Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-01

| OH 6dTCctOIld.
he took chances I used up nerve power.
Somehow. he always came back into the
cabin safely with his never-fallng
cheerful greeting.
To come back, he would swing over
on his stomach in this perilous position,
put one foot against each rear stanillzer
and reach forward cautiously until ms
hands found the entrance into the
cabin.-Obie.
The first trouble we really en-
countered was about in the morning
on Saturday July 20), when we had
been up just four hours less than a
week. The motor started cutting out
and vibrating very badly. Red was
asleep at the time, but awoke instantly,
asking Obie what had happened.
1t was almost too dark to see, so Red
on and climbed out on the right-hand
catwalk The trouble seemed to be in
the two lower cylinders.
Checking it very carefully, he declared
1t must be bad spark plugs. The motor
seemed to run better for only short
time Red had hardly returned to the
cabin after installing the plugs when
the motor began cutting the second
time, and he feared the flight might be
over.
After a conference we decided they
couldn't be the plugs, as the cutting
out began shifting to different cylin-
ders. The next bet was to check the
magnetos, although the oil-soaked con-
nections to the plugs might have caused
the trouble without rt-circuiting.
While checking these wires Red burnt
both hands severely, and thoughts of
blood poisoning. which might have
stopped the flight, shot through the
minds of both Red and Obie.
Without waiting to treat these burns
at the moment, Red again went out to
work on the magnetos. He began on the
right-hand one, working off the cover
to get at the breaker assembly. Moth
ing was wrong here.
The last shot was now the left-hand
magnetic. and Red had to switch to the
other catwalk. Although Obie feared
the painful burns on his hand would
hold up the work. a cheerful grin reas-
sured the partner at the controls.
Finds Wire Ground.
No sooner had he taken off the cover
than he found the breaker points we're
grounded in the base of the breaker
point housing. A small piece of wire
had worked its way into this place dur
ing the preparations for the flight and
was washing around as the breaker
point rotated.
1t was a difficult thing to remove
wire, as the magnetoS were running at
high speed, but Red managed to fish
the wire out, which was followed by a
steady roar of the motor, every cylinder
once more hitting o. K.
Bad weather very early in the flight
threatened success to the venture.
Ground fog swept over the field at mid
night just as O'Brine handed over the
controls to Red for the second night
trick
The ceiling above the field between
the ground and the fog was lower from
time to time than so feet. We decided
to rely only upon our instruments for
the rest of the night. We flew by these
faithful instruments at an altitude of
5O to 10 feet above the ground, although
this entailed risk of striking towers or
buildings
The second night. under somewhat
similar conditions, although the fog
thlS time was right down on the ground,
making 1t impossible to see any obstacle
or boundary light or the Rotary beacon
we decided to climb through the fog up-
ward to clear air.
Settle Down to Routine.
At $500 feet altitude We broka
through the fog into starlight. and we
were tlckled to death to have lights
ton. e 01ie
Day by day we rolled along monot-
onously toward the former world record
OF 246 hours, AZ minutes and 10 sec
onds. 'e'
Our first hundred hours were GER
CalnIy the hardest. Gradually. after
ABOUT 10 hours. We began to find our
TASK not quite so nerve Wrecking. This
must have been partly because ali doubt
IN the ability of our engine and shin
laoeo away to leave rosy future.
Finally, Tuesday afternoon (July 23)
aI 2:Ol We equaled the former record
we could see the crowd waving on the
ground and We could see puffs of white
steam from whistles wherever there was
factory building.
or course. we could not hear the
Whistles. but We knew what the message
was, coming up from below. 1t GER
tainly did cheer us.
An hour later we knew by the
frantic waving of handkerchiefs, flags
and other things that we had at last
new record
AT this point We really settled down
TO our task. Our hearts were light be-
cause our faith in the good old Curtiss
Challenger Robin had been justified
The messages from down below were
wonderful and We never knew before
We had SO many friends.
Told to Stay Near Field.
We were now out to set a record
which we hope will last for two or
three days, and 8. also we were de-
termined to outlaSt the engine and ship.
From this point on we were warned
by Maj. Albert Bond Lambert, official
observer of our flight for the contest
committee of the National Aeronautic
Association to stay at ell times within
gliding distance of the field, because
in order to make the record official
when we finally had to come down it
would be necessary to land on the
same field we took off on.
On thing occurred to change our
plans Of outlasting the engine and
plane. Our friend, George LEA Lam
bert, so we heard by message, was
killed in most unfortunate accident
We could not stay up in the air much
longer after this; We must land to pay
our respects to his family.
We had also notes from the ground
asking us to take no unnecessary risks
This would not have mattered so much
to us, because We believed the ship
still had several hundred hours left in
it. The only failure in any respect was
the loosening of the left stabilizer sup
port, and this We believe could have
been repaired in flight.
Well, here we are back again, de-
lighted to mingle once more with our
friends, but simply overcome by the
kindness and magnitude of our re-
frorvr;oht 1oooN