The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1928-07-19

pit, pulling the rip cord after
about 1OO-foot fall. The para
chute, an Irving seat service type,
functioned perfectly; was falling
head downward when the risers
jerAed me into an upwight position
and the chute opened.
! ssThis time saved the rip cord.
pulled the f1ashlight from my belt
and way playing it down toward
the top of the fog when l heard
the planes engine pick up. When
/ jumped it had practically stopped
dead and had neglected to cut the
switches. Apparently when the ship
nosed down an additional supply
of gasoline drained to the carburet-
or. Soon she came into sight,
about quarter mile away and
headed in the general direction of
my parachute.
81 put the fashlight in a pocket
of my flying suit preparatory to
slipping the parachute out of the
way if necessary. The plane was
making a left spiral of about mile
diameter, and passed approximately
800 yards away from my chute,
leaving me on the outside of the
circle. / was undecided as to
whether the plane or / was de-
scending the more rapidly and
glided my chute away from the
spiral path of the ship as rapidly as
l could.
"The ship passed completely out
of sight, but reappeared in few
seconds, its rate os descent being
about the same as that of the para
chute. I counted the five spirals,
each one little further away than
the last, before reaching the top
of the fog bank.
"When I settled into the fog I
knew that the ground wah within
1000 feet and reached for the
flashlight, but found it to he mis-
sing. I could see neither earth nor
stars and had no idea what kind of
territory was below. ! crossed my
legs to keep from straddling a
branch or wire, guarded my face
with my hands and waited.
presently I saw the outline of
the ground and moment later was
down in cornfeld. The corn was
over my head and the chute was
lying on top of the corn stalks. I
hurriedly packed it and started
down a corn row. The ground
visibility was about 100 yards. In
a few minutes / came to stubble
field and some wagon tracks which
l followed to a farmyard a quart
er of mile away. After reaching
the farmyard I noticed auto head
lights playing over the roadside.
Thinking that someone might have
located the wreck of the plane /
walked over to the car. .-
"The occupants asked whether +
had heard an airplane crash and it
required some time to explain to
them that l had been plotting the
plane, and yet was searching for it
myself. I had to display the para
chute as evidence before they
were thoroughly convinced. The
farmer was sure, as were most 9TH
er in a three-mile radius, that the
ship had just missed his house and
crashed nearby.
| ''In fact, he could locate within
a few rods the spot where he
heard it hit the ground, and we
spent an unsuccessful quarter hour
vicinity before going to the farm
house to arrange for a searching
party and telephone st. Louis and
Chicago.
81 had just put in the long dis
lance calls when the phone rang
and we were notified that the
plane had been found in a corn
| field over two miles away. 1t took
Eseveral minutes to reach the site
of the crash, due to the necessity
of slow driving through the fog,
and small crowd had already as
sembled when we arrived.
"The plane was wound up in a
ball-shaped mass. 1t had narrow
ly missed one farmhouse and had
hooked it's left wing in a grain
shock quarter mile beyond. The
ship had landed on the left wing
and wheel and skidde along the
ground for 80 yards, going through
one fence before coming to rest il
the edge of cornfeld about loo
yards short of a barn.
!, "The mail pit was laid open anc
one sack Of mail was on the
ground. The mail, however, wa
uninjured.
"The sheriff from Ottawa ar
rived, and we took the mail to tn
: Ottawa post office to be entrainet
! at $3.50 a. m. for Chicago"
= Ito be Continued)