The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-02-15
CHAPTER III

had gained considerable respect
for the wind in Kansas and Ne
braska, so after turning off the gaso-
line and letting the motor stop by
running the carburetor dry "a safety
expedient to keep the ever present
person who stands directly under
the propeller while he wiggles 1t up
and down from becoming a aero
nautical fatality I pushed the nose
OF the plane up to fence and, after
blocking the wheels securely, tied
each wing tip to a fence post and
covered the motor and cockpit with
a canvas in case Of rain.
BY this time the usual barnStorm-
ing crowd had gathered and 1 spent
the remaining daylight explaining
that the hole in the radiator was
for the propeller shaft to go
through; that the wings were not
made of catgut, tin or cast iron, but
of wood framework covered with cot
ton or linen shrunk to drum tight
ness by acetate and nitrate dope;
that the only way to find out how it
feels to fly was to try it for five
dollars; that it was not as serious
for the engine to stop as for
wing to fall off, and the thousand
other questions which can only be
conceived in such a gathering.
AS night came on and the visi-
bility decreased the crowd departed,
leaving me alone with handful of
small boys who always remain to
the last and can only be induced
to depart by being allowed to fol-
low the aviator from the field.
I accepted an invitation to spend
the night in the small house be-
side the field.
The next morning I telephoned
for gas truck to come out to the
field and spent the time before the
truck arrived in the task of clean
ing the distributor head, draining
the carburetor jet we'll and oiling
the rocker arms on the engine.
While I was working one of the
local inhabitants came up and VOL
unteered the information that he
had been a pilot during the war but
had not flown since and wouldn't
mind takin' a ride again" I as
sllred him that much as I would
enjoy taking him up flying was very
expensive and that I did not have
a large fund available to buy gaso-
line.
1 added that if he would pay
operating costs, which would be IS
for a short ride, would be glad to
accommodate him.
He produced IS bill and after
warming up the motor put him in
the cockpit and TAXED through the
mud to the farthest corner of the
field. This was to be my first pas
senger.
The field was soft and the man
was heavy; we stalled over the
fence by three feet and the nearest
tree by five.
I found myself heading up a
thickly wooded slope, which was
asloping upward at least as fast as
I was climbing in that direction,
and for three minutes my Jenny
and the slope fought it out over
the fifteen feet of air between them.
Eventually, however, in the true
Jenny style, we skinned over the
hilltop and obtained little reserve
altitude.
had passed through one of
those almost but-not-quite acct
dents for which Jennies are so IA
nous and which so greatly retarded
the growth Of commercial flying
during the postwar period.
I decided that my passenger was
entitled to good ride after that
take-off and kept him up chasing
a buzzard for twenty minutes.
After we landed he commented
on the wonderful take-off and how
much he enjoyed flying low over the
treetops; again assured me that he
had flown a great deal in the war,
and rushed Off to tell his friends
all about his first airplane ride.
The gasoline truck had arrived
hLA0 OCA bAO4A6 O4AC O1lAR i OOOh
off again and headed west.
I had no place in mind for the
next stop and intended to be gov
erned by my fuel supply In picking
the next field.
The sky was overcast with nulner-
GUS local storms. had brought
along compass, but had failed to
install it on the instrument board,
and it was of little use in a suit
case out Of reach.
The boundary lines in the South
do not run north and south, east
and west as they do In the North
ern States, but curve and bend in
every conceivable direction, being
located by natural landmarks
rather than by meridians and
parallels.
was flying by a map Of the en-
tire United States, with each State
relatively small.
left Meridian and started in the
direction of Texas, cutting across
country with no regard for roads
or railways.
For time during the first hour
was not sure of my location on
the map, but soon passed over a
railway intersection which appeared
to be in the proper place and salts
fled me about my position.
Then the territory became wilder
and again saw no checkpoints. The
storm areas were more numerous
and the possible landing fields
farther apart, until near the end
of the second hour I decided to
land in the first available field to