Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1921-01-20

and wanderings Of the trio begins with
the morning hours In Rockaway naval
air station on December l8 sand goes
on through the. hight, the landing, and
up to the meeting with the Indian at
Moose Factory who saved their lives.
Z ut was just an ordinary balloon
hop" Farrell began. ut was for train
ing. Hinton told me after we, left
that the gas In the balloon was ten
days old, stale and impure
Hinton called me up at about twen-
,ty minutes to IL December 1877 and
told me could come on flight if /.
wanted to. No special orders are
needed. We just got permission from
Commander Cummings OF the post
and Executive Officer Douglas.
Il am senior officer of the three,
but Kl0or was in command Of the
flight, as he Is balloon officer and i
am a gunnery officer. I.have been in
aviation for three years and have
flown in every kind Of aircraft. We
left at p. m.
s Left with -Four Piusons.
I'VE had four pigeons; we let the
first one 60 with message for the
Brooklyn navy yard.
Hinton and Kloor had heavy UNI
derwear and uniforms under their fly
ing suits. had only the underwear
and the flying suit. / had grip with
my uniform apd some other things in
1t. We had eight sandwiches and two,
thermos bottles Of hot coffee. None
Of the underwear was electrically
heated.
1--WE expected to land next morn
ing In upper New York state. We had
no maps or charts except railroad
map Of the Canadian Quebec Central
line, which / bought. We had three
chances to land before we did. We did
stop once at Wells, N. Y.
I'VE made fast to tree near
light. 1t was in a window Of a farm
house. A man came along and we
asked him where we. were. He. told
US, but he could not say what big town
we were near. ~. (. .#'.g
g, kIoor Game 10 Go on.
ave cast loose and went up again.
It <rained and blew during the night.
We could have landed at Ottawa at
II p. m. We saw the lights Of big
city. But Kloor Is just kid and he
was enthusiastic about a long fight.
We all agreed that we ought to do
decent flight. There had been rain
from Wells on.
The wind was north by west. That
night It blew hard and rained. There
was no sign Of civilization. But we
thought It would be all right In the
morning. At daylight we. saw only for
ests. The rain had Gained down.
There were low clouds and fog.
1.-THE rain stopped at 8 a. M. (De-
cember 14l. We ate all our food dur
Ing the night. We had two packages
Of cigarettes and one box Of matches,
but you cannot smoke in hydrogen
balloon. We realized we were In bad
that morning."
Explains Flying Technique.
Here Farrell paused to give a brief
explanation Of the technique Of, bal
loon flying.
You have lot Of expendable bal.
last" he said. 1--WE had twenty-one
sandbags weighing thirty pounds,
apiece. At first the balloon rises with
all the cargo. Then it begins coming.
down as the gas deteriorates. When
You are down too low you throw out a.
sandbag and that sends You up again.
when all the ballast is gone you
50 up for the last time and have to-
come down as soon as the gas begins
to weaken.
'tours twenty-irst bag went over that
morning. After that we had to throw
out equipment to keep up. We hauled
In the drag rope which is used In;
making landings and cut 1t Into sev-
eral pieces. We used each piece as
ballast. It was not very long before
the last: piece went over the: side.
AT IL q. %. the sun came ont and
heated up the gas In the balloon;
that makes the gas expand and sends
the balloon up. s H, .ss y
I've were lighting to keep In the
air. All we saw was trees, lakes, and.
mows Il was about 1850 p. IA. that.
va raw q shack "a the woods. At
least we thought It wasya shack. We
were 10 doubt about this untilsiw
heard q dog bari.
Il took bearings With the compass!
on the shack and the place where the