New Britain Herald Newspaper, May 27, 1927, Page 27

NEW BRITAIN DAILY HERALD, FRIDAY, MAY 27, 1927. 13,000 FEET UP IN DARKNESS AND FOG, THEN (IARK for NEn Sty ANOTHER THRILLER IN'LIFE OF HERD In This Case Lindbergh Landed on Barbed Wire Fence BY CHARLES A. LINDBERGH + In An Official Air Mail Service Report T took off from Lambert-8t. Louts | Field at 4:20 p. m., November 3, ar- | rived at Springfleld, Iil, at 5:15 and | after a five-minute stop for mall took the air again and headed for Peoria. The ceiling at Springeld was about | K00 feet, and the weather report | from Peoria, which was telephoned | to St. Louis earlier in the afternoon, gave the flying conditions as entire- Iy passable. 1 encountered darkness about miles north of Springfield. The ceil- | ing had lowered to around 400 feet | and a light snow was falling. A!‘ South Pekin the forward visibility of ground lights from a 150-foot al- titude was less than 3z mile and over Pekin the town lights were in- distinct from 200 fcet above. After gng Pekin I flew at an altimeter ling of 600 feet for about five | minufes, when the lightness of the | haze below indicated that I was over | Peorfa. Twice I could see lights on the ground and descended to less than 200 feet before they disap- | peared from view, I tried to bank around one group of lights, but was | unable to turn quickly enough to keep them in sight. On to Chicago | After circling in the vicinity of | Peorla for 30 minutes I decided to | try to find better weather conditions | by flying northeast toward Chicago. T bad ferried a ship from Chicago | to St. Louls in the early afternoon | and at that time the ceiling and visi- | bility were much better near Chi- cago than elsewhere along the route. | Enough gasoline for about one | hour and ten minutes fiying re- mained in the main tank and 20 minutes in the reserve, [This was | hardly enough to return to St. Louis | eaven had I been able to navigate di. rectly to the fleld by dead reckoning | and flying blind the greater portion | of the way. The only lights along | our route at present are on the fleld | at Peorla, consequently, unless I| could pick up a beacon on the | transcontinental route my only al- ternative would be to drop the para- chute flare and land by its light to- gether with what little assistance the wing lights would be in the snow and raif. The territory towards HOSIERY New White Felts. All Head Sizes SPECIAL All Variety, Vahe SCARFS Decoration Day Specials \ urday of the month sale. that hat you've wanted for Decoration Day. Marion Hat Shop 95 WEST MAIN ST. 7 blown over the fence and was held | open for some time by the gusts of | wind before collapsing. I rolled ft| up into its pack and started toward the nearest light. Soon I came to & | road which I followed about a mile to the town of Covell, Ill, where I telephoned a report to,St. Louis and endeavored to obtain some news of | where the ship had landed. The only information that I could obtain was from one of a group of farmers in the general store, a Mr. Thomp- son, who stated that his neighbor had heard the plane crash but could only guess at its general direction. I rode with Mr. Thompson to his farm and after leaving the para- chute in his house we canvassed the neighbors for any information con- cerning the plane. After searching for over an hour without result I| left instructions to place a guar PLUNGE TOWARD EARTH over the mail in case it was found | Hgnolulu for a non-stop flight from the Pacific coast to Honolulu—§35,- | 1000 for hte first and the second aviator to make the hop. before I rcturned and went to Chi- cago for another ship. Finds the Wreck On arriving over Covell the next morning I found the wreck with a OVER $100,000 IN Several Aviation Feats Now | prizes totaling more offered for long distance flights ove continent and aviators now {least five events the next few m I posed flights ar l000 to equip John Johnson, local |y |flicr for entering the Honolulu race. Captain Charles A. Lindb Inot expected to take part in any (the competitions, but Clal Chamberlin, pllot of the plane which originally was se to make the New "Ol’\\—/]'{lllfi flight, has announced his intere The New York-Spokane races are scheduled to ve held about the time of the n. tlonal ai~ races in Spokane next September. Lieut. Leslie Arnold, onc of the American round the world fiiers, has announced plans for a non-stop | flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii! and return, some time in August. Are Suggested San l‘r.\mflsvo,:l;nT:f P—With than $£100,000 ocean, may adventurou choose 'from at f the kind during A Hawaiian baby in Honolulu has been christaned with a name which, translated, means “The flow- er wreath and leaves are cherished hy the ers of the God Lono.” The data for prize offers and pro- $35,000 offered by James Dole of Cuticura $10,000 for | $25,000 offered by Willlam K. sterwood, Dallas, Tex., capitalist, r the first to fly from Dallas to small crowd gathered about it less Hongkong 10,000 miles. than 500 feet back of the house where T had left the parachute. The nose and wheels had strack after sliding along for ahgut it had piled up in the pasture beside a hedge fence. One wheel had come the wall of the inside of a hog house | a hundred yards further on. gone through two fences wall of the house. badly splintered but the tubular fuselage although hadly bent in places, had held its general form even in the mailpit. The parachute from the flare was hanging on the tailakid. . There were three sacks of mall in | the plane. One, a full bag from St. T.ouis, had been split open and some of the mall oil-soaked but legible, |The other two were only partially full and were nndamaged, and the The wings were |in an attempt to get over the clouds | before jumping. | The Last Chance The main tank went dry at 7:51 {and the reserve at 8:10. Ths alti-| T delivered the mail to Maywood | meter then registered approximately (by plane.to be dispatched on the . | 14,000 teet yet the top of the clouds |next ships out. \avas apparently several thousand feet | {higher. T rolled the stabilizer, cut the switches, pulled the ship up into a atall, and was about to go |out over the right side of the cock- |pit when the right wing began to {drop. 1In the position the plane would gather speed and spiral to the | right, possibly striking my parachute after its first turn. I returned to the controls and after righting the plane dove over the left side of the cock- pit while the airspeed registered about 70 miles per hour and the al- timeter 13,000 feet. ¢ Chicago was much more favorable| I pulled the rip cord fmmediately | for a night landing than that around | After clearing the stabilizer. The st. Louis. ‘Ir\;:n]'(c}u)llle ;‘!:nc;lion;dfl pprfecdm-. 1 e 5 had left the ship head first and was Fisre Eallsito woek [falling in this position when the I flew northeast at about 2.000 | jgepy whipped me around into an'! fect for 30 minutes then dropped | upright \position and the chute down to 600 feet. There Were ni-|opened. merous breaks in the clouds this| Down Through the Snow time and occasionally ground ghts| e last I saw or heard of the could be seen from over 500 feet.|D. H. was as it disappeared into the 1 passed over the lights of a small | clouds just after my chute opened. town and a few minutes later eame || placed the rip cord in my pocket to a fairly clear place in the clouds. |and took out my flashlight. It was I pulled up to about 600 feet, re-{snowing and very cold. For the first | leased the parachute flare, whipped | minute or so the parachute descend- the ship around to get into the wind [cq smoothly, then commenced an | and under the flare which lit at|excessive oscillation which continued once but instead of floating down | for about five minutes and which I! slowly, dropped like a rock. For an |was unable to check. instant T saw the ground, then total| fThe first indleation that T was darkness. My ship was In & SteeD near the ground was a gradual bank and for a few seconds after garkening of the space below. The being blinded by the intense light I|snow had’ turned to rain and al- had trouble righting it. I then tried | though my chute was thoroughly | to find the ground with the Wing soaked its osclllation had greatly | lights, but their glare was worse |decreased. I dirccted the beam than useless in the haze. |from the §00-foot spotlight down- ! When about ten minutes gas re- |ward but the ground appeared ®so | mained in the pressure tank and still |suddenly that I landed directly on | 1 could not sce the faintest outline |top of a barbed wire fence without | of any object on the ground I de- | seeing it. cided fo leave the ship rather than | He Wasn't Hurt! attempt to land blindly. I turned The fence helped to break my fall back southwest toward less popi-|and the barbs did not penetrate the lated country and started cl!mbingihei\'y fiying suit, The chute was e FRANK E. GOODWIN EYESIGAT SPECIALIST 327 MAIN ST. TEL. 1905 "Leghom & Thomas, Inc. 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