Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-14
AVIATORS. LOSE TO ELEMENTS
IN NONSTOP AIRPLANE RACE
Art GoebeI Is Only Pilot to
Reach Los Angeles on Dash
From Gotham.
Trip Takes 20 Hours so
Minutes, With Stop for Ad-
juStment on Desert.


MINES FIELD, LOS ANGELES, Sep
TENDER 14.-The elements today stood
/ victor in the nonstop transcontinental
air derby, feature event Of the national
air race meet in progress here, and
S22.5OO posted for the first four finish
ers in the event remained with race Off
Gals.
None of the nine planes which hoped
from Roosevelt Field. New York, We'd
nesday reached their goal without
stop. though for time yesterday 1t was
Thought Art Goebel, holder of the West
to-East nonstop record, had won first
prize.
Goebel, winner of the Dole air race
from Oakland to Hawaii last August,
was the. sole pilot to reach Mines Field,
landing here at $40 pm, Pacific stand
ard time. amid a great outburst OF APP
pIauSe from the crowd.
Landed in Arizona.
Following the outburst, however, and
confusion attendant with his rather
bunny landing, Goebel revealed he had
been disqualified by landing at Pres
~cott, Ariz., when he grounded to adjust
a faulty carburetor and to take on adj
ditional gasoline.
He brought a story of bitter battle
his white Lockhead-Vega monoplane
met fierce headwindS, rain and Sleet-
storms. The craft. the Yankee Doodle,
bore evidence of the violence of the
storm. one cabin door being torn away.
Goebel landed % hours and so min
utes after his take-off in New York,
which time, despite the hour and 10
minutes he was on the ground in Arlz-
ona, was three hours better than the
East -to-West nonstop record of IS
hours so minutes SO 2-5 seconds set by
Lieuts. Oakley G. Kelley and John A.
McReady in 1928.
Previous Record 1858.
Goebel's West-to-East record flight
from Los Angeles to New York Was
made in 18 hours and SO minutes. He
averaged $50 miles an hour until he
passed Chicago, and then loafed along
until he sighted New York.
He was the favorite of the long derby
because of that performance or his
Yankee Doodle, and has been expect
ed to have serious opposition only from
Col. William Thaws Lockhead-Vega
and Nick Manners Buhl-SeSqui planes,
both forced down earlier.
Capt George Haldeman, Ruth Ell
ders' pilot on her attempted trans
alla1IlC Il.
in the derby, coming to earth at Al
buoueroue. N. Mex, on account of gaso-
line shortage following long hight
with head winds.
A single accident marred the race
when John P. Morris, pilot, and Col.
.Thaw. navigator, both of Pittsburgh,
crashed into a fence after broken OIL
line had forced their Lockheed-Vega
plane down at Decatur, Ind. yesterday
morning. Both were seriously hurt.
Manner Took Northern Route.
Manner, in his orange Buhl-Sesqui
plane. was the only one of the contest
ants to. choose the Northern route, ana
ran into ugly weather over Wyoming
that brought him down after ne had
assumed a strategic lead in the flight.
Crossing above Rawlins, Wyo., yesterday
morning after a long hard battle with
storms and SHOWS, the Spokane pilot
was forced down with ice forming on
his carburetor. ~,
A leaky valve on an emergency gas
tank forced Lieut.. Jack Iseman OF the
Rockaway Naval Air Station, Tying
Charles A. Levine's transatlantic BEL,
lanca plane, the Columbia, to descend
at Amarillo. Tex. Although he had con-
siderable gasoline in his tanks, he stated
he did not think there was enough to
finish the race.
Emil Hard Luck Burgin of Mineola,
NJ Y. who has earned his nickname by
winning against similar ODDS as the one
encountered in this race, had the same
kind of misfortune as Haldeman ana
landed his Bellanca in a cornfleld at
Willard, N. Mex.
5000 See Landing.
That is the story of the six foremost
contenders; the other three were put
out shortly after the start. Ollver lie
Bouteller of East Orange, N. j., re-
turned to Roosevelt Field soon after the
takeoff: Clifford McMillin of Syracuse,
N. Y. landed at Chase, Pa, and Ran
dolrn Page of Worthwhile, Mich, Ian
dcd at Allentown. Pa.
About 5000 persons were on the
field here when Goebel landed MS
plane, the Yankee Doodle. Goebel and
his passenger, Harry Tucker OF santa
Monica, the planes owner, made their
way to a hut at the side OF the helo
and told how they had narrowly avert
ed accident on the long hop. :
Several time during the night l
thought we we're gone" Tucker said:
There goes everything" Goebel
started off. That's what I said to
Harry when l had to set the Yankee
Doodle down in that desert at Prescott.
Just half an hours more gas and
I'd have won.
But those are the breaks you get
sometimes from the weather up there
1 had two hours flying from Prescott to
Mines Field and I had an hour-and-a "a
half gas supply I thought of trying
to make it on my luck, though Tor ~
minutes after we passed Prescott the
first time, realized 1 couldn't squeeze
gas for the Wasp motor that wasn't
in the tanks and turned back. There
you are"
Reports Continuous Stern.
"Storm? Say, the trip was just one
whole storm. Why. 1 never had
chance to look at map from the time
1 took off until I hit Wichita"
Tucker showed his left hand cut
and bruised. He told how he opened
door into the cabin to throw out gas
can. The wind caught the door ard
Tucker grabbed vainly for it, The gale
ripped it off. slammed it against the
fuselage, tearing rents in the plane fab
ric, breaking several cabin windows ana
leaving Tucker to nurse a bleeding
hand.
ut was over the Alleghenies that we
took the worst beating" Gocbel went
on. u never rolaxcd my grip on tn
| SAYS. A. MECHANIC