All of the ignition wire insulation was burned off but otherwise very little damage had been done.
We were delayed twenty-four hours rewiring the engine and cleaning out the dirt shovelled on in the attempt to put out the fire.
After Rawlins we stopped at Salt Lake City, and from there we flew over the Great Salt Lake Desert to Battle Mountain, Nevada, where we spent the night.
We took off from Battle Mountain with full gas tanks and after following the passes until part of the fuel was consumed, and the load correspondingly lightened, we passed over the Sierra Nevada Range at eight thousand five hundred feet, and landed at Oakland, California. The same evening, without refilling, we flew over San Francisco Bay to Crissey Field.
The following day we took off from Crissey Field on the start of our race to New York. One of the rules of the contest was that each plane should carry a log with the starting point and number of passengers carried attested to by two witnesses. By the time we had made out the log and serviced our plane, it was afternoon and darkness overtook us at Lovelocks, Nevada.
The next night was spent in Rawlins, Wyoming, after a stop at Salt Lake City for fuel.
We arrived in Rawlins with a valve blowing badly and were delayed a day in pulling the bank and grinding in another valve.
We were far behind our schedule due to the late start from Denver; the delay at Evanston, and again at Rawlins; but without further trouble we would still be able to reach New York on time. Another valve began blowing, however, soon after leaving Rawlins, and when we took off from our next stop at Sidney, Nebraska, the motor had lost a number of revolutions.
We flew to Lincoln from Sidney and after taking the short remaining time into consideration, we decided to abandon the race and start barnstorming.
We overhauled the engine at Lincoln and worked over towards St. Louis, where we arrived about the end of October.
At St. Louis we decided to tie up for the winter and I began instructing students for the Robertson Aircraft Corporation on OX-5 Standards. The Corporation had been awarded the air mail contract but actual operation was not to start until the next spring, so during the winter months I spent my time instructing and test flying in their commercial service.
For the first time in my flying career I was to be in one plane longer than a few months, so in November, 1925, I enlisted in the 110th Observation Squadron of the 35th Division Missouri National Guard, and was commissioned a First Lieutenant soon afterward.
The squadron was stationed on Lambert Field. Every Sunday was spent in flying. We had a number of JN training planes and one TW-3 which was the commanding officer’s personal ship.
The organization was composed mainly of pilots who had flown during the war, but after the Armistice had gone back to civilian life. Their only method of keeping in training was by flying National Guard planes in their spare moments and attending camp two weeks each year.
Two nights and one day each week were devoted to military service by these officers and the enlisted men under them. Their pay was small and most of them lost more from neglect of their business than they received for their military services. The remuneration was hardly considered. However they joined the Guard for two reasons: first, because of the opportunity it offered to keep in flying training, and second, because they considered it a patriotic duty to keep fit for immediate service in case of National emergency.
Appropriations were not large and often insufficient but, although at times it required part of the squadron’s pay checks, the ships were kept in the air.
The National Guard squadrons offer an excellent opportunity for young men to get a start in aviation. Instruction is given each week, covering practically every branch of military aeronautics, and practical flying experience is obtained both in the air and on the ground under actual operating conditions. Each year a few members of the squadron are sent to the army schools at San Antonio for flying training, and upon returning these men take their places in the commissioned personnel of the organization.
The inauguration of our Air Mail service was to take place on April fifteenth, and as spring drew near we were kept busy making preliminary preparations. The De Havilands were to be completed and tested; a ground organization built up; the terminal airports decided upon and facilities for taking on and discharging the mail arranged for; in addition to the untold detail arrangements which go to make up the organization of a successful airline.
Contract air mail routes are located by the Post Office Department and are so arranged that the mail service can be improved by use of air transportation over other means of communication.
The route is opened for bid and the contract awarded to the lowest bidder who is responsible and in a position successfully to carry on operations.
The contractor can bid any amount up to three dollars per pound of mail and is paid by the pound for the actual amount carried over his route.
Our route, between St. Louis and Chicago was operated on a schedule which saved one business day over train service to New York. A letter mailed in
