Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-24
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through, and theoretical field sites may
be found to lie in swamps or on tops Of
peaks.
GUPT. CHARLES T. STANTON, a vet
- eran of the airways division. who
established a section of the New York
Atlanta night route, explains some of
the difficulties of airway building:
Hardly any airway is exactly
straight line, though we try to make 1t
so If possible. We start out at first and
fly at $500 feet over a general route,
surveying stretch 20 miles in width.
Finally we narrow down the airway to
a strip about miles wide, after allow
ing for best terrain, low spots with fire.
Quent fog and bad weather, connec-
tons with power lines and existence of
open fields. II we can't find these lat
ter we have to build them, even If it
means draining mudhole or blasting
rock
When we have the Smile band we
go over the route again, flying at 500
feet, until we see good site for field
or beacon. Then We drop down to
10 or IS feet, jumping over trees, tele-
phone wires. hummocks and anything
that happens to be in the way. That's
the only way to tell whether a spot can
be made into a good field-fiy low over
it and tell yourself whether you'd ever
want to land there, even under best
conditions.
Usually we have two pilots, one fly
ing the ship and the other stretching
in locations on his map. That is. he's
supposed to be sketching. but about the
time he sees big tree or a yoHng
mountain coming along at 100 miles an
hour he'll forget all about the sketch
and punch the other pilot in the back
to be sure he sees what they're about
to hit. BY the time the aerial drafts
man finds out everything is all right it's
too late to sketch. so they have to circle
back and do it all over again.
But you can't blame any one for not
keeping his mind on the job when he's
shooting over trees and poles so fast
'hedge-hopping' it's usually called. If
the engine stops, you're in about the
worst position possible. You have to
land right there-and maybe you're
floating over q string Of high-tenSion
wires. Fortunately. We haven't had any
serious accidents-just few broken
propellers, and one or two ships turned
over from being forced to sit down In
bad fields.
LAS we've learned not to try out fields
by landing, unless they're quite clear,
we have to come back later by auto
mobile, and sometimes 1t is very hard to
locate a spot you picked out from the
air. We have had to try all kinds OF
tricks. AL Smith, one of the outfit.
used to drop notes with self-addressed
envelopes in farmers back yards, asking
them to notice the field he was circling
and then write him all the details-who
owned it, the location and so forth.
When there weren't any farmhouses
near 1t wasn't so easy. We'd drop
wooden spears with flags or cloth tied
to them and hope no one would run
OF with them before we came back.
One pilot found he was out Of cloth
during q hop, so he used his shirt for
the flag. We named the spot 'Shirt-tail
Ridge and that's official now.
IF we were near q village we'd ny
over 1t and then back to the field. A
lot of small boys would chase out as
fast as they could run. expecting us to
land. Wed circle the field 5 or 10
minutes and then go on. When We
came back to the village later 1t was
always easy to And boy who had seen
US and could guide US right to the
place.
we 90 through all kinds Of bad
country finding these spots. Sometimes
there aren't any roads: you just make
your own. Once AL Smith, hunting
field by automobile. came to place in
road covered with water. He was
getting ready to drive into it when a
boat shot out from some underground
at one side and sailed right In front Of
him. He had to detour 80 miles to get
to field 10 miles away.
$3.50
GONE engineer got lost In West vir-
ginia and stopped to ask his way
at mountain cabin. The instant he
mentioned Government the noun
taineer pulled q gun and told him to
clear out or he'd I'LL him full of lead
He cleared out. Down there almost
anything can happen. We had a car
about half way up q rough trail to a
hilltop when We lost our way. Just
then sheriff and two deputies came
along. Wed been out on the road for
few days, camping and roughing it.
They took one look at us and arrested
us as moonshiners. When they couldn't
find any moonshine In our car they were
so disappointed they wouldn't tell us
the right way up the hill, where we had
TO locate a beacon.
But even when the site is reached
the trouble isn't over. Usually, it's Just
begun. Time after time you'll And
you've hit on some farmers prize field
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