Imperial Valley press., 1928-02-18

We held her down to make sure but
could have jumped off sooner than
we did. We are turning 1900 revo-
lutions per minute and are at the
altitude we want for daylight fly
ing. At night we will climb higher.
Things look good but won It say any
thing until we come down.
(SignedD "US.'
The second note was addressed to
Sol Spiegel, Zenith mechanic, who
had tuned up the motors for the
takeoff. 1t read:
Mechanics Joked
go. X. Nj. and X." Signed
Gus"
Underneath this caption it read:
owe are going to kiss you when
we come down. That is if we don I
stop. If we do-LOOK OUT"
The third message was apparent
ly written Just before the packet
was dropped and read:
" Everything working O. K"
In the Price letter where the re-
ference is made to hopping off
sooner the Interpretation of the or
ficialS was that the ship had ac-
quired sufficient speed to get into
the air before it actually took Off
but that the pilots held her to the
ground q little longer to make sure
of 4 good takc-off The ship rose
gracefully and it was q much bet
ter takeoff than the previous one in
which it was practically plunged in
TO the air by the slight embank
ment which was later taken from
the runway.
1t was Siegel that tuned up the
motors this morning for the flight
and to SieS'l the boys expressed
their appreciation in the second
note. That the third was written
just before the packet was dropped
was evidenced by the fact that it
was stuck just beneath the first
sheet of paper in the packet.
The airplane which mounted 20
salute the boys at the field and TO
get an idea of the. altitude repor,-
ed that the ship was flying at ap,
proximatelv 500 feet.
The Albatross' continued on
toward the west after passing the
field and then took off again in the /
direction Of Salton Sea again. 1t
again appeared over the field be. !
tween 10 and II clock and drop /,
ped messages announcing that all
was well. At 1915 the next flight I
over the field was made and the (
messages then revealed that the ,
ship had risen to a slightly higher
attitude and that all was we'll
The NEXT trip over the field. !,
shortly before 3 o'clock announced
hat the ship had reached an alti. /,
.ude of 500 feet and that the pilots
would not seek to go any higher I'M
til dusk. They reported that the
olane was still doing approximately
1900 revolutions per minute and
hat the gas consumption had been
ut to approximately j. gallons an
lour.
Radio Work Difficult
The total gas load carried by the
y l1d lpSS WIS - OdllbHS. 1 HIS
otal at a rate Of - gallons an hour
rould be sufficient to keep the ship
n the air for S6 hours. Is minutes.
he ship, however. used some gaso-
inc in warming up and an excess
i've consumption was used in the
irst few hours.
w. w. Gibson. president of the
AN Diego Chapter of the National
,eronautical association. checked
he official time, installed the baro-
raph and checked the official
,eight of the machine for the take
IF. The official weight was plac-
d at 12,807 pounds. This is total
f a little more than "a pounds per
horsepower, 81 1l-75 pounds to be
xact. It is approximately 100
,ounds less than the record load
fitted by the ship in its first at
erpt to set a record. The mark,
lowever, firmly establishes the