The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-02-17
COL. CHAS.A LINDBERGHS OWN LIFE STORY .::;.S@

the ship that night. During the
heavy rains at Maben, Mississippi, I
had constructed a hammock of
heavy canvas which could be
suspended under the top wing.
I tied the corners of this ham
mock to the upper strut fittings and
crawled into the three blankets in
side, which were sewn up to form
a bag. Thus I spent a comfortable
night.
When I arrived over Lincoln the
next day I circled over the Lincoln
Standard factory, and after landing
on the old flying field south of town
waited for the car which was sent
out to bring in visiting airmen.
The remainder of the day was
spent in ground flying" with my
friends in the factory. We had not
been together for seven months,
and the usual exchange of expert
enceS was necessary.
I soon learned that Bud Quincy
had made parachute for himself
and was intending to test it by the
simple method of going up to an
altitude of 1900 or 1000 feet and
cutting loose from the plane. If
the chute opened, it was successful.
After a great deal of persuasion
I prevailed upon him to let me take
him up in my ship while We made
the first test with sandbag.
The tanks had just been filled
with fuel, but I had unlimited con-
fidence in my Jenny, and we dashed
the parachute and sandbag on
the right wing.
Bud, who weighed 165 pounds,
climbed into the front cockpit, and
we started the take-off with a total
load of about 600 pounds, to say
nothing of the resistance of the
parachute and sandbag, which were
directly in the slipstream from the
propeller.
Even with this load we cleared the
nearest obstacle by a safe margin
and finally attained an altitude of
about 200 feet.
Then we were caught by a de-
scending current of air which car
ried the plane down to within ten
feet of the ground, and try as
would could not get any higher.
A wooded hill was directly in
front, and to avoid striking the trees
I turned down wind A railroad
trestle was then in front of us and
we stalled over it by inches.
For five minutes we lodged hills,
trees and houses. I signaled Bud to
cut the Sandbag, but when he
started to climb out of the cockpit
to reach it, the added resistance
brought the plane down still lower.
Then in front of us appeared a
row of trees, much higher than the
rest, which I knew it would not be
possible to get over. We were then
passing over a grain field and I cut
the gun and landed down wind.
The grain was high enough to
keep the ship from rolling far and
we unloaded the sandbag before TAX
ing off again. With the weight Of
the bag and its resistance gone. we
had no trouble in getting out of the
grain and back to the flying field.
A week later Bud carried out his
intention of testing the
chute. 1t was successful.
Before continuing the fight TO
Minnesota, Bud and 1 made a short
transforming trip through eastern
Nebraska.
That territory had beer fairly
we'll covered by other transformers,
however, and we did very little bust
ness.
At one place where we landed we
were overtaken by violent
thunderstorm combined with a
strong wind.
1t came up so suddenly that we
had only time enough to tail the
ship into the wind and lash the stick
to keep the ailerons from whipping
before the wind struck lis.
We we're both holding on to the
tail trying to keep the plane from
blowing away. Following the wind
was a heavy rain which covered the
ground with water and at each fash
of lightning the electricity on the
wires Of the ship would pass to the
ground through our bodies with the
intensity OLA booster magnet.
In an electric storm a plane acts
as part of a condenser, since 1t is
insulated from the ground by the
rubber tires and wooden tailskid. 1t
is possible to receive a violent shock
by standing on wet ground and
holding on to one of the wires.
We were unable to let go of the
ship in the high wind and could
only remain and take these dis
charges as they came. Fortunately
the storm did not last long.
The night after our return to Lin
coin we slept on the field SO that I
could get good start in the morn
ing. Bud was in the back of a Ford
truck, and I was In the hammock.
Copyright, 1928. by Charles A. Lindbergh
(To Be Continued Tomorrow