St. Johnsbury Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1920-1920, 1920-03-10
MISSROUSE
TELL THRILLS
OF AIR FLIGHT
With Miss Stevens and
Miss Ide She Enjoys Air.
plane Trip Over City

The thrilling experience of three
St. Johnsbuly young women in air.
plane flights over St. Petersburg,
Florida is told in an interesting way
by Miss Grace Rouse of the Cary
Maple Sugar Co. in a letter to her
sister, Miss Florence Rouse of the
Caledonian-Record Office. The letter
follows:
We have been pelusing the Gale
donian for the last two weeks and it
certainly does not contain very cheer
ing news to Us here in Florida, so
Helen Stevens, Mary Ide and myself
thought we would try to add Il little
variety in the way of amusement and
we betook ourselves on the morn;ng
of March 3rd, to the Pier where Lieut.
Whittcd's hydro-plane, "Blue Bird
was preparing for q trip to Pass-a-
Grille. Perhaps our St. j. friends
will like a change from snow banks,
the Flu and zero weather and will lis
ten for Il time to an account of our
three trips, not exactly through the
clouds, but we'll up over the earth.
We would have preferred to have
gone together OF at least in pairs but
none of us being feather-weights, 1t.
Whittcd took one at Il time.
The "Blue Bird" is Curtiss model
and is very beautiful plane, painted
sea blue and when in flight looks
like a big bird. The motor is close
to the upper plane, above the heads
of pilot and passenger so practically
all danger from fire is eliminated as
the velocity Of the plane would sweep
the flames far TO the rear should an
explosion occur.
Just before I was ready to start
Lit. Whitfield asked us if we had heard
Of the accident at Fort Myers the
day before when three men were kill
ed. Whether he did it to test our
nerve or not, we do not know, and we
Informed him we were not easily
frightened and had watched him fly
too long not to have a good deal of
confidence in him. In this accident,
the pilot went far inland and all
were killed before they reached the
ground. s
In preparing forf the flight, your
I ears are flied with cotton and you are
helmeted and begogglcd~ and present
something of'the appearance, of the
diver from your. shoulders up. We
were given a Is minute trip over
Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg and
it is well worth the price. On start
ing out YOU are hardly aware that
you hav" left the water, and not un-
til you look overheard and see the
piers beneath do you know for Ger
tainty that you are "going up"
Miss Stevens and would prefer
a second one and would like to go a
little higher next time. wv" on"h went
to 1000 feet altitude and found it
warmer than at 1000 feet.
There is almost no sensation of
speed unless you attempt to speak to
the pilot or put your hand out to
wave to your friends down on earth.
Your hand simply refuses to wave at
speed of GO miles. In climbing up,
you arc not aware of doing so unless
you watch the indicator, but in des-
cending you have the same sensation
that an escalator gives you and the
wind blows terIifcally.
We SKINNED along over the Bay
close to the Str. "Favorite" just leav-
ing for Brandcntown, and then
mounted higher until we were out
over the city. One does not appreciate
the real beauty of St. Petersburg
until seen from 500 feet altitude.
1t. Whitfield does not do any stunts
with regular passengers but we have
watched him do some wonderful spi-
rails You are not fastened into the
plane but sit beside him without a
thing to grasp other than the side
of the seat. Nv Whitted told us
that the air compression would hold
a passenger in so there was very little
danger of falling out. You sit we'll
under steering wheel similar to the
one he uses, but he doesn't care to
have any assistance in driving.
Miss Ide and Miss Stevens looked
like mere specks as we passed over
their heads at an altitude of 1,200
feet. The day was misty so that the
distant view was not as good as on a
clear day but we could see clouds
below us.
We certainly recommend the trip
to all our friends as dispeller of
"blues", and after takine it YOU
would forget that the snow was five
feet deep or that the thermometer
ever registered 45 degrees below zero.
If there are any skeptics here
who think this is a newspaper yarn,
we have three certificates. signed by
1t. Whitted giving the date and alti-
tude of our fights, of which we are
very proud and we also hope the
snaps taken by Mr.. Stevens and my
self will be good ones.