"We" : $b The famous flier's own story of his life and his trans-Atlantic flight, together with his views on the future of aviationLindbergh, Charles A. (Charles Augustus)
History
"We" : $b The famous flier's own story of his life and his trans-Atlantic flight, together with his views on the future of aviation
Lindbergh, Charles A. (Charles Augustus)
Aeronautics -- Flights; Air pilots -- Biography; Transatlantic flights
Our greatest difficulty in night flying lay in lighting the landing
fields from which to operate. Sometimes a number of cars were on the
field and I landed and took-off across the beams of their headlights.
Under such conditions the ground was well illuminated and landing
very simple. On other occasions there would not be more than one car
available and in one instance, on a dark night, I took-off and landed
by the light of a pocket flashlight which one of the men flashed
constantly while I was in the air, to enable me to keep track of the
landing field.
At one town in Colorado, we were booked for a fireworks exhibition to
be given between darkness and midnight. We had been barnstorming during
the day and on our way to this town we ran short of lubricating oil.
By the time we had replenished our supply it was too late to get in
before dark, and I had never landed at that town before. The owner of
the plane, however, was sure that he could easily locate the landing
field, even in darkness. He had been there many times and he knew that
the field was “right next to the golf links.”
We arrived over the town and after circling a few times, I throttled
the motor and shouted “Where’s the field?”
The reply was immediate and full of confidence, “Right next the golf
links.”
“Well, where are the golf links?”
“I don’t know!”
I was up against another of the very amusing but equally serious
incidents in barnstorming life. We were over strange territory on
a dark night and with a rapidly diminishing fuel supply. It was
imperative to land within a very few minutes, yet it was not possible
to tell one field from another, and even the line fences were not
visible.
I flew around until the outline of a strawstack appeared in the field
below us. This field was outlined on one side by the lighter color of
the pasture adjoining it and a number of trees were discernible along
the end. There was no way of telling whether it contained posts or
ditches, but we had no alternative, and I landed beside the strawstack
in the center.
A hasty examination of the field showed it to be suitable for night
flying and we hailed the first car passing for a ride into the town. We
had difficulty in locating our fireworks and, as the stores were all
closed, still more time was lost before we obtained the bailwire, nails
and boards used in building the framework for the flares and candles
and attaching it to the plane.
It was nearly midnight when the ship was at last ready for the display.
Only one car remained on the field. We ran this machine out beside the
strawstack and placed it in a position to show up on one side of the
stack, in addition to throwing most of its light on the field. I was
about to take-off when the headlights on the car became so dim that
they were entirely useless. One of the men had a pocket flashlight and
I took-off while he threw its beam on the strawstack.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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