The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1944-12-08
CHAPTER Nv

It took them thirty minutes to find
out that the mere fact that was
travelling in a car with a Western
license plate didn't make me Pretty
Boy Floyd, who they said was on
the prowl in that area. I finally
had to telephone the Commanding
Officer of Mitchell Field, and as he
didn't know me, all he could say was
that an officer by the name of Lieu
tenant Scott was supposed to be on
the way to Mitchell from Kelly. Any
way, I still don't think / looked
even then-like Pretty Boy Floyd.
My arrival at my new station was
the start of a hectic time for the
Air Corps. First I began to try to
work in some flying time by volun-
teering for every flight I could get.
! had an especially good break when
i got on the Department of Conn
merce weather flights. / used to
have to get up at two o'clock in
the morning and take off-no mat
ter what the weather was - at
3:45 a. m.
On one of these I found myself in
quite bit of trouble. AS soon as
took off I went on to instrument fly
ing and climbed up through the
heavy clouds in the Curtiss Falcon
known then as an O-39. Out to
the side, fastened to the IN" struts,
/ could dinly see the barometro-
graph which was to record the
changing weather as we climbed to
as high as the ship would go. 1t
was necessary to climb at con-
slant three hundred feet minute,
which in several thousand feet be-
came fairly monotonous. / finally
adjusted the stabilizer so that the
ship would climb this altitude, and
then all had to do was to keep the
wings straight and level with the
turn and bank indicator and the
course constant with the gyro.
But had reckoned without real
knowledge of flying. My first indi-
cation of trouble came at some sew
enty-five hundred feet, when was
surprised to see the reflection of
the moon down directly beneath my
ship. / then forgot all caution and
tried to fly partly on instruments
and partly by visual reference. This
I learned pretty soon was about inn
possible, for I went into the incest
spin have ever seen. Recovering
about four thousand feet below, /
tried it again but the same thing
happened. then realized that after
! had set my stabilizer for the steady
climb of three hundred feet per min
ute, as the fuel was used the weight
Of the ship decreased and the nose
went up, for the fuel was of course
forward. This gradually precipitat-
ed a stall which turned into a spin
as the big Conqueror twisted the
fuselage from propeller torque. I
had to resolve to do all my instru-
ment flying by hand until the auto
matte pilots were perfected later.
That afternoon I looked at the
graph paper of the barometer re-
cording, and there were two little
jagged lines, plainly showing where
the ship had lost nearly four thou
sand feet in two spins.
The weather flights got pretty mo-
notonouS, and would take off from
Mitchell and fly up over Boston,
then let back down to my home
base. Finally the meteorologist
caught on and told me to please
stay over the area, as he had other
weather ships taking the same read
lngs over Boston.
These flights taught me enough to
save my life when the Army took
over the airmail contracts a little
later in the year.
II you remember 1934-there was
troable between the Government
and the air lines concerning 'airmail
contracts. To me even this was
a ife-saver in securing flying time,
for all Of us had recently been or
dered to fly no more than four
hours a month. This was the bare
minimum to receive flying pay, and,
as it turned out for many, the best
way to get killed in airplanes. It's
still a game that takes constant
practice.
The weather we flew in to carry
the mail during the winter of 1884
was about the worst in history.
sometimes think the powers on high
collaborated to give us a supreme
test. There were fourteen pilots
killed along that airmail run, and
most of them were killed because we
had no instruments for the ships, or
at least not the proper type for fly
ing blind. We flew pursuit ships,
which carried fifty-five pounds of
mail; we flew old BIG bombers that
would carry a ton of mail at a
speed of eighty miles an hour, pro-
viding the wind in front of you
wasn't too strong-sometimes they
almost went backwards. We flew
everything from Curtiss Condor
which Mrs. Roosevelt had been us
ing, to the old tri-motored Fords.
And we few through the worst
weather In the country.