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before government officials. There, on April 25th, he obtained FAI Pilot License No. 118 with a Curtiss plane and engine. In all, Walsh made seventeen official demonstration flights of varying nature, including duration up to two hours, and takeoffs and landings from a plowed field. While there Walsh made several flights over the City of Washington, D. C., circling the Capitol Building and Washington Monument. Following this he flew exhibitions in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Kansas, then back to Pennsylvania. During several of these engagement Walsh flew authorized mail at Lima, Ohio on June 6th to 8th; Portsmouth, Ohio, June 27th-28th; Hamilton, Ohio, on July 13th; Benton Harbor, Michigan, July 17th and 18th; and, at Dubuque, Iowa, on July 21, 1912. 

The Curtiss Company now had Walsh flying one of the small headless exhibition type 75hp, pusher biplanes and he was doing active acrobatic flying at all of his engagements. In early September he flew in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then returned to Long Island, New York, where he flew at Hempstead for a few days. There he created a sensation by his flights over the city and up Broadway. Following this Mrs. Walsh and the children went to Hammondsport for a few days while Charles went to Trenton, New Jersey, where he was to fly at the Interstate Fairgrounds. There on October 3, 1912, he was killed while flying before a huge crowd who was watching him give a marvelous exhibition of tight spiraling. At about 2,000 feet the left wing collapsed and he fell about one-fourth mile outside the fairgrounds. Waiting and watching in the stands was President Woodrow Wilson who had accepted an invitation to take a ride with Walsh after he landed. Walsh was buried in Calvary Cemetery, San Diego, California beside his mother whom he had never known, she having passed away when he was two years old. 

Flying Pioneer Charles F. Walsh loved flying. Self taught on early airplanes that he built himself without previous knowledge or training, and with no financial assistance, he struggled through those early days of his aviation career with the help and encouragement of his good wife, under setbacks and discouragements that would have stopped most men. Always enthusiastic and 

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