Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-21
l1,e05-Mile Jaunt Provided
Many Thrills for Army
Tourists.
PLANE COMMENDED
Ship, Forced Into Air at 40
Mile Rate, Saved
from Crash.


Assistant Secretary of War. and hi
aviation aide. Capt. Il. G.. Erwin, be
tween July and August 8, and which
resulted in their Army observation
plane being christened the Spirit o
Unrest" by Col. MacNider. is regarded
as unparalleled in the history of the
Army Air Corps by reason of the fac
that every objective was made or
| schedule to the minute.
Every point was made on tim(
during the 25 days we flew sale
Capt. Erwin, mot only on time bu
on the Notwithstanding that few
railroads can boast of. True, the
weather was good, the equipment eX
cellent, cooperation perfect. but 1t was
all on scheduled time. Our hats are
off to the Curtiss Falcon (Army Oh
observation planet and the Curtiss D-1.
motor of 400 horsepower, which made
this possible"
The high points of Col. MacNider' S
| flight, and points that long will be
remembered by Capt. Erwin. too. oc
Cured after the two had left Rapid
City, S. Oak. July 10. following cal
on President Coolidge. They started
out for Careyhurst. Wyo., a small
| town on the Union Pacific Railroad
| about 125 miles north of Cheyenne,
to visit former Gov. Carey for few
| hours.
Had Narrow Escape.
Not being flyer" Capt. Erwin
said, the governor did not pick out the
best of fields for a landing, but after
looking around the country for a while
/ thought l could land all right. We
did make a slow landing, but ditch
covered with alfalfa and not visible
from the air was struck, causing the
plane to bounce about feet in the
air." This took the pilot by surprise
and he could do nothing but sit and
wait. which he did. The plane finally
stopped, but about 5 yards from an
other ditch, only this one was about
feet deep and feet wide. LAS the
altitude here Is about $500 feet, the
result-nothing broken-was very
lucky" he added.
1.-The take-off from here will be re-
membered. continued the pilot.
After walking all over the field, fol-
lowed and annoyed by hordes of mos
quitoes and nose flies, it was finally
decided to try to make it, instead of
dragging the ship about miles over
rough country to bigger fields. There
was absolutely no wind and the ther-
which did not help matters much.
There were about 1900 feet available,
slightly on a sidehil and downhill
grade. One large haystack and two
very deep bitches had to be missed,
our inspection showed.
Giving her the gun, we started
slowly. but the plane did not increase
it's speed as fast as 1t should have
After getting so far that it was i'm
possible to stop, it was absolutely
necessary to force the plane off the
ground to avoid hitting the last
ditch, with the result of a sure bad
crash" 1t was found there that an
OIL will actually fly at 40 miles per
hour at $500 feet altitude, and the
pilot would like to know IL there is
any other ship of equal weight. horse
power and load that can do this.
Carried Down By Current.
1.-THE next stop was to be Chey-
enne," he said, land on this leg to
cap the climax of the take-off and in
crease the age of the pilot, another
extraordinary occurrence happened.
Flying along very peacefully about Is
miles to the east of the Laramie
Mountains at 1000 feet, and in per-
fectly smooth air. although heavy
thunderstorm with lots of fireworks
was working right over the noun.
tains, the plane without any warning
at all entered n down current Of such
intensity that in much shorter time
than it takes to tell about it, it was
forced down to so feet off the ground
in spite of the fact that the pilot had
given her full gun and was climbing
as hard as possible.
THE hopeless and helpless feeling
that resulted is indescribable. After
landing at Cheyenne, l told the story
to one of the air mail pilots, who
said: oh, sure, that's nothing out in
this country. About three weeks ago
one of our boys was flying about 500
feet off the ground when one of those
things hit him, forced him on the
ground and crashed him. ANY one
who wants thrill go out there and
hit one of those things"
From Cheyenne Col. MacNider and
Capt. Erwin flew to Colorado Springs
| Denver. North Platte, Nebr., Mason
City, Iowa, and Yankton, S. Oak,
back to North Platte, thence to
Sterling. then Cheyenne and on into
Salt Lake City.
Flew Over Varying Country.
so far" continued Capt. Erwin
| "the weather had been breaking alb
| soIutely perfectly, and it seemed that
| there would have to be a bad day
soon, but to our surprise July Il
| turned up another wonderful day
| Leaving Salt Lake City for Spokane
| Wash, at $40 am, via Boise, Idaho
| and Pasco, Wash, we flew over some
of the worst and most beautiful coun
try ever seen from an airplane. After
| no Co T.olf I,
| necessary to climb over the Hansel
| Mountains, and while trying to climl
high enough to get over them the
| motor started missing.
Right at this point there was NJ
railroad within 80 or 40 miles ant
only one house in sight. Aiming rol
| this house, we started down, but haC
| only gone few hundred feet wher
the motor picked up again. The shil
made a wide, level turn without miss
ing, so the nose was pointed toward
| Pasco. and after passing over th'
| west end of Idaho and the east enc
of Oregon the air mail field at Pasct
was reached and with graceful leaps
and bounds a landing was made tc
get gasoline after 4 hours and 40 min
utes of seeing tough country, tough
| air, and having poor visibility
| Spokane was reached in an hours
flying, and total distance of 64'
miles was covered in hours and A
| minutes actual flying time.
ut seemed to the pilot that ali
| conditions on this route were prett,
bad on fair day and must be terri
BILE in Winter with wind blowing a
so and so miles an hour, as it fire
quently does. How those boys on tn
| Pasco Elko air mail line make it II
their Swallows is a mystery"
Gorgeous Sight Over Rockies.
The State convention of the Amer
can Legion was attended early tn
following morning before starting
east again at 1880 am. via Mile
City, Mont. This route lies directl
| over the Rockies. and q more gOr