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[[stamped]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHY OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/stamped]]

After the Chicago Meet they toured the middle west and southern States.  When the season closed, Harry returned to the West Coast and started to take flight instructions from Howard Gill on Burgess-Wright Model "F" plane at Dominguez Field, Los Angeles.  The Burgess Co. had opened a winter school there, with Gill as instructor.  Before Harry could complete his course, Gill had a bad crash and wrecked the plane, which ended Harry's instruction for all time.  He then returned to Portland and joined his brother Silas, who meanwhile had taught himself to fly.  Harry and Silas jointly acquired a Curtiss pusher plane from Norm DeVeaux, a west coast automobile manufacturer and together they laid plans for the 1912 season.  There Harry helped prepare for the celebrated "surprise flight" Silas made from the roof of the Hotel Multnomah in Portland on June 11th, 1912.  Taking off from a crude board runway they had built on the roof, Silas flew over the city, and about eight miles to Vancouver, Wash. where he landed, a daring feat to say the least, but he made it and gained nationwide publicity.

Following this flight Harry proceeded to Vancouver, Wash. and on the site which later became Pearson Field, he taught himself to fly on the Curtiss biplane.  By patient ground hopping he succeeded in making his first solo flight after a few days of practice.  He and Silas the toured the northwest for the remainder of the season, making exhibition flights.  Later they fitted floats to their plane and did considerable flying from the water.  That fall the brothers successfully enjoyed the new sport of hunting ducks while flying from the water at Portland.  During the latter part of the summer they bought a second Curtiss-type plane with Curtiss motor, from the Paterson Aeroplane Co. of San Francisco.  The week of October 12th, 1912 Harry flew at the Ontario, Oregon Fair, dressed as the "Aerial Cowboy".

In early November, 1912 an advertisement appeared in the aviation magazines: "Christofferson Aeroplanes.  Biplanes of all types built to order, passengers carried - pupils trained, at Portland, Oregon."  Later that month an announcement was made they they were moving their business to San Francisco, Cal.  There the company started to operate in a small factory on Van Ness Ave. and established a "Hydro Haven" at Harbor View.  That month the Christofferson Aviation Co. Inc. was formed and their first advertisement appeared in the January, 1913 magazines.  For their first project, work was started on two Christofferson designed flying boats.  Their flying school opened with two students, Charles