The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-04-19
CHAPTER TX

In
We refueled at Hattesburg and
Mobile, then landed at the Naval
Air Station near Pensacola, Fla,
where the commanding officer
showed US every courtesy during
our visit. -. :. i.
At last received notice from
the War Department to the effect
that my examination had been sat-
isfactorily passedIa1ong with an
order to appear at Brooks Field,
San Antonio, Tex, in time to enter
the March Is class of flying cadets.
Klink and / decided to cut short
our stay at Pensacola and to work
our way as far west as time would
allow before it was necessary fol
me to leave for Brooks Field.
We had promised to take one OF
the ladies of the post for a short
hop before leaving, and on the
morning of our departure / took
off for a test flight before taking
the lady over Pensacola. Just at
ter the ship had left the field and
was about 200 feet high over the
bay the motor "reved" down to
about 500. 1 banked around in an
attempt to get back to the field,
but lacked by about fifteen feet
enough altitude to reach it and was
forced to land in the sand hills
less than hundred feet from the
edge of the flying field. The first
hill wiped off my landing gear and
one wheel went through the front
spar on the lower left wing, break
ing it off about two feet from the
fuselage.
A quick survey of the plane
showed that we would require a
new landing gear and propeller in
addition to the material required
to splice the spar.
The navy hauled the plane into
one of the dirigible hangers and
allowed US to make use of its
equipment in repairing the dam
age. We purchased a spare land
ing gear and a propeller, then built
a box frame around the broken
spar and, after gluing all the joints,
screwed it into position and wound
the splice with strong cord, which
was then shrunk tight by several
coats of dope. In this way the
splice was made stronger than the
original spar had been.
When we were not working on
the ship we made several trips to
the old Spanish forts which pro-
tected the city during the days
when Florida still belonged to
Spain. These are in an excellent
state of preservation and contain
a number of passageways, one Of
which is supposed to lead under
ground between the two fortifca-
tions, but although we searched
carefully for the opening TO this
tunnel we never found it.
In all we spent about a week re-
pairing the plane, and when it was
ready to fly once more I tested it
with an Irving parachute Dor
rowed from one of the officers of
the station. That was the first
service type of chute I had ever
worn and l experienced the unique
feeling of not caring particularly
whether the ship held together dur
ing the tests or not. I put that Ca
muck through maneuvers which J
would never have dreamed of do
ing with it before, yet with the
confidence of absolute safety.
The advent of the service para
chute was tremendous step for
ward in the advance of aviation. It
gave the test pilot safe means of
escape in most cases when all else
had failed. 1t permitted forma-
tons to fly closer in comparative
safety, and, in short, allowed fly
ers to learn more about their
planes than ever before. All this
contributed to the ever increasing
knowledge of practical flying which
makes possible the safety of pres
ent air commerce.
The airplane parachute has de-
veloped with the rapiiity of the
planes themselves. For years de-