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

four times and raced a motorcycle at the Race Track. April 8th to 12th he flew at the Birmingham, Alabama meet with Oscar Brindley, Paul Peck, Fred Schneider and Charles Richter, the event having been sponsored by the Business Mens League.
 
During May Mestach moved his operations to Cicero Flying Field, Chicago, Illinois, as a base for exhibition work and began flying there. A Flying Meet was held at the Field for four days over Decoration Day and Mestach competed with Max Lillie, Paul Studensky, Marcel Tournier and Otto Brodie. There were numerous afternoon events and passengers and mail were carried. That season Mestach was busy flying exhibitions through the mid-west and northeast, with dates in Maine. July 11th to 19th he and James Ward were at Winnipeg, Canada where Mestach had a bad smashup while trying to fly in too high winds. He was not injured but it terminated his flying there, and he shipped his wrecked plane back to Chicago for repairs. On August 3d he flew at Grand Forks, North Dakota, then August 10th and 11th he was at Joliet, Illinois with James Ward. August 22d to 26th he exhibited at Quebec, Canada and the 28th was at Norwich, New York at the Chenango County Fair. September 3d he flew at Olean, New York at a local fair and circled the city several times.

Mestach then returned to Chicago to prepare for the 1912 Air Meet held at Cicero Field September 12th to 21st. This was a large event and there Mestach was competing with fourteen other contestants. The daily events consisted of racing, bomb and mail bag dropping, accurate landing and similar activities. There on September 14th Mestach was involved in a very serious accident while flying in a free-for-all race around pylons when his faster monoplane overtook and flew directly into the tail of Howard Gill's Model EX Wright biplane, tearing away the entire tail assembly, causing Gill to crash from about 50 feet altitude. Mestach was able to veer off, but out of control, crashing a short distance from Gill's wreckage. Gill was taken from the wreckage critically injured and died on the way to the hospital. Mestach sustained injuries which ended his flying for the remainder of the season and he returned to France in November. The wreckage of his plane was held for damages and sold to William Somerville of Coal City, Illinois at auction in January, 1913.

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