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to fly. 
Daugherty began helping Gage with his work, and apparently it was not long before he was also learning to operate the Gage plane. Reportedly, Daugherty made his first brief straightaway hop with this machine June 13, 1911. He continued his practice and by July was making frequent short flights close to the field, and in August was flying very well. By mid-Summer Gage started a flying school and also built and sold a plane or two that year. On December 10th Daugherty, Frank Champion and Beryl Williams all flew out in a group to meet Cal Rodgers and escort him into Long Beach as he completed his renowned coast-to-coast flight. Daugherty and Williams remained aloft at Long Beach until the crowd thinned out, then landed on the beach to congratulate Rodgers in person. It is recorded that Williams had also been giving Daugherty some flying instruction at that time.  
On January 10, 1912 Daugherty obtained his F.A.I Pilot License No. 87 at Los Angeles flying a Curtiss-type plane. During January Daugherty received some additional instruction on a Wright Model B plane from both Cal Rodgers and Phil Parmelee who were at Los Angeles. Following this Daugherty continued his practice and began flying some exhibitions about the Los Angeles area. On June 7th and 8th he made flights at Pasadena, California and immediately after this accepted a position as pilot and construction engineer for the Illinois Aero Construction Company, Coal City, Illinois. This company built and sold planes designed by William Somerville, conducted a flying school and promoted exhibition work. There Daugherty began active test and demonstration flying. The Somerville plane was a large load-carrying type biplane, using an 80 H.P. Hall-Scott engine. With it Daugherty did some very noteworthy flying that summer. On August 22nd he flew from Coal City to Mason, Illinois and return, carry-ing Miss Kate Miller as a passenger. At Mason he gave exhibition flights at the Grundy County Fair. Following this he also flew exhibitions at