Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1922-11-02
MANY THRILLS
ASP[ANE RUNS
INTO STORM
Sims Tells of Experiences
in Aerial Journey from
Grangeville to Spokane
Passenger Feels He Is Not
Travelling as Rapidly as
in a Racing Automobile

Lost in the clouds 10000 feet above
Mother Earth, experiencing all the
thrills of flying in the teeth of So
mile gale and making a forced landing
in stubblefield a few miles from
Spokane, after a 2-hour battle with
the elements, two local men, George
Smith and H. M. Sims, got their initial
taste of aviation last Friday morn
ing, when they accompanied Lieuten-
ant Manor on his return trip 10 Spo-
kane in his big Curtis airplane. From
the scene of the forced landing, the
flight was later resumed, and a land
ing made at the Russell aviation field,
Spokane, at Ills, three hours and ten
minutes after leaving Grangeville. Ac-
tual flying time was a little more
than two hours.
STORM REDUCES SPEED
Before "stepping off, at the local
field, Lieutenant Manor expressed the
opininon that he could make the trip
in one and half hours, flying at the
rate of 1875 miles an hour, but the
storm encountered wrecked calcula-
tions. With all the handicaps, the 49,
hour railway journey to Spokane was
beaten by about ten hours.
The party left Grangpville at ten
minutes before eight, under almost
ideal weather conditions. The plane
slid rapidly down the field, rose grad
ually and headed direstly for its des-
tination. Speaking of the feeling the
novice enjoys (sometimes) at this first
experience of departing from terra FIR
ma, Mr.. Sims said he missed the SEN
sations that are generally attributed
to one 8 first airplane flight.
EARTH DOESN'T DROP
''The feeling that the earth is drop
ping out from under you" said Mr..
Sims, "is hardly correct. You can feel
slight 'lift' as the plane starts its
slow pull upward, and we got eleva-
ton quite slowly because of the heavy
load. Except for this slight 'lift,' you
simply separate from the ground, and
that g about all there is to it. Of
course, your re going pretty fast, but
it doesn't seem as fast as riding in
racing car. It's much more smooth,
and very little vibration. The noise
of course, is terrific, and the only
conversation Mr.. Smith and I carried
on was by tracing out words with our
fingers on the shield in front of us.
eff one could sit in picture show
and see views taken from an airplane,
have machine gun blazing away be-
side him, and big fan kicking up a
breeze, one could get all the thrills of
riding in an airplane, without any
accompanying uneasiness. To put an
additional 'kick' in it one should med
itate on what might happen if the en-
CINE stopped or one of the slender
wires that elevates the planes, broke.
/ found by actual experience that the
way to get good thrill out Of it was
to reflect upon the possibilities of a
spill, but L also found that was no way
to enjoy a ride 10000 feet above the
ground.
NO SENSE OF SPEED
"When one is high up there is no
sense of speed at all; in fact you
seem to be dragging along pretty slow
ly. All you sense is that there is a
fierce wind blowing The landscape
looks exactly like it does in the
movies except, of course, there are
the colorings. In fact, it looks more
like pictures than reality. The towns
resemble toy villages; the Clearwater
canyon, little gully with a tiny dir
ty stream running through It'll
cit was beyond the Clearwater that
the clouds doomed up, and Lieutenant
Manor kept pulling upward as the
clouds rolled toward us. First they
came in drifts, and swept quickly past
beneath us. Then they came in banks,
and little later in solid formationi
We had to quit looking at the scenery
for a while. How do the clouds look
from abovef Just exactely as they
do from below Of course, when
rift comes along that you can see
through, you see the ground instead of
sky. 1t was through one of these
riffs that 1 directed my fellow passen-
gers attention, for far below, in an
oval frame of clouds, there appeared
one of the finest looking graveyards
it has ever been my pleasure to con-
template.
'fFinally the aviator had to des-
cend in order to get his bearing. 1t
was cold and damp coming down
through the storm, and the rain drip
ped from the wings of the plane. We
we're pretty well protected, but Lieu
tenant Manor, who rides behind his
got the full benefit of it.
And the going here was rather rough. |
CONTINUED on last PaQe)