The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-03-22
CHAPTER v.

CHAPTER v.
had strayed over a hundred
miles off my course and expert
enced a minor crack-up, but / de-
parted with two hundred and fifty
more dollars in my pocket than
I had arrived with, besides confid-
ence in my ability to make at lea
a little more than expenses by
transforming.
The constant rains had filled the
rivers to overlooking, and after
leaving Maben ] flew over flooded
territory nearly all the way to Lake
Village, Arkansas. Often the water
was up to the second story win
dows of the farmhouses, and a
forced landing at any time would
have at least meant nosing over.
had installed the compass while
waiting for the new propeller at
Maben, and experienced no further
difficulty in holding my course.
After circling Lake Village ]
landed in a field several miles
north of town. The nearest build
ing was clubhouse and soon the
keeper and his family had arrived
beside the plane. They invited me
to stay with them as long as l
wished, but the keeper persistently
refused to accept flight in return
for his hospitality. carried only
a handful of passengers that after
noon. The flying territory around
that part of the country was fairly
good and there were a number of
fields available for planes to land
in. Consequently, an airplane was
no longer the drawing attraction
that it was farther in the interior.
staked the plane down much
earlier than usual and went over
to the clubhouse.
Evening came on with the clear
4. ness of a full moon and open sky.
The landscape was illuminated
with soft yellow light; an ideal
night for flying. decided to see
what the country looked like from
the air at night and jokingly asked
my host to accompany me. To my
surprise, he willingly agreed. For
some reason he had no fear of a
night flight although / had been
unable to persuade him to go up
with me in the daytime. What
his reaction would have been had
he known that / had never flown
after dark before is a matter of
speculation.
We united the plane, removed
the canvases from engine and
cockpit, and after a few minutes
spent in warming up the motor,
TAXED down the field and took off
for a moonlight flight down the
Mississippi and over Lake Village.
Later in the evening after the
ship was again securely staked to
the, ground and we were sitting
quietly in the clubhouse my host
stated that he had never spent a
more enjoyable quarter of an hour
IN his life.
The next morning I was again
heading towards Texas against a
strong westerly wind which re-
tarded the speed of the Jenny so
greatly that even with my double
fuel capacity it was necessary to
land at Farmerville, Louisiana, to
replenish my supply. From the
] flew to Texarkana and landed be-
tween the stumps of the 1923 air.
port.
On the following morning left
Texarkana with a strong tail wind
and after crossing the western
end of the Ozark mountains landed
near a small town in northeast
, ern Oklahoma, where I took on a
fresh supply of fuel and again
headed north towards Lincoln,
! Nebraska.
My tanks began to run low about
half way through Kansas and I
picked out hillside near Alma.
After flying low and dragging the
field several times I came in for
q landing, but just as the wheels
were about to touch the ground
discovered that it was covered with
fairly large rocks half hidden in
the tall grass. I opened the throttle
to take off but the plane had lost
too much speed for the motor to
take effect and as it looped the
ship grounded and hooked in the
rocks, but without doing serious
damage. The landing gear wires
were strained and about two feet
{ OF the rear spar on the lower left
wing tip was snapped off. Nothing