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Flying up the coast from North Island the propeller came off over San Pedro Bay near Los Angeles, badly damaging the controls. He managed to alight but could not continue with this plane. October 31st he again started from North Island in a Standard Curtiss Flying Boat and covered 501 miles that day, a flight considered one of the pluckiest of the contest as he was hampered all day by bad fogs and near impossible flying conditions. His fine flight was not quite good enough, however, as Oscar Brindleynwon the event with a distance of 554 miles. Morris was awarded the Aero Club of America of Merit in late 1915 for his altitude records and noteworthy flights in the Curtiss Marine Trophy competition.

Morris remained on the staff of Curtiss instructor-pilots at San Diego over the inter of 1915-1916 and there on March 22, 1916 obtained his Expert Pilot License, No. 47. That winter his long-time able assistant, Robert Simon, took the flying course at North Island and went on to renown as a pilot himself. In the early spring of 1916 Morris made a daring flight over the Otay and Tijuana valley areas to determine the extent of property damage after a dam had burst. From his flying boat  he witnessed indescribable destruction, wrecked and devastated houses and ranch buildings, uprooted trees and washed out bridges, returning to bring San Diego the first news of what had happened. He continued as Chief Pilot and Manager of Curtiss operations in California through the 1916 season until late that year when the Curtiss Company closed the North Island Base and Flying School and the government took over the operations for a Signal Corps Aviation School. Morris then purchased the Curtiss equipment there which he resold on the civilian market.

As the war clouds of World War I thickened in the spring of 1917 Morris offered his services to the Army Signal Aviation Section Corps but was rejected due to disabilities caused by a previous plane crash. He did serve in a civilian capacity, however, and also continued as West Coast Representative  for the Curtiss Company through 1918. Morris later became affiliated with the Aeronautics Division of Walter Kidde & Co. and resided for many years at Coronado, California. He was