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Page 12 Before the Jump [[Image - Picture of 4 men near airplane. One with a parachute]] [[Caption]]Campbell strapping 'chute on E. C. Robinson, Hand Simonds, director, in rear of Robinson and movie publicity man, extreme right. [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] Showing off Just before Ray gave her the gun, someone came running out to us and yelled a warning that if I got out of my seat, we would both be thrown off the field when we came down. Ray grinned, I said something unprintable and we took off. We weren't ten feet off the ground when I crawled out of my seat and out on the wing. I crawled all over that ship-just showing off to the crowd on the ground. They had never seen anything like it before, so I did everything I knew how. Hanging by my knees from a wing skid or undercarriage, I waved to the bunch down below. I stood on my head between the wings and even had Ray make two loops while I was on the center section. When we landed, I was still sitting in that position. Well, we didn't get run off the field as had been threatened, but we did attract a lot of attention and get a lot of publicity. The result was that we hooked up with Frank Clarke and soon after were doing work for a lot of moving picture producers. An interesting incident happened when we were working for Marshall Neilan in filming the picture "Go and Get It". ON this job, I did the stunt work while Ray Goldsworthy and Frank Clarke piloted the ships. The first stunt was in changing from an airplane to a speeding express train and then back again. Following this, I had to make two changes from one airplane to another without the help of a rope ladder. It was [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] the first time these stunts had ever been performed and the first time a plane change had ever been filmed. So there was no precedent for the pilots, the camera men or myself. All we could do was try it and then see what happened. It wasn't long before we found out. Stunting for the Movies Ray and I went down to March field where a train track runs along for about six miles straight as an arrow. On our first day there was some difficulty in getting the train to go fast enough to approximate our flying speed. We could not throttle the airplane motor for the air was [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] light and we needed all the power our old OX engine would develop. However, we kept trying until we had the speed of both train and airplane pretty well co-ordinated. The second day, we got out the rope ladder and I did some experimenting in climbing up and down its rounds while flying. We soon discovered the ladder pulled the ship down so rapidly that I was almost dragged through the wheat fields. Marshal Neilan, who was personally directing the picture, almost decided we had an impossible job and was just about ready to quit trying. But that night Ray and I did a lot of figuring. Knowing the plane would settle as soon as I left the cockpit, we estimated that by leaving the seat while the ship was twenty or twenty-five feet from the train, I should just about make the last round of the ladder while it was still a couple of feet from the ground. But, we both failed to consider that the vacuum of the train would pull us down and also that the ladder would be in the disturbed air. However, we went ahead and tried it. I climbed from the cockpit, and started down the ladder toward the train speeding below. I hadn't descended two rounds of the ladder before I had visions of a wonderful wreck. We were in the train vacuum and I knew I had to hurry. So I kicked my feet loose and started down the rest of the way hand over hand. When my feet hit the roof of the train, I hung on to the ladder and this continued to pull the ship down. Falling to my knees on the train roof, I let go of the ladder and the plane immediately shot up a hun- [[/column 3]] Specially built plane used to fly off buildings [[image of 5 men with plane]] [[caption]] Jim Hester, Campbell, Frank Clarke and Dave Dyas, (left to right on ground) Wally Timm (on plane).
