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self to fly. They also flew some local exhibitions that year.
By August DeHart was flying very well and on September 16th and 17th he flew for the Eatons at Stockton, California. On the last day he attempted to fly cross-country to Modesto but had a forced landing and hit a tree in getting down, damaging the plane somewhat and was slightly injured. He also raced a motorcycle there at the Fairgrounds. On November 4th he made a notable flight when he left the Eaton Brothers field and flew to and crossed over Dominguez Flying Field, continuing on to San Pedro and out over the harbor where the Pacific fleet lay at anchor.Passing the Naval armada the sailors cheered and the vessels saluted him. He continued on to Long Beach then back to Dominguez Field where he landed for gas and a rest, then took off and returned to his home field, a very wonderful flight for a student aviator. That week DeHart got in a good bit of flying and received considerable local publicity for his fine cross-country flight.
In March, 1912 it was announced that DeHart, who had been with the Eatons in 19111, would fly for them again, filling exhibition dates and also be the instructor at their school. On April 21st DeHart obtained his F.A.I pilot license No. 129 at the company field flying an Eaton Hall-Scott powered biplane. During December, 1911 DeHart had taught W.V. DeWitt and Tom Dunn to fly at the Eaton school. Although California-born, Dunn later became a renowned pioneer aviator and gained recognition as the first man in the world of Chinese ancestry to become a licensed pilot.He also later organized and became head of the Chinese Air Force in China. Later that summer the flying game seemed to be in a slump so DeHart went to San Francisco, took a course in wireless telegraphy and became a wireless operator on board ship for the Marconi Company. After a year or so of this he went into the automobile business in San Jose, California. During this period he evidently also conducted some early experiments with wireless telegraphy on aeroplanes.