The Winslow mail., 1925-09-22
NOTED FLYER
WILL LAND ON
LOCAL FIELD
NEXT FRIDAY

nonstop transcontinental flight
from New York to San Diego, two
years ago, will make Winslow an
official visit next Friday, according
to a wire received from the fam
Gus flyer by the Commercial club
yesterday morning. The telegram
follows:
please wire me at Los An
geles dimensions and condi-
tions and of the air landing
field, also give distance and di-
rectiOn from Winslow. Cap
tain Stevens and myself pho
tographing National Parks, in
cluding Grand Canyon, for the
department of the interior.
Plan to land in Winslow about
September 25th."
1t is not known how long the
aviators will be here. The city
council, Commercial club and Re-
serve Officers association are plan
ming banquet in MacReady's. hon
or if possible A wire was sent
him for particulars.
The fame of Lieutenant Mac
Ready is worldwide. His achieve
ments in the air have been without
parallel, and he is regarded as one
of the greatest airmen flying.
Lieutenant MacReady and Lieu
tenant Oakley G. Kelly left Long
Island, New York, at 1896 p. m.
May 2, 1923, and arrived at Rock
we'll Field, San Diego, at 1925 the
next morning-from an island in
the Atlantic to an island in the
Pacific-lunch in New York one
day and lunch in San Diego the
next.
Three attempts were made by
Lieutenant Kelly and MacReady to
fly across the country without stop
ping. The first two attempts were
made from the Pacific to the At
lantic coast. The third and sue
cessful one was from the Atlantic
to the Pacific. Their fight was
made across northern Arizona,
which portion of the country they
crossed soon after dawn. Concern
ing this part of the trip Lieutenant
MacReady, in his story for the Ma
tional Geographic Magazine, said:
at was Tucumcari, New Mexico
our first known point after the
night. We reached it at the break
of day and recognized it, both by
the huts and the graveyard, for we
had been over Tucumcari before.
, "The sunrise gave us glorious
feeling. When we saw the little
Indian town below we knew that
our flight had been well planned.
We had delayed the start two hours
at New York to avoid being fur
ther west than the town of Tucum-
carl at dawn, and it was remark
able that we were at this point at
this time.
''The next little settlement was
Santa Rosa. For considerable
time the flying was comparatively
easy. A railroad could be occasion
ally seen in the distance and sup
piled a means Of checking the
course
1--WE flew west, high above the
Rio Grande, meandering below US
like a dirty, muddy thread in this
barren volcanic land of jagged dry
rock and sand, and headed toward
a winding and irregular pass lead
ing to the summit of the rapidly
ascending slope.
"It was our intention to fly due
west, to a point about 20 miles
south of the little Mormon hamlet
of st. Johns, Arizona, and from
this point change our compass to
fly southwest. Although we were
following the lowest topography of
the ground, as shown by our con-
tour maps, this southwest course
would increase our elevation some
what, until finally we would reach
a precipice which was the rim of
a large valley or basin leading to
Phoenix.
when we arrived at this point
south of st. Johns, we were in the
lowest part of very large, high
plateau, or valley, were as high as
the plane would go, and the ground
in the direction of our intended
course to the southwest was much
higher.
the south of st. Johns the ground
had been coming up beneath us
faster than the plane could climb,
until we were very close to the
surface and the T-2 was at it's ut
most elevation. AS each gallon of
gasoline was consumed we would
get a few feet more elevation, but
it was a question of which would
win out, the ground coming up be-
meath us or the slight increase in
altitude, due to the lessening weight
as the gasoline was used up.
"Our maps had shown the coun-
try in this vicinity to be about
5000 feet in elevation. Our alti-
meter registered 10000 or 1000
feet more. Ten thousand feet was
right, as this was an unsurveyed
region, and the altitude was higher
than that indicated on the map.
Looking to the southwest,
could see the route that we should
take, according to our maps. There