Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-11
9,im and his passenger. For his courage on
that day Schilt received the Medal Of Honor.


"A MOTHER famous pilot Of the Marine Corps
= Is Lieut.. Sanderson, who Is to the Flying
DEVELOPS what Lieut. AL williams is TO the Navy
and Lieut. Jimmy Doolittle is to the Army
Sanderson seems to have a charmed life.
He has been through innumerable accidents
which should have ended his career, but did
not He has had thrilling crashes and come
through unscathed, The most dangerous Of
these occurred in 1923 at Detroit, where he
was flying the Navy Mystery" ship in the
annual races. While hurting around the
course Sandy" noticed the oil temperature
begin to rise quickly, a danger signal to any
piDt-and especially so in a racing plane. But
Sandy was near the finish and he hung on
doggedly throttle wide open, though the en-
CINE was beginning to pound, and he could
smell the odor Of hot metal
Suddenly the whole engine burst into flames,
q veritable inferno shooting back at him.
Watchers on the ground groaned and almost
all gave up hope for Sandy. He had no para
chute and had to stay with the ship or jump
to his death; and no man could live after in
haling those flames as he surely must have
done. They watched the plane dive steeply,
apparently out Of control. It shot into a small
body Of water with depth Of only two feet.
There came q resounding crash and the ship
was a mass Of crumpled wing, fuselage and
metal. The fire was out, but the wrecked
water.
That ended every hope. Even if Sandy had
survived the flames the crash must have killed
him. But when the onlookers had raced across
the field to the bank they were astounded to
find Sandy scrambling up toward them.
Good thing that water was there" he said
grinning. 81 couldn't have held out much
longer. I slipped the ship enough to keep the
flames out Of my face. But when hit didn't
know for second what 1t was all about. Then
when my head went down in that mud didn't
like IL so wen so decided I'd better get out
in hurry. I backed out part way and dug
out the rest Of the way with my hands. But
that was hot time for q little while"
Ten minutes later he was back on the field,
ready to fly again.
CANDY has flown in several races, and more
than once he has been slated to win when
some incident like the one just described inter-
vened One year he was just about finishing
a race when his engine quit as he few over
the crowded field. As usual the crowd had
broken the rules and was scattered all over
the landing area. To have landed would have
meant killing several people. Sandy did not
hesitate: using his last bit Of speed he kicked
the plane of the course and dived into rough
area exceedingly dangerous for the landing of
such fast ship. There was large haystack
directly in the way. The plane struck 1t with
great force and the next instant both plane
and stack were Uttered around for 200 feet.
The stack was completely removed, and the
ship was wrecked so that it was not worth
salvaging. Yet Sandy climbed out Of the
wreckage unhurt.
His close escapes never seem to bother him.
They certainly have not caused him to lose
his nerve. He is one Of the few pilots in the
country who can perform slow barrel rolls"
at the very dubious altitude of $50 feet. Sandy
has performed the maneuver many times and
always comes out with a grin.
Nearly all Of the older Marine pilots have a
fund Of interesting and exciting stories of true
experiences. Lieut. Hayne Boyden, during his
detail with the patrol at Santo Domingo, had
an experience he probably will never forget.
He was flying q De Haviland across the
mountain country when he encountered q
tropical hurricane. He tried to climb up out
Of it, but soon ran into clouds. Still, that
seemed better than to stay low and hit a peak,
so he kept on climbing. But after a few mo-
ments furious gust Of wind whipped his ship,
jerking the tail with such violence that the
"hippers," or elevating controls, went out of
use. The plane fell into q spin heading down
through the clouds toward the jagged rocks he
knew were beneath.
BY skillful use Of rudder and stabilizer Boy
den managed to get out Of the spin but each
time the plane fell on again after a few Sec
ondS
Suddenly mountainside flashed out of the
clouds. The ship struck with stunning force
but by miracle it had hit exactly parallel
with the steep slope, so that instead Of dashing
straight into the ground it crashed onward
moving down trees for hundred feet or more
Boyden and his mechanic did not recover con-
sciousneSs for several hours. Half dazed. one
with skull fracture, the other with injured
legs, they started down the mountain in a
binding rain, following q watercourse. It took
them day and a half to find a native hut
then an equal period to travel by mule to an
outpost.
Such is the type Of country over which the
Devldogs are frequently forced to fly. In this
instance it was so wild and unmarked that