The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-04-26
CHAPTER x

The next day, conditions were
ideal but Klink wanted to go to
a dance that evening and the day
after, the wind was blowing from
the opposite direction. Our re-
manning time was passing rapidly
and we were both anxious to get
to California before my return to
Brooks Field. If we could get the
plane to a larger field six miles
south of Camp Wood we would
have room to take-off with a full
load of gasoline. .
One of the town streets was
wide enough to take-off from, pro-
vided l could get fort-four foot
wing between two telephone poles
forty-six feet apart and brush
through a few branches on each
side Of the road later on. We push
ed the ship over to the middle OF
the street and attempted to take
off. The poles were about fifty
feet ahead and just before passing
between them there was a rough
SPOT in the street. One of the
wheels got in rut and l missed by
three inches of the right wing tip.
The pole swung the plane around
and the nose crashed through the
wall of a hardware store, knocking
pots, pans and pitchforks all over
the interior.
The merchant and his son
thought that an earthquake was
In progress and came running out
into the street. He was highly
pleased to find an airplane half
way into his place of business and
not only refused to accept any
thing for damages, but would not
even allow US to have the wall re-
paired. He said the advertising
value was much more than the de-
struction.
The greatest damage to the plane
was a broken propeller, although
from that time on it always carried
left rudder. We wired for new
propeller and can of dope from
Houston and in a few days were
hedgehopping the mountain tops in
true Canuck fashion on our way
west.
A Canuck, or J. N. &C is moth
ing more or less than a Canadian
Jenny and while it is lighter and
performs little better than a
Jenny, it is subject to the same
characteristic of being able to just
miss most everything it passes
over.
VIE passed over the Rio Grande
and cut through a corner of Mex
leo, then landed on one of the
Army emergency fields at Pump
vile and induced the officer in
charge to sell us enough gasoline
to continue our flight.
Dusk overlook us near MaXon,
Texas, and we landed between the
cactus and Spanish dagger west of
the town, which consisted of a
section house and three old box
cars of the type used throughout
the southwest for housing the Mex
lean section hands.
The section boss was living
alone. He was soon to be relieved
and stationed in some more popu-
lated locality. We spent the night
with him and in the morning clear
ed a runway for the ship. Maxon
was quite a distance above sea
level and as the air was less dense,
an airplane required longer dis
tance to take-off in. There was a
small mountain on the east end of
the field and the land sloped up
ward toward the west. We work
ed until midday cutting sagebrush
and cactus. There was a light
breeze from the west and the air
was hot and rough. After using
three-quarters of the runway the
Canuck rose about four feet above
the ground but stopped there, and
when the end of the runway was
passed the winds and landing gear
scraped along on sagebrush. AS
soon as we picked up a little extra
flying speed, another clump of
sagebrush would slow the ship
down again until, after we had