The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-06-28
<-- a An Epic of the Air
wv II Col Charles
Lindbergh
Copyrighted
An Epic of the Air
Copyrighted

neld. i was ABOUT TO take OH when
the headlights on the car became so
dim that they were entirely use
less. One of the men had pocket
flashlight and I took-off while he
threw it's beam on the strawstack.
It was eleven-forty when l left
the ground and eleven-fifty seven
when the last flare had burned out.
Our contract had been fulfilled with
three-minutes to spare.
l located the field by the flash.
ing of the spotlight and levelled off
and landed by its beam.
If the position of light is known
and the field is fairly level, it is
not necessary to see the ground,
but a plane can be stalled in and
landed on the darkest night.
Pilots bring their ships down
when only the outline of field is
visible. For this reason il is imper-
ative that no distractions, such as
farm machinery or live stock, be
allowed to remain on a landing field
at night. ..
Locating strange flying field
by its position in relation to an
equally strange golf course is just
one of the many instances in a
pilots life where comedy goes
hand in hand with the most serious
situations.
In one instance the story is told
of a young pilot who had just
learned to fly. He was taking the
owner of his plane for short flight
and was demonstrating the various
maneuvers he had learned. Finally,
he put the machine into spin, but
after several turns discovered that
he was not able to come out, and
after trying vainly in every way he
could remember hearing of from
his instructor, he leaned forward
in the cockpit and tensely inform
ed his passenger that they were
about to crash.
Not realizing the seriousness of
the situation, the owner replied:
"What the do you care, it's
not your ship"
It was usually the case that a
person inexperienced in the art of
flying became quite disturbed over
some trivial thing that was of lit
tie Importance, yet was perfectly
at home and enjoying life tremen-
dously at time when the pilot was
straining every effort to avoid dis
aster.
People would argue indefinitely,
trying to persuade one of US to ov-
erload the plane past its danger
point by carrying more than two
passengers at a time from a small
field, and it was of no consequence
to them whether the plane cleared
the nearest trees by a safe mar
gin, or stalled over the uppermost
branches by inches.
Explanations on our part were
next to useless. If we refused to
overload the ship, some one cited
an example where plane had car
ried several passengers at one time,
and it made no difference what
kind of a machine it was, or how
large an airport it was operating
from.
The fact that it carried more
passengers than we did indicated
that it was operated by a better
pilot, and that our plane was not
as safe to ride in.
We could struggle along close to
the ground trying to get a little
| altitude and our passengers would
have the time of their lives, waving
at the people below, but let the
motor start to miss, although the
plane might be several thousand
, feet high, and with several large
fields in sight, and they would
glance nervously back at the pi,
lot, wishing that they had neve,
considered taking a ride in an air
plane.