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Show ADVENTURERS' CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES T OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! "Tiuo Kiiids of Death" HELLO EVERYBODY: This is the story of a man who had a choice to make a choice between two kinds of death. One of those deaths was certain and unpleasant. If he chose the other, he'd at least have a chance. But he chose the death that was unpleasant and certain! cer-tain! : Anthony A. Hensler is his name, and he lives in New j York City. Tony is an aviator, and one day in the latter part of July, 1927, he had a call from Andy Andrews, who was then senior pilot at Curtis field out in Mineola. Andy wanted to get hold of somebody who could take a blimp up in the air and put it through test flights. There were few men available in the East, at that time, who knew enough to test fly a blimp, and Tony Hensler was one of them. Andy asked him if he would do the job. Tony said it was all right with him, and Andy took him to meet a fellow named Hamza who owned the blimp. The arrangements ar-rangements were made and Tony went to work. Be did a little tinkering with the machinery and Dually had the big gas bag whipped into shape for a first hop. The department of commerce lays down certain rules by which various va-rious types of aircraft are tested, and the rule in regard to blimps, was that the first hop had to be a fixed flight That means that the blimp il sent aloft with a line attached to the ground, so that if anything goes wrong it can't get away, float over the city and kill somebody or damage property in coming down. Tony Decides on a Second Fixed Flight. Tony made that fixed flight He adjusted the controls and centered the stabilization. But just to make sure everything was in good shape he decided to make a second fixed flight a few days later while he checked those controls over again. And three days later, on the third of August, he did make that fixed flight And it nearly fixed Tony for good. Tony climbed into the blimp all set for what he thought was going to be just another routine test in a captive balloon firmly anchored to the ground by a land line. But the trouble wasn't long in starting. No sooner was the blimp in the air than the land line snapped and the big gas bag started shooting upward. "She went up to 6,000 feet before I got the motor started," Tony says, "but the motor, a two-cylinder, high-speed motorcycle engine, finally began to turn over, and for a while everything went swelL But not for long. I was just over Manhattan, with my spirits as high as my ship, They were creating a wind of their own that was slowly turning the blimp's nose around. when things began to happen. And what I mean, everything happened at once. My controls began to go sour. The big bag began to hog badly. And to make matters worse, a large hole appeared in the nose of the ship. "I shut off the motor for fear of an explosion. I had carried 15,000 cubic feet of hydrogen when I left the airport, and if a motor spark ever got into any of that leaking gas it would blow me and the blimp to bits." The ship was losing altitude fast. The city seemed a long way down, but it was getting closer with alarming speed. And then Tony took a desperate chance did the only thing he could to save himself and avoid crashing on a tall building or in a crowded New York street. He climbed out on the narrow catwalk cat-walk and pulled on the foremost suspension cords, doubling the cloth over the hole in the bag's nose to prevent any more hydrogen leaking out of the balloon. The Blimp Wallowed Helplessly in Mid-air. "After securing those ropes," he says, "I felt a little better, for I then knew that the ship wouldn't crash in the crowded city. But I still didn't dare start the motor, and the blimp was wallowing helplessly in mid air. And what was worse still, the wind was carrying me out to sea." And right there was where Tony had to make his choice his choice between two kinds of death. There was a slim chance that he might bring that big bag down safely in crowded New York. On the other side of the picture was the prospect of blowing far out to sea and drowning in the Atlantic. Drowning wasn't a pleasant thought It would be much better to try and make a landing in New York for Tony. But what about those other people down there those scurrying humans that looked like ants as they crawled along the crowded streets? If Tony landed among them there was a pretty good chance that a lot of them would be killed. So Tony made his choice, and he chose the sure, unpleasant death rather than taking a fighting chance and perhaps killing someone else. He sat still and did nothing while the wind carried him out to sea! Tony Recognizes a Woman Pilot. Out across New York harbor he floated out toward Sandy Hook and the ocean and his dooml And then, from over toward the Jersey shore Tony saw two planes coming in his direction. As they neared him, he recognized one. It was the plane of Thea Rasch the famous German woman pilot The two planes came closer and closer. They couldn't take Tony off that blimp in mid-air. In fact, It didn't look as though there was much they could do but stand by, or return to the airport air-port from which they had come, and send help. But Tony wasn't counting on the ingenuity of Thea Rasch. She headed straight for the blimp until Tony thought she was going to crash into it until he could feel the wind of the plane as it dived under him. The other plane followed suit. They were creating a wind of their own that was slowly turning the blimp's nose around pointing it back to land. About that time, too, the wind that was blowing him out to sea shifted to another quarter. Aided by that and by the two planes, Tony finally landed at College Point L. I., and there he was met by a crowd that would pack the Yankee stadium, including the College Point police reserves. "Nope, I wasn't locked up," says Tony. "But if it hadn't been for the backwash of those two planes I'd have blown out to sea and never found again." (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) |