The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-02-17
CHAPTER v

L
T HAD strayed over a hundred
Il miles off my course and expert
enced minor crack-up, but 1 de-
parted with $3.50 more in my
pocket than had arrived with,
besides confidence in my abil-
ity to make at least a little more
than expenses by transforming.
The constant rains had filled the
rivers to overlooking, and after leav-
ing Maben I flew over flooded ter
ritory nearly all the way to Lake
Village, Arkansas.
Often the water was up to the
second story windows of the farm
houses, and a forced landing at any
time would have at least meant nos
ing over.
I had installed the compass while
waiting for tn e new propeller
at Maben, and experienced no fur
ther difficulty in holding my course.
After circling Lake Village Hand
ed in a field several miles north of
town. The nearest building was .
clubhouse and soon the keeper and
his family had arrived beside the
plane.
They invited me to stay with them
as long as I wished, but the keeper
perSistently refused to accept a
flight in return for his hospitality
I carried only a handful of pas
sengers that afternoon. The fly
ing territory around that part of
the country was fairly good and
there were number of fields avail
able for planes to land in.
Consequently, an airplane was no
longer the drawing attraction that it
was farther in the interior.
I staked the plane down much
earlier than usual and went over
to the clubhouse.
Evening came on with the clear
ness of full moon and open sky.
The landscape was illuminated
with a soft yellow light, an ideal
night for flying.
I decided to see what the coun-
try looked like from the air at night
and jokingly asked my host to &C
company me. To my surprise, he
willingly agreed.
For some reason he had no fear
of a night flight although I had
been unable TO persuade him to go
up with me in the daytime.
What his reaction would have
been had he known that 1 had
never flown after dark before is a
matter of speculation.
We united the plane, removed
the canvases from engine and cock
pit, and after a few minutes spent
in warming up the motor, TAXED
down the field and took off for a
moonlight fight down the Missis-
sippi and over Lake Village,
Later in the evening after the
ship was again securely staked to
the ground and we were sitting
quietly in the clubhouse my host
stated that he had never spent a
more enjoyable quarter of an hour
in his life.
The next morning I was again
heading toward Texas against a
strong westerly wind which re-
tarded the speed of the Jenny so
greatly that even with my double
fuel capacity it was necessary to
land at Farmerville, Louisiana, to
replenish my supply.
From there I flew to Texarkana
and landed between the stumps of
the 1923 airport.
On the following morning / left
TeXarkana with a strong tail wind
and after crossing the western
end of the Ozark mountains landed
near a small town in northeastern
Oklahoma, where took on a fresh
supply of fuel and again headed
north toward Lincoln, Neb.
My tanks began to run low about
half way through Kansas and I
picked out a hillside near Alma.
After flying low and dragging the
field several times I came in for a
landing, but just as the wheels were
about to touch the ground I dis
covered that it was covered with
fairly large rocks half hidden in the
tall grass.
I opened the throttle to take of
but the plane had lost too much
speed for the motor to take effect
and as it hooked in the rocks and
groundloped the, ship to the left but
without doing serious damage. The
landing gear wires we're strained
and about two feet of the rear spar
on the lower left wing tip was
snapped off. Nothing was broken
however, which would require i'm
mediate repairing.
The field was quite distance from
Alma. and in order to get an early
start in the morning stayed with
n