Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-07
Log of Record Endurance Flight
Airnen Tell Their Stories of Battles With Storm and
SIeep-Lack of Water Made Them Suffer-But They
Kept on Until Ground Flares Told Them 1t Vas Over.
We had only three hours sup

thing. We had only three hours sup
This was a terrible grind. The short
circles made us awfully tired.
"At 1890 we dropped o note asking
for a forecast. No response. More
worried, as our fuel was lower. We
ran the motor at the least possible
speed-about 1,45o--and I figure we
were only using seven gallons Of gas
an hour. We also made the carburetor
mixture leaner.
Ordinarily we used between IL and
| II gallons an hour -,
."At IL am. the fog was still bad
We saw an opening over the lake and
headed toward It. Flying along the
short line about 800 feet I'D, we saw
we were running low on fuel and hur-
ried back to the airport to load up.
Before we could get back however, the
| fog closed in and we did not drop a
| note.
"Newcomb took control at II 80 am.
We were still flying in small circles
around the airport The fog would
break and then close in again. We got
more worried because of our gas supply.
I took the controls again at noon.
After noon the fog came and went
and driving rain started. At 1:15 we
| saw light place in the sky and drop
| ped a note. We had to refuel right
1 away. The refueling was successful and
that relieved us lot.
I'VE refueled again at pm. and at
$50 loaded up once more for the night
Newcomb took controls at 9. Both Of
US were feeling pretty tired. There was
a light rain at 500 to 1000 and we
circled the airport all through the
night sometimes we dropped down to
400 feet, but usually we kept the ship
at 1900.
Some one had sent up an alarm
clock to replace the dashboard clock
which had gone bad. It was set for
n1idnisht and when it went off; I'd like
to have iuu1red out Of the ship, I'm
going to keep that clock.
/ S'eep and Fly.
IT took the stick at am, Thursday
Every time Newcomb woke me UP, he
said that asked to sleep just five min
kutes more. We we're getting so we
could sleep and fly at the same time,
though, when the ship got out of line.
it woke us UP.
I'VE refueled again at am. without
any trouble. Newcomb cleaned off the
windshield, which had been splattered
with Oil, with long stick on the end
Of which he had fastened q rag. He
reached out through the hole In the
rear of the cabin roof to do the job
"Newcornb took control at 8 am. We
changed the oil and creased the rocker
arms. Then we settled down to try
and catch a little sleep when we got
chance. took the controls again at
noon.
Everything was going fine, except
that the ship had been banged UP.
bit where the bags and hose hit the
wings and fuselage.
went too fast and we dropped q note,
asking him to slow up the next time.
| At pm. we took on more gas with.
out much trouble, but when we tried
to take on the bags they weaved around
too much in the wind. We dropped
note asking that the bags be packed in
such a way that there would be no
came and the top Of the bag. We
asked them to tie on an extra piece Of
rope at the point on the bag where the
food stopped, so that we would have
| neck to grab hold of.
1.-The next trip UP, Bash did as we
asked and everything worked fine.
1--WE found out about Robey's death
through reading the Plain Dealer.
which the boys wrapped around the
| The Plain Dealer was the first paper
we had seen in two days.
I'VE dropped a note expressing our
regret that Robey had died. (Walce
Robey, mail flyer killed at Columbus
week ago today) We had asked that
flowers be sent.
Message from Robey.
1--WE had a message from Robey, but
did not get 1t until after he had been
killed. knew him when he was a ca
Diet and an instructor at the training
school.
''The cold got from the broken
shield was curing itself. But no sooner
was the cold cured when I got stom-
ach ache. Wednesday, we refueled at
$3.50 am. After that we got note
| asking what we did in our spare time.
| We wrote back that we didn't have any
spare time with all the greasing of the
| rocking arm and changing the oil. We
, got quite kick when we read that note
asking what we did with our spare time.
All during the trip we got along fine
together and did not utter one cross
word.
I'VE read in the newspaper that was
dropped to us Thursday. July 4, that
we were supposed to be flying over Ak
ron, but II we were we didn't know it.
There was nothing official to that re-
port, we assure you.
1--WE wore our street clothing when
| we took off and took along an extra
heavy shirt, but there was no time to
change. At times when we were taking
on gasoline we would be soaked with It.
"Then at other times we were soaked
with the rain that shot through to us
when we were forced to open the wind
shield during the refueling. After those
times, there was nothing to do but
throw q wet blanket over us and go to
sleep and forget the rain and gas and
ALT
s'The food was fine, but we had too
much of it. There was turkey, chicken,
goose, frog legs, but we could not eat
| half of it. So we rode out over the
lake and threw 1t to the fishes.
Flew to Akron.
AT 2 pm. Thursday there was q
sign on ship to go to Akron TO re-
| fuel. We went, but could not ind the
refueling ship and came back 70 Cleves
! I'VE saw . storm coming fast and