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Following this, DeKor [[crossed out]] apparently [[/crossed out]] became interested in flying and in August, 1911, purchased a biplane from Glenn L. Martin at Santa Ana, California, and proceeded to teach himself to fly at Martin's flying field, by the grass-cutting method. This plane was a Martin-built Curtiss-type machine with a Hall-Scott 8 Cylinder 60 [[crossed out]] H.P.[[/crossed out]] engine. He made rapid progress [[crossed out]] learning to fly [[/crossed out]], and in about one month was making short cross-country flights in the neighborhood of the field, [[crossed out]] and [[/crossed out]] doing exceptionally well for a beginner.

On September 27[[crossed out]] th [[/crossed out]], 1911 DeKor flew his plane from Santa Ana to Dominguez Field near Compton, a distance of 40 miles, in 55 minutes. For such an inexperienced aviator this was a remarkable flight. On September 30th he flew from Dominguez Field to Anaheim, California, a distance of 50 miles, in about one 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 Nocember 1 [[crossed out]] st [[/crossed out]], 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. 

[[crossed out]] Still practicing there [[/crossed out]] 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 mid-west and southern states that season and by fall was in Georgia, where he flew at a Fair [[crossed out]] at [[/crossed out]] in Cuthbert from October 31st to November 3rd. There he carried authorized mail from the sub-station at the Fair Grounds 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. This plane he called the "Green Dragon" because the wing coverings were a deep green rubberized material specially

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