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Lester E. Holt
Pioneer Exhibition Pilot - Instructor

[[stamped]] FROM THE FLYING PIONEERS BIOGRAPHIES OF HAROLD E. MOREHOUSE [[/stamped]]

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Lester E. Holt was born at Nashville, Illinois August 26th, 1889. Information concerning his early life and education are lacking, but he was living in the Los Angeles, California area during the 1910-1911 era where he became interested in aviation and determined to learn to fly.

During the summer of 1911 he secured Charles Walsh's early Curtiss-type pusher biplane powered by a 4 cylinder Hall-Scott engine. With this plane he taught himself to fly at Dominguez flying field and on August 22d he surprised every one by making a fine cross-country flight from Dominguez to Long Beach, six miles away, circling over the beach and returning to his starting point. On the return flight he raced an electric interurban car and won the contest.  He was a mere novice pilot at that time and this was his first major flight. Following this he flew his license tests and obtained F.A.I. Certificate No. 63 on August 31st at Dominguez, flying [strikethrough]his Hall-Scott Curtiss-type plane [/strikethrough] the same airplane.

Holt continued his practice there and was a contestant at the Los Angeles-Dominguez flying meet January 20 to 28, 1912. That season he moved his operations to the mid-west and during the fall of 1912 was based at Cicero Flying Field, Chicago[strikethrough], Illinois[/strikethrough]. He flew his last exhibition of the 1912 season at Kankakee, Illinois on November 7th, then moved back to Los Angeles for the winter.
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