Hero of the Angry Sky. David S. Ingalls
pretty good and what was even better I at last am flying alone for the last week. It is much more fun, as you can do anything you want, excepting that our Lieutenant [McDonnell] has absolutely forbidden anything but straight flying—no so-called trick flying. Until last Monday I had done nothing but practice starting, landings, and turns, especially landings, which for a beginner are about the hardest things. All but about ten or twelve fellows are now alone so we are really at last progressing. As soon as I got out alone I went up high—about 3,500 feet, as I never went up before, always been practicing landings. It is certainly great up there and you own the world when you get up alone and can do what you want. Up, except on a very rough day, there is almost nothing to do, as it is perfectly calm and I just set and looked down. It’s funny but you never feel sick looking straight down and you can see for miles. I saw several tremendous fish in the ocean, as you can see down very far. There were a few small, light clouds, and I went through them; you can’t see a thing and have to balance by feeling, which is pretty hard. Also a rain cloud or black clouds are full of puffs [of wind] and few people go through them.
I never enjoyed anything as much as going up there and guess I’ll have to do it again soon. The only trouble being it takes a lot of time and you get no experience, as it is so calm, while from about 1,200 feet down there is almost always a lot to keep you busy, as even on a pretty calm day there are loads of puffs and pockets, so you are always on edge. Till Wednesday I took along a sand bag, but didn’t from then on. It was to keep the balance the same, in place of the instructor. Our boat happens to be nose heavy, however, and it is very hard to fly alone, so we are always going to use a sand bag.
Wednesday I almost got into bad trouble. Having left the sand bag behind, the machine was very tail heavy with a tendency to climb and it was work to keep pushing down the “flippers” to go level. Then when I started to come down from about 1,000 feet for my first landing I started off at too steep an angle and went so fast that my goggles began leaking and my eyes watered till I couldn’t see at all, so I leveled off to what seemed about right and pulled off the glasses, so I could see all right, but being afraid of coming down too steeply again I went to the other extreme and pancaked down for the last 200 feet, much too flatly, losing all speed and thus use of my controls. Fortunately, I appreciated it after dropping 100 feet and made a good landing, but if I hadn’t and a bad puff had hit me I would have made a bad landing. Just after, when coming down again to land a bad puff hit me and I got into a sort of sideslip—not a bad one, and I got out of that all right. A sideslip is when you get rocked over sidewise at such an angle that the machine starts to slide down edge first. You seem to come to a stop in forward motion and it is a horrible feeling.33 Fortunately it was not a bad one, however, and I righted the machine before it got much speed. Also it was high up. Height is the most important thing, as if you should ever get into a sideslip at about 100 or 200 feet before you could get out you would hit the water sidewise, which would bust things up. That was a bad day for me. I don’t know why, one seems to fly rather erratically and I made a lot of routine landings, in addition to the first one, which was really dangerous. The lack of the sand bag helped in putting the bow up and tail down on landing, also helped in my pancaking, as I had to push the controls as far forward as possible to get out of the pancaking, and then barely did. That afternoon the Lieutenant took up our machine and made a rotten landing and said that we always had to carry the sand bag, as it was hard to run it otherwise. That sand bag certainly made a difference and I flew pretty well then, and Friday, till our plane’s engine busted and now we have to put in a new one, and there being no engines ready, we had no flying Saturday and won’t get any till Tuesday.
It is funny how much feeling there is about flying. Everybody is jealous—talks about how others go and always count the bumps if anyone makes a bad landing. A bump is when you do not slip into the water just right and sort of bump into the air. A couple of inches difference in where you level off or a touch of the controls at not the right time will sometimes bump you up 30 feet or higher. Usually though you just go up a foot or two and that is a bad landing, but most everybody bumps sometime. I was certainly put in a better humor after flying so badly Wednesday when I saw everybody almost when they came in bump, and the Lieutenant gave them the deuce. Luckily I made a good landing coming in so that was all right. But someone else who was out saw me make some rotten ones and I got the—pretty well.
Well, Dad, I’ve got to go to dinner. Sorry I didn’t write you before about what I was doing, but I wanted to fly alone first. Lots of Love, Dave
Ingalls Memoir re: Palm Beach
The first crew I was on was in charge of “Di” Gates, with “Ken” MacLeish, “Ken” Smith, and “Pat” Ireland. The competition was keen between crews. Each wanted to have the best machines and the most flying. So we went at it hard when anything needed fixing. To work one had to have tools, and to keep a machine in good shape you tried to find the best motor cover. “Di” would tell us to get something and leave us to go and get it. As burglars we were good. We became very clever at picking up good motor covers that were lying about. When we had wangled something we wished to keep we painted a big number on it. And friends were base enough to call us crooks!
There was never a thought about how much or how little we were working. The more we did the more we flew, and that was the mark we were shooting at. But it did come as a slight shock, after we had been there almost two months and had lugged gas and oil daily to the machines, to have Lotta Lawrence come wandering along with two empty cans and ask where a guy could procure some petrol.34
According to Harry Davison:
One day Crock [Ingalls] and I certainly slipped it over the rest of the outfit. We got up long before it was light and went down to the machines. We got old Number 3 out just as dawn was breaking. Then we had one of the prettiest flights that ever happened, for about an hour. We went up about 3,000 feet and watched the sun rise. Everybody was terribly snotty about it when we came down. They all tried to work this same stunt, but Lieutenant McDonnell forbade it after that.35
U.S. Naval Reserve Flying Corps Detachment36
Huntington, Long Island, July 1917
Dear Mother and Dad,
Sorry not to have been able to write you before but we have had a busy time taking a test on a book by a man named Loening. Isn’t it just the luck, since you left we have had wonderful flying weather and have been flying a lot. For instance yesterday I had two hours and my time is very short because they are giving extra to a lot such as Ireland, etc., to make them catch up. (I had been sick.) Thursday the two N-9 machines arrived and are now in commission. They are pontoon machines and pretty handy good machines. Also Monday we received a Wright Martin pontoon machine, a wonder.37 More machines are coming soon. In a little more than a week we are going to take our tests for Naval air pilots, which I hope will not be hard. Saturday we had quite a time, first in the afternoon several of us including little me flew over to the Davisons,38 circled around the polo field a bit on which thousands had aggregated, and then landed, watched a base ball game between our team and one from Mineola, our side winning, then flew back. There was a lot of trick flying by the Mineola land machines, and at one time there were at least 25 or 30 machines up. It must have been quite a sight. Saturday night I had dinner at the Davisons and then went to a dance at H. P. Whitney’s. Had a great time Sunday and came back that night on the yacht with all the wireless girls to accompany us.39 Am feeling rather sleepy now as I went out to dinner Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday after you left, also last night, so have now sworn off parties with Harry. Must stop, lots of love, Dave
According to William Rockefeller:
We [Rockefeller, Ingalls, and MacLeish] made several flights over submarines operating in the [Long Island] Sound while they tested out various devices by means of which they hoped to be able to detect the presence of aircraft. Submarine officers also took flights with us to observe the visibility of subs while submerged under different conditions. I had my one and only trip in a submarine at this time, as the officers kindly let us go out with them when we were not otherwise occupied. I don’t want another ride. All I remember is a good deal of noise, being told I was under the Sound, seeing the water go through the little glass portholes in the conning tower, or whatever it is called, and coming up again.40
Reginald