Viewing page 126 of 228

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

27

The pilot trainee became familiar with the controls by taxiing up and down the field. A governor to keep down lift speed insured its being 'ground bound!  The field was a long one..starting at a stone fence along the main village road entering Hammonsport [[sic]] and terminating at Keuka Lake.  If the embryonic pilot panicked going that direction the only end of his trip would be an embarrassed dunking in lake.  The plane gave me a case of internal giggles...if one mentally removed the wings and motor it looked exactly like a huge tricycle.  The three wheels were attached to an elongated triangular frame. The open framework structure had only two solid components..the wings. [[strikethrough]] and [[/strikethrough]]  They were transparent!  The seat was a chair-like affair about three feet from ground level.  This gave the pilot the dubious pleasure of sitting out front. An easy victim to dust, rain, or ;any flying or airborne obstacles either animal or inorganic.  The motor, and this relates back to the name....pusher...the really solid part of the plane was behind and slightly above the seat level between the upper and lower wings.  Some wise guy named the seat the 'undertaker's chair'. How apt it was!   In the event of a crash the motor had a way of breaking loose and staying with the pilot no matter where he was tossed, then dropping disasterously [[sic]] on his head.  A bar encircled the upper back and arms of the pilot and came around to the front [[strikethrough]] and [[?]] at a point just [[?]] [[/strikethrough]]  It was equipped with a contraption with a small ratchet which pressed into the small of the back.  This Rube Goldberg was moveable and responded to pressures of the shoulders.  The actual balance of the plane was by shoulder movement much in the same manner a bicycle is