Evening star., 1929-01-04
MECHANIC AT BOILING FIELD
KEEPS QUESTION MARK FIT
Sergt. Roy G. Hooe's Task Is
to Repair Engines of
Record Plane.
Three of Pilots Are on Duty
Here and Fourth Recent
Iy Was Transferred.

While all the five members of the
| crew of the great Army transport plane
Question Mark are carefully chosen
! men and aviators known throughout
the Air Corps as men of sound judg-
ment, lengthy air experience and sound
physical specimens, it falls to the lot
of one man to keep the mechanical
equipment of the great plane maintain
ing the steady drone that spells new
records from hour to hour and seems
destined to accomplish what the Air
Corps set out to do-find out the alb
solute limit of endurance OF men and
motors.
This man is Sergt. Roy G. Hooe,
chief aviation mechanic at Boiling Field,
whose job it is to maintain the monoto-
nous beat of the Wright whirlWind en-
gines. Pilots are necessary and important
parts of the endurance flight personnel,
but only to a man throughly grounded
in the technique of repairing and main
, tanning the great engines Of the F'okker
will the engines unfold the secrets that
maintain their steady beat. Sergt.
Hooe'S job is probably the most impor-
tant on the ship, for If one of the 400
horsepower engines-one located in
side of the fuselage-falters and skips,
his task is to repair it. T. the forward
engine starts skipping he must breast
90-mile breeze and climb out on the
nose of the fuselage to repair 1t, while
if one of the wing engines falters he
must climb out on the wing struts to
force it back into action. The engine
has only two common faults, well known
to aviators One of them is the possi-
bility of broken valve spring, and the
other fouled or mis-firing spark plug.
Both are common to high speed engines
of any type. But SO far none OF the
engines has skipped beat.
Praised by Lindbergh.
Sergt. Hooe is known throughout the
Army Air Service as an expert IN
aviation engines and particularly IN
handling the power plant with which
the Fokker is equipped. His skill won
for him a coveted letter from Col
Lindbergh, in which the first trans
atlantic solo flyer speaks in glowing
terms of the skill of Sergt, Hooe. The
latter was in charge of tuning up Lind
bergh's Ryan plane prior to his Mex
leo City flight.
Two of t!le pilots, Maj. Carl Spatz
chief of the crew, and Capt. Ira G.
Eaker, are renowned flyers, while an
other, Lieut. Elwood r. Quesada, is a
washington boy and graduate OF NC
Kinley Manual Training High School
Spats, Eaker and Quesada are all on
duty in Washington. while the fourth
pilot, Lieut.. Halversen, has only re-
Gently been transferred from a tour OF
duty in the Office of the Chief of Air
CORPS to March Field at San Fran
cisco.
Mai. Spatz. who lives here at 2901
Connecticut avenue, is a pursuit pilot
of long and varied experience and one
of the Arny's pioneer airmen. He is at
present chief of the operations section
of the office of the Chief of Air Corps,
and has been in Washington since 1924.
Capt. Ira C. Eaker lives in Washing
ton at the Concordia Apartment. His
wife watched the take-off on the morn
ing of December 18. During the last
year he is said to have had more hours
in the air than any other Army flyer.
He is on duty at Boiling Field.
When the German plane Bremen