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In April, 1913, he was back in Hammondsport ready for a new season's work, along with Charles Niles, Gink Doherty, Charles Hamilton and others. During that year the flying boat really came into its own and the early spring class of students was comprised largely of wealthy sportsmen who then, or later, had purchased a plane for their personal use. In that first flying boat class were such renowned names as L. A. Vilas, J. B. R. Verplanck, Marshall Reid, Harold McCormick, G. M. Heckscher, R. V. Morris and others who went on to fame in early American aviation history. Havens signed up for exhibition flying again, but soon became flying boat instructor when Francis Wildman was sent to Europe on a test mission. Wildman returned from Europe in late May to take over the instruction and on May 30th Havens flew his first exhibition of the season at Poughkeepsie, New York.

After filling a few other dates in the East, Havens returned to Hammondsport where he was selected to fly Verplanck's new flying boat in Percy Noel's Aero and Hydro Great Lakes Reliability Cruise, starting from Chicago July 8th. This watercraft race was from Chicago to Detroit, Michigan via the Straits of Mackinac following the shore line of the Great Lakes. The Curtiss Company pinned their faith on Havens to win this event. Already well experienced in water flying on Curtiss machines he would be a hard man to beat. Verplanck was to accompany him as a passenger for the event. Other starts in the contest were [[strikethrough]]: [[/strikethrough] Tony Jannus in a Benoist flying boat carrying Paul McCullough, Walter Johnson in a Thomas flying boat carrying Earl Beers, Glenn Martin in a Martin aeroyacht carrying Charles Day and Roy Francis in a Paterson-Francis flying boat carrying James "Sky High" Irving. Weldon Cooke and L. A. Vilas were also entered but did not participate.

One of the worst storms in many years in the Chicago area nearly put an end to the entire event on the afternoon of the starting day. [[strikethrough]] Janus [[/strikethrough] Jannus

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