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SCOTT:

Due to the fact that the early airplanes were built to carry only one person it was impossible for a teacher to do more than explain the modus operandi to the pupil and let him or her loose to cut grass.

This was accomplished by cutting the power of the motor down so that the pupil would be unable to lift the machine into the air until he or she was thoroughly familiar with the controls. In the meantime the student ran the machine up and down the field on the ground, stopping at each end of the field for instruction.

Due to some oversight on the part of the mechanic in charge of the plane, the motor was not cut low enough and on my second attempt the wheels left the ground and I was in the air. Consequently my grass cutting days were over and I was a pilot and on my own.

After a few weeks of additional flights and training there, I was assigned to fly my first exhibition at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in company with another well known Curtiss flyer, Bud Mars.

Seeing Miss Thaden, one of our really great woman pilots of today here in the studio reminds me of my first attempt at distance flying (MORE)