San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-09-24
Lieut.. Dale v. Gaffney
Started to Leap With
Parachute Wings Flut-
tered When He Started
the Motor Went Into a
Spin When He Cut 1t
Off-Lands Upside Down.

Thrilling stories Of adventures in
the air are still being written in. the
army air service, and TO these vol
tines no army air station can cou-
tribute more exciting narrative than
Kelly Field. Even seasoned pilots
get into trouble when the controls
refuse to respond to the stick. No
doubt because he was seasoned pilot
is the reason the sole actor in one of
2 these recent hair-raising adventures at
Kelly Field lived to tell the tale. Lieut..
Dale V: Gaffney, adjutant of the
Third Attack Group, was the actor
and a Fokker monoplane was his
stage. Quick thinking and the avia-
tors flying instinct enabled him = 10
bring his plane TO the ground from all
altitude of 5000 feet after it seemed
that everything on the ship went
wrong.
Lieutenant Gaffney flew the same
ship the day before and was well
pleased with it. His second flight in
the Fokker monoplane, however. was
quite different, as his own story will
show.
After flying for about an hour,
during which time the plane was
stunted little. l decided to join a
formation of DeHavilands which i
saw at a lower altitude. was at
this time about 5000 feet in the air.
pulled the plane W in steep climb
ing turn, intending to lose my alti-
tudc in a series of wing-overs. Glanc-
ing at the air speed meter / noticed
that the plane had gained to 131 miles
air speed, and was pulling back on the
stick to start my climb when both
wing tips began to flutter badly. The
stick struck my left leg, knocking my
foot off the rudder, and then proceed
ed to whip across the cockpit and
struck my right leg, knocking my right
foot off the rudder. Then it vibrated
rapidly for possibly one or two Sec
onds, when it fell over against the
left side of the cockpit.
WOldn't Stop Fluttering.
sin the meantime 1 had throttled
the motor and when again took hold
of the stick found that my aileron
control was completely gone. / tried
my elevators and found that the re-
Spouse was normal. l then tried to
eliminate the fluttering which was
rapidly becoming worse, by climbing
and skidding. but this seemed to have
no effect. and as pieces of the aiIeron
started to fly off at this time 1 de-
cided to kill the motor and make n
parachute jump. l stood up in the
cockpit, preparatory to going over the
side. and reaching down. pulled the
stick back against the seat. pulling
the plane UP into a stall. As l was
about to leave the plane the fluttering
ceased and / thought that possibly l
could get back down without crash
ing, so j got back into the seat ana
pied to turn toward Kelly Field.
AS soon as / started to turn 20
the right the plane pitched over into
spin and failed to respond TO the
usual handling of controls in bringing
a plane out of spin. After trying
two or three times TO stop the spin
with the motor throttled / opened the
motor wide, which Immediately start
ed the wings fluttering again. This
however, gave me enough pressure on
my rudder so that | was able 10 rorce
the plane out of the spin. As it came
out | throttled the motor, pulling her
up into a stall again TO stop the tut
tering of the wings. AS the speed
slackened the fluttering ceased and the
plane Immediately went into another
right-hand spin.
Lands i'm Cane Patch.
II was at this time at an altitude
of approximately 5000 feet. l then
determined to try and regain control
before / reached the altitude of 1000
r 80 vxaccrhva
use my parachute and let the plane so.
At approximately 1000 feet succeed
ed, by use Of full motor, to force the
plane out of the spin. After throttlinS
my motor, instead of stalling to stop
the fluttering which had required as
soon as the motor was opened, L al.
lowed the plane to float level. L found
that there was a tendency for the right
wing to drop as the sneed slackened
but found that / could control this
by using full left rudder and manipu.
lating my throttle. I'also found that
as soon as my air speed approached
so miles an hour the wings began 10
flutter again and it was, therefore,
necessary to hold the speed below this
Ipoint.
Il gave up all idea of getting back
to Kelly Field and tried to make a
landing in a big field about three
miles south of Kelly. l could not
.Auech this field, however, because il
Twas necessary TO keep the plane con-
stantly turning TO the left TO avoid a
repetition of the spin. l picked out
a cane field off to my left and by
slipping into my turn made a normal
landing there. The cane was about
so inches high and very thick: SO after
rolling about twenty yards the plane
banked SO much of the cane in front OF
4 the landing gear that the ship nosed
over and landed on its back
Even though Lieutenant Gaffney
ended his thrilling descent of 5000 feet
in an upsidedown position, be was not
scratched. He crawled safely from
the cockpit of his plane and started
hack to Kelly Field after having in
few seconds time written one of the
most thrilling pages in aerial his