Evening star., 1928-04-15
Clouds Numerous Was
Pac-Sr Passengers rMABeT eTratd

, crash. from the point where she was
going to hit. They were huddled, all of
them. at the back of the long cabin.
There was no sense to IL. II She did
hit they would all go shooting down
the length of the cabin. There were
Is of them, and, with their weight, con-
ccntratcd away back there, it was no
wonder her tail dragged.
Yelling did no good. They were
paraly2ed with fear. l don't know OF
ANYTHING like an airplane i'll a jam to
scare people stiff. not metaphorically
but literally as stiff rs pokers. Frozen"
we call it. and the term is apt. There
was nothing for me to do but to coun-
terbalance the weight OF the frightened
cargo with the elevators. 1t took all
my strength to do It. The ground was
coming up swiftly Now we were only
few feet off. I gave the rudder a
tremendous kick to lift that gang back
there. Then ] Strengthened out. The
plane obcyed the controls well enough
and landed with comfortable bump.
~ NJ
| HAVE seen many a scared passenger
in my day. Often it is dangerous
and still more often 1t gets on your
nerves. / remember the case Of fat
1t seemed to steady his courage Eddie
Rlckenbacker and i flew out Of Cleve-
land one afternoon and had this 300
FOUNDER in the cabin. Eddie had many
an exciting time in his automobile rae
ing days and as an American ace dur
ing the World War, but he won't forget
that trip over Lake Erie.
We got lost In heavy fog. 1t was
the same kind OF binding mist that
we encountered over France during the
Byrd flight. Pretty soon we didn't
know whether we were over land or
water or what. Neither Rickenbacker
nor / liked IL particularly. The 300
pound passenger liked it good deal
less. You couldn't blame him for be-
ing worried, but he seemed TO think We
needed advice. Every minute or so his
head would pop out of the window be-
tween the cockpit and the cabin and
he would yell something. You know
the old reputation that advice enjoys,
about its not being wanted. In this
case 1t was worse than that.
The seats in the cabin were some
distance behind the window. Every
time the fat man had anything to say
he would run forward to the window
and when he had said 1t he would run
back to his seat. 1t was like a great
weight rolling To the front and to the
rear, back and forth. The ship tipped
not dangerous at all. The controls cas-
fly counteracted the constant weight
displacement. But it was annoying.
We were having enough trouble finding
our way In the fog without any of that
rocking -chair effect. / got tired OF II.
/ set myself. The next time the 300
pounds came bouncing forward and the
frightened face appeared at the window
swung a punch The fat passenger
got it square on the nose. The ship.
rocked tremendously as he rushed
back TO his seat
I looked back and gave him to under
stand that he would get another punch
every time he came to the window.
on the nose. Al any rate. he kept his
seat for the rest of the time. while Rick
and / found our way out OF the fog.
That was almost q fight, just half OF
fight. I. suppose nothing could seem
more fantastic and unearthly than men
struggling and beating each other III
an imperiled flying machine thousands
of feet in the sky 1t happens. though,
and l can tell you a couple OF rare
stories about fights in planes.
IF you want one Of the ghastllest mo-
ments that life can afford. why. get
into a fight with somebody in the cock
pit of an airplane perhaps thousands
OF feet above the earth. with the ma
chine falling out OF control. That is
thing TO make the hair Jump right out
Of your scalp. 1t has happened much
more often than you would guess. Let
me tell you of several instances.
During the around-the-wor flight
the planes that were making the voyage
were accompanied by other planes across
the American continent. These attend
ant machines went as kind of escort
OF honor Some made part Of the trans
continental journey In one the pilot
took a newspaper photographer for the
fight across the Rocky Mountains.
Everything went all right until along
came engine trouble. They were above
the mountains when the motor stopped.
Below them was a slope covered with
dense forest. No landing place was