The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-05-20
BY VERNON E. BUNDY.

infections insinuations, imputations
and double meanings may be packed
into a three-word Wash I
you scared ?"
ascent in an airplane is asked this
question by every single. solitary in
dividual to whom he retai1s his ex-
perience.
Not only that. but he asks himself
the question, a whole lot more search
ingly than any of his friends ask it
and expects the truth in answer
which they do not, and won't accept 1t
as the truth if he tells it.
yes" With Reservations.
From the viewpoint of the man
with just average intestinal investi-
ture who makes his first excursion
into the c3rcumambient ether. the an
swer is yes" with qualifications.
The chief scaredness is the scare he
gets when he makes the date to go
flying. and in the silent watches of
the night before.
He wakes unusually early that
morning of the flight, and doesn t
banker to slip back into Sunderland
for another half hour. Nossir. He
gets up right then and wants his
breakfast There's nothing like ones
first airplane flight-in prospect-to
stomach ought to be, And breakfast
is a hollow mockery-ft doesn't satisfy.
Neither do the cigarets for which the
billboards and the magazine ads make
that claim Nor nothing else. for that
matter.
Leaving home the subject of this
sentimental vivisection kisses his wife
with unusual warmth and feeling
Also he casts an extra glance or two
about the apartment, and decides that
he wouldn't so much mind living there
another year or two after all-he'd
much rather live there than not at all.
The Scairdest Time.
That is the worst period. No as
surance of aviation experts, no quoting
of statistics on ballistics and about
the commercial airplane being safer
for passenger travel than the automo-
bile, no personal "reminiscences from
friends who have flown. is going to
make a bird out of a man, right off.
There is an inherent tendency in
the human race to keep ones feet on
or reasonably near the ground no mat
ter how much one may be up in the
air." figuratively speaking.
This disappears when the flight
starts. When the motor is hitting on
all seventeen, or however many cylin-
ders there are in an airplane engine,
and the master of ceremonies tells
him where to put his feet, the thing
looks so solid and substantial, and so
little like a bird, that there is no hesf-
tation whatever about climbing in.
Better Use First Person.
This story can better be told in the
first person than the third. Every
persons reaction is different and prob
ably the great majority of the people
who read this and who have flown,
will say, that isn't the way 1 felt
at ALL
Swallow, one of fleet of five used by
the Nourse Oil company's statesmen in
the prosecution of their daily task,
was the most wholesome and hearten-
ing factor in the whole procedure
Neville had two years of army flying
during the war, and has flown for
many months since then
He is a man who begets confidence
on first acquaintance. He is himselt
confident serene, untroubled and
sure of himself and his machine. He
doesn't spill assuring language over
YOU He talks very little under any
and says a PEACEFUL
when he does talk. He can put gin
ger into your spinal column at the
moment without saying
a word.
When Bumps Were welcomed.
The machines howl of joy at being
liberated rose in a crescendo. and it
started to move across the field.
There was reinsurance IN the bumps
and shivers which told that the wheels
mind little roughness.
Neville headed southeast and moved
off slowly, gaining speed as he went
gripped the padded coaming over
the cockpit, rejoicing every time felt
a bump which told me that we were
still on dear old terra firma. I like
the state of Kansas pretty well. and 1
think I never cared less to leave it
than I did at that moment
I thought we were travelling fast.
1Hr-
and L learned what speed was. The
Swallow has to be running forty miles
an hour before 1t will leave the
ground. An automobile was running
past the municipal field. and we
passed it as If it had stopped. While
I was watching the automobile the
bumps ceased, and some one pulled
the ground out from under US.
We headed northwest. into what lit
tie breeze there was, and the ground
and farm yard were underneath and
then behind US Then a cemetery
hove in sight Mighty convenient if
we happen to slip a cog here 1
thought. but we didn't slip any cogs-
Landscape Like a Map.
In three minutes Shawnee county
was an exquisite colored contour map,
spread out before us. To me there
was no sense of being high in the air,
tho we reached a height of $500 feet
in a short time. Rather. it seemed
that the plane was running over a
smooth. a very smooth, invisible track,
with this delightful map spread out a
few feet below il.
There was no need of the belt. The
walls OF the cockpit came up to my
shoulders and the plane rode on a
more even keel than any automobile
on a city street could maintain. At
a thousand feet 1 felt perfectly safe
to lean over the edge of the cockpit
and move about in the roomy seat
The only motion perceptible in the
plane was the motion which is felt
when an elevator misses a floor by
six inches, and the operator jockeys
II back and forth a few inches till
exact connections are made. listened
for Neville to say watch your step,