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he used his Hall-Scott powered Benoist Curtiss-type plane.
Kearney left St. Louis on January 5th for Los Angeles, California where he entered his plane in the air meet at Dominguez Field, hold January 19th to 28th, 1912. This was a large event, and Kearney's first such engagement, and he made a good showing, having entered most of the major contests, flying his own plane. At that time he also started booking engagements from a San Francisco address. Before leaving Los Angeles for the Oakland Meet on February 5th, Kearney signed with Curtiss Exhibition company for the 1912 season, but flew at the Oakland event from February 17th to 25th, using his own Benoist machine. There he flew across the Bay to San Francisco, landed on Van Ness Avenue, then took off and returned to the meet. Following this event Kearney flew for two days at Sacramento in a small meet promoted by Dick Ferris. Working southward he was in San Diego on March 25th where he followed the outbound steamer Yale for three miles, bidding farewell to friends on board and dropping messages to the deck as a final gesture.
In early April he returned to the mid-west for the 1912 exhibition season and was supplied with a small surface Beachey-type headless Curtiss pusher biplane by the Curtiss Exhibition company. From mid-May though June Kearney toured several small towns in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee and was at Ironton, Ohio on July 4th. In Kentucky that month he made several cross-country trips, flying exhibitions at towns as he went. On July 27 he flew from Madisonville to Providence, 32 miles, for a date there, and on August 2nd he flew from Henderson, Kentucky to Evansville, Indiana and return 25 miles each way.
Kearney remained in Kentucky and southern Illinois through August and in to September, then was at the Chicago Meet at Cicero Field and Grant Park September 16th to 22nd, and flew over the city from Cicero to Grant Park for the events there. He had at this time become known as "Sure Shot" Kearney due to his billings everywhere as "always flying" regardless of weather conditions or location.
At the Chicago Meet Kearney and Beachey became engaged in daily dangerously reckless rivalry and were flagged down at times by the Meet officials to get them out of the air. Kearney was second in total flying time during the meet and his