Viewing page 12 of 19

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

hour at an altitude of 2,500 feet. DeKor flew his license tests with his Martin plane at Santa Ana on October 14th and received F.A.I. License No. 72 dated November 1, 1911. On October 16th he flew from Santa Ana to Los Angeles, where he continued flying practice and obtained Aero Club of California Pilot License No. 8.

He entered the local amateur events of the 1912 Los Angeles Meet held at Dominguez Field on January 20th through 28th. Later he left the West Coast for an exhibition tour in Texas and across the southern states. On April 1st he was making flights for the Smith-Hahn Company of Houston, Texas, and in early June he carried Miss Louise Gatton for a ride at Houston. DeKor exhibited through the midwestern and southern states that season and by fall was in Georgia, where he flew at a fair in Cuthbert from October 31st to November 3rd. There he carried authorized mail from a sub-station at the fairgrounds to a place near the Post Office where it was dropped from the air for postal employees to collect.

Shortly after this he returned to Los Angeles where he had the local plane builders, the Gage-McClay Company, thoroughly overhaul his plane and rebuild it into a headless type to increase the speed. He called this plane the "Green Dragon" because the wing coverings were a deep green rubberized material specially made for him by Goodyear.

This overhaul job was complete in mid-December and on the 26th DeKor flew over Los Angeles and landed on Washington Avenue in the downtown area to fill an engagement he had with one of the Los Angeles newspapers. From there he flew to Dominguez Field, where he remained to take part in the Los Angeles Meet held there starting January 26,1913. Also flying at this event were Earl Daugherty, Fred Schumann, Floyd Smith, John G. Gilpatric and Len Bonney. On the opening day DeKor narrowly escaped a bad crash when he was gliding in for a landing following an altitude flight. At a low altitude he was suddenly struck by very turbulent air from behind the grandstand and almost capsized. He instantly opened up the engine made a steep diving right bank and flew out of trouble.

2.