Test Pilot Part 14

"You're crazy," he said. "You can't go that high without oxygen. The average pilot's limit is around 15,000 to 18,000 feet. You're young and in good shape. Maybe you got to twenty. But you just imagined you went higher than that."

"No, I didn't imagine it," I said. "I really went up that high."

"You went ga-ga and imagined it," he said.

He added: "Don't fool around with that sort of business. You're likely to pa.s.s out cold at any moment when you're flying too high without oxygen. You're likely to pa.s.s out cold and fall a long way before regaining consciousness. You might break your neck."

AeRIAL COMBAT

I was flying in a student pursuit formation of SE-5s. Another student pursuit formation of MB3As was flying several thousand feet above us.

The formation above us was supposed to be enemy pursuit on the offensive. My formation was supposed to be on the defensive. We were staging a mimic combat. Kelly Field, the army Advanced Flying School, lay beneath us.

I had to watch my flight leader, the other ships in my formation, and the enemy formation.

I saw the enemy formation behind us and above us in position to attack.

I saw it nose down toward us.

I looked at my flight leader's plane. He was signaling a sharp turn to the left. He banked sharply to the left. Everybody in our formation banked sharply to the left with him. The attacking formation pa.s.sed over our tails and pulled up to our right.

I saw the attacking formation above us to our right, banking to the left, nosing down to attack us broadside.

I looked at my flight leader. He was signaling a turn to the right. He turned sharply to the right. Our whole formation turned with him. We were heading directly into the oncoming attack of the other formation.

Just as I straightened out of my turn my ship lurched violently and I got a fleeting impression of something pa.s.sing over my head. I couldn't figure out what had happened. My leader was signaling for another turn.

I followed him through several quick turns in rapid succession. We were dodging the enemy formation. I kept trying to figure out what had happened when my ship had lurched.

Then it occurred to me: Somebody in the attacking formation, when the formation had been diving head on into ours, had pulled up just in time to keep from hitting me head on. I had pa.s.sed under him and immediately behind him as he pulled up, and the turbulent slip stream just back of his ship was what had caused my ship to lurch.

I felt weak all over. G.o.d, how close he must have come, I thought!

Later, on the ground, we stood around our instructors, listening to criticism of our flying. I wasn't listening very much. I was looking around at the faces of the other students. I saw another student looking around too. It was Lindbergh. He had been flying in the attacking formation. After the criticism was over I walked up to Lindbergh.

"Say," I said, "did you come close to anybody in that head-on attack?"

He grinned all over.

"Yes," he said. "Was that you?"

"Yes."

"Did you see me?" he asked.

"No," I said. "I _felt_ you."

"It is a good thing you didn't see me," Lindbergh said, "because if you had seen me you would have pulled up, too, and we would have hit head on."

WINGS OVER AKRON

Tom was flying in front of me to my left. We both had PW-8s. We were heading toward Uniontown, Pa. They were opening a field there. We were going to stunt for them. We were flying 7,000 feet high in a milky autumn haze. The rolling Ohio country beneath us was visible only straight down and out to an angle of about 45 degrees. Beyond that the earth mingled with the haze and was invisible.

I saw a town over the leading edge of my lower right wing. I recognized it as Akron, O. I pushed my stick forward and opened my throttle. I had always wanted to jazz the fraternity house in a high-powered fast ship.

Down I came. Roaring louder and louder. I couldn't see a soul in the yard of the fraternity house.

I missed the house by inches as I pulled sharply out of my dive and zoomed almost vertically up for alt.i.tude. I looked back as I shot up into the sky. The yard was full of fellows.

I kicked over and nosed down at the house again. I came as close to it as I could without hitting it as I pulled back and thundered up into the air.

I nosed over into a third dive at the house. As I pulled up this time I kicked the ship into a double snap roll as I climbed. I didn't look back. I just kept on climbing, heading for Uniontown. I overtook Tom a little while later.

On my return trip from Uniontown I was forced down at Akron owing to bad weather. Tom had gone back a day earlier than I. I was alone.

Friends of mine at the airport came up to me as I climbed out of my ship. They asked me if I had flown over Akron in a PW-8 a few days before. I said, "No. Why?" They showed me a clipping from a local newspaper. It said:

AIRMAN STARTLES AKRON-MANY LIVES ENDANGERED

At noon today a small fast biplane appeared over Akron and proceeded to throw the populace into a panic by performing a series of zooms and dives and perilous nose spins low over the business section of town. Onlookers said that the plane narrowly missed hitting the tops of the buildings and that it several times almost dove into the crowds in the streets.

Hospital authorities complained to city officials that the plane roared low over the hospital, frightening many of their patients and endangering the lives of others. Other complaints have rolled in from all over the city.

City officials told reporters that the name of the pilot is known. He was a former resident of Akron and was a student at Akron University. At present he is on duty with the Army Aviation Service. Officials said they had reported the outrageous act to the military authorities at the pilot's home station.

"I wonder who that d.a.m.ned fool could have been," I said as I handed the clipping back to my friends. I grinned.

I was staying with my uncle. I didn't have much appet.i.te for dinner that night. I didn't sleep very well.

"What is the matter, Jim?" my uncle asked me at breakfast the next morning. "Why don't you eat more?"

"I don't feel very well," I said.

I got back to Selfridge that afternoon. n.o.body there had heard of my escapade.

I ate a big dinner that evening.

TEARS AND ACROBATICS