Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-30
Armstrong Arrives at Night,
!, While Shaffer Finishes
Trip This Morning. :
FLYERS LAND SAFELY
DESPITE BINDING SNOW
Officials Awaiting Plane Unable to
See Approach Because Of
Heavy Storm.

Flying through the worst blizzard
Washington has known since the air.
mail service was inaugurated, two pilots
on the Eastern Air Transport contract
airmail line brought in the airmail
from New York, one arriving here just
before midnight last night and the
other during the height Of the blizzard
at 7:50 o'clock this morning.
Pilot Walter Shaffer, who brought
down the shuttle" plane from Hadley
Field, the New York terminal, this
morning, encountered the snow at
Philadelphia, but continued through
though conditions became worse and
worse and he finished the last 10 miles
In snow so thick he could see nothing
of the ground. When he finally located
Boiling Field in the binding smother
he was unable to see the hangers on the
Army side or the Navy side from the
center of the field.
Last nights southbound mail was
flown here from New York by Pilot
John r. Armstrong. He reported run
ming into the snow at Baltimore and
finding it so thick that the landing
lights of his plane when turned on re-
vealed nothing but a swirling white cur
tain. He landed safely, but was ordered
held here when reports from the South
stated conditions were growing worse.
The mail was sent on by rail.
Leaves Despite Storm.
Shaffer picked up the mail from the
incoming tranScontinental mail plane
at Hadley Field and headed for the Ma
tional Capital in the face of adverse
weather reports from down the line
The snow began closing in around the
ship as he left Philadelphia and when
he crossed the Susquehanna River at
Havre de Grace, Md, visibility was so
poor he could scarcely make out the
low hills along the river.
He was forced down lower and lower
In order to keep the ground in sight
and few down to Baltimore at about
500 feet. At this height he could make
out nothing but the ground below. At
Baltimore he thought Of landing, but
decided that conditions at Washington
could be no worse and kept on.
1T was so dark that the airways
beacons were on, though it was after
sunrise" Shaffer said. THE beacons
are automatic, the arrival of daylight
shutting Of the current. There was
not enough light to actuate the electric
control until just before arrived in
Washington shortly before 8 O'Clock.
Lost Beacons Near Capital.
ST was able to ny the beacon course
until got almost to Washington. The
last beacon saw was in the middle of
a golf course, 10 miles out of Washing
ton. I passed directly over it and then
the snow and light ground fog closed
in, and lost sight of the ground en-
tirely. I few on by compass, but was
drhted on the course to the east by
cross wind.
when I next saw the ground a series
of low rolling hills was below, and I
knew I was on to the left of the course.
turned west and picked up the Poto-
mac River just below Washington, al
most flying into two radio towers"
These were the towers at the Naval
Research Laboratory at Bellevue, D. c.,
according to officials at Boiling Field.
Shaffer then followed the river up to
was over the field, he could see nothing
Of the hangers on either side.
There was nothing for it." he said,
but to cut the gun and stall in for
q landing in the snow"
He landed in nearly a foot of soft,
fine snow, which rose in fountains
around and over the plane as it TAXED
toward the hangers. Airmafl field CHI
Gals, waiting for him, said that as the
plane approached them they could see
nothing but cloud of swirling snow
which completely concealed the plane.
On Local Run Is Months.
Shaffer has been on the local air.
mail run more than 1S months and has
flown the shuttle service, first between
New York and Philadelphia and then
between New York and Washington,
since its establishment. He flew the
first shuttle plane out o. the National
Capital on May l last and has been
on the run regularly ever since, flying
South from New York in the early
morning with mail just in from the
transcontinental airmail line and re-
turning to New York at $50 pm. with
mail from Washington fer points in
New England and for connection with
the transcontinental.
Shaffer has been flying since the
early days of the World War He was
q wartime pursuit pilot and spent two
years at the front with French fight
ing squadron. He has been in COM
mercial aviation since the war.
Shaffer has many friends in this city
and IN New York, where he makes his
home, and one of his admirers has pre-
scented him with an exact scale model
of the plane in which he came through
todayS blizzard, complete even to
the crow which Shaffer has painted
on the Stabilizer I'm. Shaffer and
Armstrong while In Washington occupy
q room at the Pennsylvania Hotel.
Armstrong has been on the night run
over the New York-Richmond section
OF the coastal line since the inaugu-
ration OF double service last May.