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James D. Hill
Early Curtiss Pilot - Instructor

James D. Hill was born at Scottdale, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1885, where he attended local schools. He was mechanically inclined, but in his youth was frail and sickly. After finishing high school he started attending Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, but did not like it there so he left and enrolled at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, where he studied mechanical engineering. Later he had to leave due to ill health, so he returned to Scottdale and started to work as an automobile mechanic.
He developed an early interest in aviation and went to Cleveland, Ohio, to see Glenn Curtiss take off on his flight to Sandusky, Ohio, August 31, 1910. Later that year Hill moved to Portland, Oregon, and there he saw Charles Hamilton fly at a fair. Hill was so intrigued he went every day to see the flying and became determined to become an aviator. His health would not permit this so he went to work as a farmhand doing outdoor labor in an effort to build himself up.
After 18 months of farm life he enrolled for flying lessons at the Curtiss School, North Island, San Diego, California, in mid-February, 1913. There he learned to fly from instructors John D. Cooper and Francis "Doc" Wildman. After completing the course Hill obtained F.A.I. Pilot License No. 234, dated May 28, 1913. In October he was at the Curtiss School in Hammondsport, New York, where he took flying boat instruction from Instructor Wildman throughout that month.