The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1945-01-11
W.N.u. RELEASE

brains but he haon't been able to
find them. After each buTnpy land
ing he'd look around at me and hold
his nose-that was symbolic enough
for me. finally bounced into an
other landing that nearly Jared his
teeth out. Then, as usual. he
showed what prince of fellow he
was, and showed me that an instruc-
tor had to become accustomed to
students making mistakes-knowl-
edge which stood me in good stead
years later when I became an in
structor.
Lieutenant Landon got out of the
front seat, taking his parachute with
him, and / knew the moment of mo-
ments had come. As he leaned over
my cockpit and reached inside the
ship for the Form One, the time
book always carried in Army ships.
saw only his hand and thought he
was offering to shake hands with
me. So I grabbed the hand and
shook it. He just grinned and
growled:
with landings like those I can
do you very little good, and I'll be
damned If I'm going to let you kill
me. Do you think you can take this
thing around the field all by your
self and get it back DOWN."
eyes, Sir" ! yelled.
"Then take it around and make
a landing as close to me as you
can"
! had never felt so good. Taxying
out I could see the world only in a
rosy light My head was really
whirling. Pointing the ship into the
wind, ! over-controlled into nor
NAL student takeoff and was in
+. the air. Honestly, the living of this
life was wonderful--here ! was an
actual Army Pilot with my own ship,
and up here free from the shackles
of the earth. / envied no one. Cir
cling in traffic I'd "get my head in
the clouds" and gain or lose altitude
but that didn't matter. I was SOLO
ing.
Then, at the fourth leg of my
traffic pattern, I began my glide in
towards Lieutenant Landon. BY the
gods he had said, Land as close
to me as you can," and was surely
going to make that ship stop right
by him-I wouldn't have my in
structor being ashamed of his stu
dent. Even before I got to the mo-
ment to level off, I could see that !
would land right on top of him. But
the Lieutenant was running, throw
ing his parachute away just to get
clear of a student who had really
taken him literally.
Anyway, I missed him and
plunked the ship into the ground aft
er levelling off too high. Well, /
held it straight and there was no
ground loop. As it stopped /
breathed again, and I could feel
the smile that cracked my face. A
piloti I had landed the ship and
it was actually in one piecel
Looking back over my SHOULDER I
saw Lieutenant Landon. He was
just standing there about half a
lille away. 4hCn dllOlllCl
mistake. He raised his hands and
thought he waved me in-f didn't
know until the next day that he had
been shaking his fist at me for trying
to land right on him.
So ! TAXED in, never giving a
thought to how my instructor was
going to get in with his chute-you
see, Randolph is big field and I
had left him more than a mile
from our hangar. / had parked the
plane and was in and beginning to
dress when / began to realize what
| had done. Looking out the win
IL could see him trudging across
the not soil of Texas, in the sun,
with ships landing all around him.
My Lord, had tied it up again!
I tried to get my feet back into my
fying-suit, tripped and fell, got up
and ran out of the hangar door. I
guess I was going to take the ship
and taxy out and pick him up. But
I had lost again-the ship was being