A little while later I made another attempt. The weather was pretty good at the start. At 10,000 feet I ran into clouds. At 11,000 feet sleet, and at about 12,000 feet dense fog. This was an entirely new experience, and very disquieting. For the first time in my life, I had that strange feeling experienced by the flyer in fog. Under such circumstances it is impossible to tell what the plane is doing. It may be upside down or turning giant circles. Without instruments the pilot simply does not know his position in space—there are no outside landmarks with which to check. Of course, if one is really upside down for any length of time one’s feet drop back from the rudder and the safety belt tightens; or if in a skid a side blast of wind gives a belated warning, etc. It was extraordinarily confusing and, realizing I could not go farther, I kicked the ship into a tail spin and came down to 3000 feet where I emerged from the fog and landed. I remembered one of the old-timers came up and looked at my barograph record. His eyes fixed on a vertical line just before the record ended. “What does that mean,” he asked. “Did you go to sleep along in there?” I told him about getting out of the fog by way of a tail spin. He certainly wasn’t impressed favorably. “Suppose the fog had lasted all the way to the ground?” he asked. I bring this experience up because of its important bearing both on the training of pilots and on flying in general; especially schedule flying. It is immensely important for a pilot to learn to fly by instruments, as distinct from flying “by horizon.” The night flyer or the avigator in fog must depend upon his instruments to keep his course, equilibrium and altitude. It did not require the flight of the Friendship through long hours of fog and cloud to teach me the profound necessity of this. CHAPTER IV EAST TO BOSTON Crashes were frequent enough in these earlier days. I had one myself, during my instruction period. Owing to carelessness in not refuelling, the motor cut out on the take-off, when the plane was about 40 or 50 feet in the air. Neta Snook was with me, but she couldn’t help depositing us in a cabbage patch nearby. The propeller and landing gear suffered and I bit my tongue. [Illustration: description: Photo wide indoor shot of 8 individuals Stultz, Earhart, Gordon are seated; 5 are standing in back caption: FLYERS ALL EIELSON, WILKINS, BYRD, CHAMBERLIN, BALCHEN, STULTZ, EARHART, GORDON © _P. & A. Photos_ ] [Illustration: description: Photo wide overhead shot of crowded street ticker-tape parade caption: BOSTON, JUNE 9 ]