't afford to lose split sec
ond's glimpse of it.
If you want some of the best and
most celebrating fun in the world,
go to the landing field and ask Messrs.
Lutes and Johnson to give you ride
with stunts thrown in. You will have
a good time up aloft and when you
come back you will feel like you have
been thru an experience you wouldn't
take thousand dollars for.
1t is worth the while of every man
and woman to take one of these
flights fight with the stunts if
possible-an ordinary flight anyhow.
It's only question of your having
the price-the, higher up you go the
safer you are. It will introduce you
| into a new world-a world no more
strange to you than the railroad was
to your great grandfather, and the
auto was to your father, pos
sibiy' to you Of the elements,
man has conquered earth and
water and, invading the air, has cap
tured the front line trenches. The ma
ton that first fully conquers the air
will lead the world, and in this, as in
everything else, America can win only
by the pluck and enterprise of her
people. Twenty years ago the auto
was an uncertain machine that every
little obstacle could stop. Today it
goes thru any place that is wide
enough for it to pass. Twenty years
from now, airplanes such as now will
carry you over the Alps will be obso-
lete, and in their place will soar great
mechanical birds, safer than the ships
that pillow the sea or the trains that
shuttle the land. The common use of
the airplane will make for living in