New Britain herald., 1923-04-18
AWATORS REPORT
 NO LOSS OF LIFE
No Fatalities in Air Service for
 Three Months Past

Rantoui, H., April. ls.--Not fa-
 tality has been checked against the
 Nir service during the three months
 that have elapsed since Major Gen
 erai Mason M. Patrick. chief of the
 United States Air Service Issued or-
 ders to the commanding officers of Chanuta. Boiling. Langley, Mitchell
 McCook and Selfridge Fields to inau-
 gurate regular scheduled flights over a model airway over tho eastern and
 middle western states according to records here.
 The model air course takes in New York, Hampton. Va- Cleveland. To- lodo. Detroit. Kokomo, Ind, and Ram toul. Each field dispatches plane biweekly.
 First Flights on Schedule.
 Tho records show that the first Gights were not all completed on schedule time, but each trip has shown an improvement. A trip re- gently completed was from Chanute field to Dayton, O.. to Columbus, O., back to Dayton, to Moundsville, w. Va. 10 Washington to Cumberland, Md, to New York. back 10 Washing ton, to Moundsville, to Cleveland. to Detroit to Toledo. back to Detroit, to Kokomo. Ind, and return to chanute field. The distance covered was more than 220 miles and the total actual flying time was 22 hours and ten min-l utes.
 While no aviator was killed, yet the flights were far from devoid of ex- citement and hairbreadth escapes.
 1900 Mile Route.
 Major F. l.. Martin in a recent trip left Chanute on route which cover ed 1900 miles. He was furnished with strip maps covering the entire route but only for territory few miles on each side of the route. The only land- ing place between Zanesville, Ohio and Washington is Moundsville, the re- maining landscape being almost con- tinuously mountainous. Being be- hind schedule, Major Martin tried a more direct route than that outlined and almost immediately ran into strong headwind and dense clouds. He was blown off his course while flying over the mountains. After some time of aimless flying. trying to obtain his bearings, he suddenly realized his gas was getting low, his oil was almost gone, and that he had no place to land. He was rather high at the time and dropped down to try for landing. Just before his gas gave out he saw a town and recognized it as Moundsyille. his original objective. On landing safely he found he had only three gallons of gasoline left, and no oil.
 One Flight Unsuccessful
 Lieutenant Floyd A. Lundell started the only flight in the three months that was not carried to successful but fellow aviators look upon him as having charmed life. His first mishap on his route from Chanute to New York was when spark plug went wrong and he was forced down near Wheeling. w. Va, He repaired the damage and took off again only to find dense clouds con fronting him. When he had climbed ibove them he learned he was out of ,il. He again landed safely, replen- shed his oil tank and was off again for Washington. He arrived there /. |. lay late, but went on immediately to New York intending to make up time : ,y returning to Washington the same ,fternoon. Lieut. Lundell started rom New York just before twilight Q ,nd a strong wind almost immediately T Jew Him off his course. He finally C ound himself on the edge, of Chesa- ,eake Bay fighting an outgoing wind. Ie was forced to land, but it was too Il lark to see the ground He finally lecided to go it blind and landed in>I a field, but Lady Luck had her head J' urned the other way and he hit the J nly tree in the field. His plane t' rashed and was demolished. but the viator escaped with slight cut over