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Havens started the usual grass-cutting practice and all went well until one evening a puff of wind [[crossed-out]] hit [[/crossed-out]] raised him [[crossed-out]] and he found himself [[/crossed-out]] about thirsty feet in the air. He kept his head, made a circle, came back in to the field and made a successful landing. Reportedly, this occurred on May 1 [[crossed-out]] st [[/crossed-out]], 1911. 
Havens continued his practice and in June Curtiss asked if he would take on an exhibition date. Curtiss stated he had contracted to send a plane to Batavia, New York, on July 4th and asked Havens to fill the en-gagement. Curtiss told Havens all he would have to do was assemble the plane, but would not necessarily have to make a flight. Havens went to Batavia fully intending to do only what he had been told, but a large crowd had assembled. The place he was to fly out of was a stump patch and Havens was quite determined not to attempt a flight, but before dark there was so much yelling that he decided he would have to try. Se-lecting the longest open space of ground available he succeeded in getting off without hitting a stump, but immediately the engine began to falter and after several hundred feet it quit entirely and he piled up in a bunch of stumps. He was not injured but the plane was wrecked. Nevertheless, he was a hero- he had flown- and he was the guest of honor at a banquet that evening.
His first real exhibition was at Erie, Pennsylvania, on July 14th with Lincoln Beachey, then for the remainder of the 1911 flying season Havens became a regular member of the Curtiss Exhibition team. On August 4th to 6th he flew at Rockford, Illinois, with James War and while there made the first flight over that city. On August 10th he flew exhibitions at Boone, Iowa; August 31st at Middletown , New York; then at the Ashland Fair, Ashland, Wisconsin; September 13th and 14th, followed by three flights each day at Manitowac, Wisconsin, September 16th and 17th. He then went to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin,through the

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