Viewing page 28 of 137

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

FIRST STOP ****** CALEXICO

FLIERS HOP IN AIR RACE
Both Sexes Compete in Pacific-Cleveland Sweepstakes

Calexico, Cal. Aug. 23— (A.P.)— Gladys O'Donnell, Long Beach Cal., aviatrix, late today led the handicap sweepstakes air derbyists into Calexico, first stop on their race from Santa Monica, Cal., to Cleveland, landing at 3:45 p.m. She had averaged 162 miles per hour. 
Phoebe Omlie of Memphis came down 20 minutes later and Florence Lowe Barnes of San Marino, Cal., was third, at 4:10 p.m. Others landed in quick succession. They were to spend the night here. 

Jean Hops First
Jean LaRene, Dallas Tex., was the first woman to take off from Clover field, Santa Monica. 
Men and women are competing in the race on terms decided by the engine power of their airplanes. Their rout takes them over dangerous flying terrain, including 1,000 miles of desert and mountain before they reach Oklahoma. Success depends largely on ability to follow straight courses. They will take part in the national air races in Cleveland. 
Other women fliers in the derby are:
Debie Standford, Houston, Tex.; Mae Hazlipp, St. Louis; Ruth Stewart, St. Louis; Joan Shankie, Fort Still, Okla.; Winifred Spooner, Leicestershire, England; Louise Thaden, Pittsburgh; Mildred Morgan, Beverly Hills, Cal.; Martie Bowman, Los Angeles; Clema Granger, Santa Monica; Mary Charles, Santa Monica, Edith Foltz, Portland Ore., and Blanche Noyes, Cleveland. 
M. King of Santa Monica was the first of the men to hop off. 

Detroit is Represented
Other men fliers who took the air in turn were: Eldon Cessna, Wichita, Kas.; Earl Rowland, Wichita; Tony Little, Chicago, C.E. Beaucamp, Santa Monica; Walter Carr, Detroit; Lester Glasscock, Dunedin, Fla.; George Shealy, Atlanta, Ga.; Eddie Schneider, New York; Leonard Flo, Detroit; W. Musgrave, Jr., Alameda, Cal.; Charles Goldtrap. Phoenix, Ariz.; Alfred Stoorer, Los Angeles; W. Kerr, Los Angeles; H. Newman, Houston, Tex.; G. Quick, Boston; H. G. Meyers, Chicago; G. Nettleton, Chicago; R. Purcell, Chicago; L. Johnson, Chicago; J. E. Owen, Chicago. 
Joseph Bennett, Bradford, Pa.; B. Rawson, Chicago; D. Granville, Atlanta; E. B. Christopher, Chicago; Roy Hunt, Chicago; Joseph Meehan, Detroit; Owen Lazenby, Los Angeles; L. G. Foote, Chicago; H. H. Sharman, Salt Lake City; A. J. Edward, Los Angeles; R. Stetson, Los Angeles; Roy Minor, Los Angeles; W. Baxter, Los Angeles; G. A. Irving, Glendale, Cal.; Jim Granger, Santa Monica; W. S. Postom, Burbank, Cal.; Lee Brussie, Burbank; Lee Gelbach, Detroit; L. Lamoreaux, Detroit; Benjamin Johnson, Santa Monica; Peter Reinhart, Los Angeles, G. B. Warren, Alameda and Elmer Quivey, Chicago. 
Cash and other awards totaling $25,000 will be shared by the pilots. 

DERBY TIMER IS BUSY BODY DELUXE HERE
Calexico
Scoring Flyiers and Ships on Pars and Performance Is One Mean Job
DERBY ISN'T RACE
In This Instance It IS a Contest For Efficient Piloting Each Day
Two men, two comptometers and an engineer's slide rule are doing most of the work incident to the 1931 air derby, the biggest air derby ever held. Last night there were three men and scarcely any work was done. But last night was the culmination of the first day, the experimental start, and the third man to join the pair of timers was Doc Kincade, scorer. Then it was "all threshed over again." 
There is more calculating in this job of timing and scoring the fliers than in a years bokkeeping in many stores during this year of depression. And — funny thing about this—the rules are so made out that the percentages required to determine who is the best flier at the end of this derby are based on the selling price instead of the cost price. 
Pioneer Flier at Head
Earle Ovington, the nation's first air mail pilot, is the head timekeeper and he knows mathematics. He is an old-time flier and statistician. But Scorer Kincade believed the results could be obtained without so much exhaustive computation. He felt sure there was a shorter way.
And so the argument over this point kept the trio busy from nine until 11 when they all decided to go to bed and sleep over it. Kincade knows the figures will be right when Ovington gets them, but he wants to get them soon after the fliers land. This might be possible if the slow fliers were started first so that so much time is not killed in looking for ships that are late getting in. This would give the timers a chance to work out the computations during the arrivals and get results to the fliers and the public.

It Isn't a Race
In the first place, it isn't speed that counts. Nor is it lapsed time or average miles per hour. This is not a race, contrary to the general belief. It is a test of piloting, navigation and general reliability of pilot and plane. Even with the speed handicaps computed, it is not a speed race. For more depends upon hitting a straight line and holding to it, than to any other thing. Possible speeds have been computed on the ships and, when they are evened up on the score sheets as to speed, the real contest is between pilots, not ships.
There are pars, constants,, percentages, overpars, underpars, coefficients, and a lot of other qualifications that must be carried out to the Einstineth degree before the best record in the derby each day. And the fliers surely didn't know when they left this morning for Tucson what they had done yesterday from Santa Monica to Calexico. 

But They'll Know
But tomorrow morning at breakfast time each flier will know his percentage. And to that end there are two very busy men in a Bach plane today during the trip over the Arizona desert. The "scenery" they are looking at is comprised of figures and decimal points, large tally sheets, slide rules and derby rules. It is a big job, one of the biggest jobs of the derby if it is carried out in the manner in which it was begun, a maze of accuracy and detail. 
But there is always the refresh-