Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-07

CONTINUED From First Pagel
shake your insides out. Lightning
flashing all around, pitch darkness be-
tween the flashes. Once we heard O
clap of thunder over the noise OF the
motor SO you know 1t must have been
pretty loud.
Mitchell-we came out Of the storm
over Wadsworth. I recognized beacon
there that Is on my mail route. Then
we few over Medina for O while. It
looked as though 1t was clearing up
and we started back to the airport.
Then it closed in again and We couldn't
see where we were for while. Finally
we got back to the airport. We stayed
near the airport all night, but 1t was
terribly rough. 1t wasn't until Friday
morning, though, that we began to feel
the effects of our fight with the storm.
Then we began to feel all in. Our re-
sistance was shot. We decided If we
could just beat the record we'd be salts
fed and come down. We gave up the
notion of flying for 200 hours or more
and just wanted strength enough to
keep going for q few hours.
Challenges Cleveland.
Newcomb-I want to see somebody
also break our record In Cleveland.
They may do it In California, they may
do it in Texas, but want to see some
body else break it in Cleveland. We
only had a clear sky one night ana
that was the last; every other night we
ran into rain and clouds and thunder
storms.
Mitch flew the ship every time we
got to be pretty expert at it. Putting
the gas in was easy, but grabbing those
bags was the tough part. The wind
whipped them back and forth and we
had to refuse some OF them.
The only complaint I have about
Mitch he was always yelling to me to
light him a cigarette. The inside OF
the plane was drenched wi h gasoline,
but we'd open. the windows and let
air cut before We lit up.
Mitchell-Then we'd do a little eX-
perimental smoking. Fortunately our
turned out all right.
We had arranged with the folks on
the ground to send up flares when we
equaled the record. When we saw those
flares We shook hands and said to each
other "Well, we're through" Then
we began to relax. We few around the
airport few times to make sure we
had passed the record and then came
down.
Didn't Wear Parachutes.
We never put our paracfutes on, al
though we had them with us.
The rips In the wings were caused
by the refueling hose and the bags
against them. They weren't
serious, though, and never gave us any
trouble.
I think the method we devised for
yreasing the rocker arms in the air was
original and had never been used be.
fore. We had a separate grease line
from the cabin to each rocker arm.
This eliminated the necessity OF having
4 catwalk and one OF us climbing out
to grease the rocker arms by hand. We
had an auxiliary tank rugged up 90
hat we could change the Oil completely
at regular intervals.
The first night we left the ground
We knew there were four other endur-
ance planes in the air and we sort
If figured we were entering an elirni-
nation race.
It was rough the first night, al.
though we had a reasonably good
weather outlook. It was rough almost
every night as far as that goes. I few
Until 10 pm. and then Newcomb took
The ship and few until daylight. But
we were both so keyed UP that neither
If us slept the first "a hours. Then we
both got sleepy at the same time.
The toughest refueling Of the flight
was the one during the storm Thurs
day night. The crew took of knowing
that severe thunder and electric storm
was close. To dodge the storm and give
is gas, they took off at 7:45 pm,
knowing they would hit rough air.
They climbed to 1000 feet, webbing
their wings to show us they were ready
for contact. We knew it would be dark
soon. They were flying above us. It
was very rough at 1000 feet, but we
could not 60 higher because of rougher
air. With high wind we were shifting
In all directions.
Is Miles in Contact.
They made attempt at our request to
lower a bag FIRST. Basharn held his ship
steady, q tough job, and few west into
the face Of the storm with rain pouring
down in sheets. We few is miles in
contact. >
We could not pick up the bag on ac-
count of rough air. Basham, refueling
pilot, ordered the bag drawn into his
He knew we could stay Up without food,
but not without gas. We lowered the
hose again over Cleveland with only
buildings and no field below. Both crews
were worried. We made q quick contact
in good shape and transferred 100 gal.
Ions.
The refueling crew knew 1t was taking
a chance and saved the record for US ct
this point by giving us this 100 gallons.
The storm increased. They had given
us gas, and If they had wanted to quit
and land right then we would have
thought they were using good judgment.
But In spite Of this they came back to
us again In the driving rain and light
ming and gave us our food In another
contact.
cigarettes we had asked for, but the
weather was too bad and we pulled
away. God knows they would have been
game enough to stick In that weather
to give us cigarettes. We would not fly
that far or take these chances for any
cigarette.
Here Is o log we kept:
FRIDAY night at 6:38:5l o'clock there
was a 30-mile ground wind blowing.
At 10 o'clock we were up In the air
2 1000 feet, with Mitchell at the con-
trolls. We sailed on nicely and had
some lunoh--not much, but just enough
"At Q Saturday morning we lost our
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