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to the afternoon, as we were all assigned to additional duty in the office of the Chief of Signal Corps. Here Captain Chandler, in addition to being Commanding Officer at College Park, was also in charge of aviation in the Headquarters of the Signal Corps. About this time, Captain Beck arrived from San Antonio, which added a third plane to our flight line.

We had no Army specifications for a flying test to qualify our officer students after they began to fly alone. We, therefore, adopted the test prescribed by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, whose headquarters was in Paris, France. Aero Clubs in various countries throughout the world acted as its representatives. The Aero Club of Washington, acting in this capacity, designated an official for qualifying aviators in this country. This rating of "Aviator" was much prized throughout the world and recognition was given by the fraternity to anyone possessing it. Arnold and I took our tests the first part of July and were issued our Aviator's Certificates on 19 July. Had we known, we could have taken these tests much earlier while still at Dayton. An Expert Aviator's Certificate was issued the following year and in September I received Certificate No. 3 and Arnold was issued Certificate No. 4.

As well may be imagined, flying at this period was quite a novelty. Large crowds visited the school to see and applaud the flying, and the papers gave any flying feat great publicity. Naturally, there could not be sensational flights every day, but the papers were more than willing to let their imagination run wild in writing the stories. The headlines in the papers at that time very convincingly reflected this attitude. Such headlines as: "NEAR DEATH–LIEUT. ARNOLD NUMBED BY COLD AT HIGH ALTITUDE–MAKES NEW RECORD AND NEARLY LOSES CONTROL OF MACHINE WHILE 4,000 FEET IN THE AIR;;"–"STRENGTH OF WILLPOWER SAVES A COLLEGE PARK AVIATOR FROM BEING DASHED TO EARTH." Any flight of a few miles was a cross-country. Any flight that broke a little from pattern was highly publicized. As a sample, on one occasion, with Lieutenant Kirtland as passenger, I made a 35-mile cross-country flight from College Park; then landed, and took off from the limited space of the parade ground at Washington Barracks (the present Ft. McNair, site of the National War College); the feat was duly publicized in the press. With these early planes it was always necessary to be ready for a motor failure,--it might stop at any time. It was equally important to keep in mind that the difference between high speed and stalling was only about 8 miles. Consequently, if the motor should stop, one had to be very alert in reaction to effect a landing without stalling the machine. An illustration of this:--I had just taken off one day and was headed toward the end of the field at an altitude of about 20 feet when the connecting rod broke and began punching through the cylinder wall. Immediately ahead of me at the end of the field was a growth of small trees about 20 feet high. While I immediately cut off the motor, it was not possible to turn back into the field without stalling and crashing the plane. It left me only one course open which was to continue straight ahead and do the best that I could with the trees. By pulling up and stalling into the trees, I did little damage. Weighing only about 750 pounds we were able, with long poles, to lift the machine and carry it back to the field without further damage. The rule we established then to continue straight ahead when speed and altitude would not permit turning without a resultant stall, is equally acceptable today.

In addition to flying training we naturally were interested in the military use of the plane and were continuously trying to determine what could be done with it in a military way. We carried out reconnaissance flights and, with a commercial camera, took many pictures from the air. At about this time we had the good fortune to be approached by a man named Riley Scott who was a graduate of West Point and had

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