Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-05

ing. But those three motors behaved
themselves. They hummed right
along.
Between Nova Scotia and Newfound-
land our weather luck changed. All
the rotten weather in the Atlantic
seemed to be chasing up our way and
closing us in. COmdr. Byrd told me
to take the wheel, and l did. 1t took
me about half an hour to pilot the
plane into an altitude where we would
not be bothered by banks of clouds.
The only thing to do under those con-
ditions was to keep the bad weather
under us. But some of those cloud
banks drifted AS high as 5000 feet.
There was nothing dangerous about
the situation so long as there was no
necessity of landing. l was accuS-
toned to that sort of flying. ! saw no
rea son to worry.
For 10 hours we flew that way, stay
ing as high as we could above the
fog, mist and rain. In other words,
we few not through the bad weather
during those hours, but above it. AT
intervals of three or four hours Acosta
and 1 relieved each other.
Never Felt Sleepy.
We were not thinking of sleep or
food. AS a matter of fact, we never
felt sleepy or hungry. / admit that
ate more than the others. Some
French papers, which were translated
for me. said that / ate whole roast
chicken. What had that to do with
the flight? l ate it not because was
hungry, but because | like chicken.
They nut four roast chickens on
board. 1 supposed that they were to
be eaten. l ate mine. That was all
there was to that.
Toward the last of those IL hours
over the bad weather Lieut.. Novllle
managed to catch a message telling
us that it was clear weather near the
surface, We dove through bank
of clouds and ran along Tor 4oO or
500 miles with the wind on our beam.
over Brest we saw the sunset and
for an hour or so we had some decent
weather. Then it grew dark and the
weather grew worse. Clouds damned
in on us from every direction. Aside
from clouds we had to contend with
fog. which blotted the coast of France
out of our sight.
The greatest difficulties OF flying
will be solved the day some lone in
vents a light that will penetrate the
clouds and let the aviator know where
he is.
Compass Goes Dippy.
But to add to our troubles our earth
induction compass all of sudden
went dippy. I believe it was some
magnetic affection outside the COM
pass. We had not much gas left
enough, perhaps, for three hours.
Lieut.. Neville shot message by radio
to that effect.
I was at the wheel. I realized that
it was / who would have to finish the
flight.
Now I do not believe in taking any
risks. All my experience as flyer
has taught me that the big point
about flying is to land your plane and
passengers safely. / believe in doing
that every time. Any fool can crash
and smash up a plane, but good
pilot should land gently.
This business Of calling man a
hero of the air just because he has
killed himself is something l have
never been able to understand. have
no ambition to be that kind of hero.
When I saw what we were up
against, with fog all around US and
only a few gallons of gasoline left IN
our tanks, thought it was time to
think of landing. In my opinion there
we could not see Paris. We dove
through the clouds and cruised around
at an altitude Of between 1000 and
1900 feet.
Flash Of Light.
It seemed to me that 1 caught
flash of light on our RICH. wing. 1t
was probably the flare of the Mont
Valerian Beacon. 1t did not repeat,
and again we found ourselves flying
around in the pitch dark. We might
just as well have been blindfolded for
all we could see Of land or ocean.
From somewhere out Of that dark
ness Lieut.. Neville caught message
telling us that it was misty and nasty
below. I should say it was. But what
kind of ceiling were we travelling
over? That is what I should have
liked to know. l could not tell. I
could only guess.
One guess 1 made was that there
might be a lot of roofs and steeples
under us. l did not like the idea of
landing on that kind Of field. / had
to think not only Of ourselves but of
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