Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-03-09 | Page 47 | Once was Enough for Veteran Racer

ONCE IS ENOUGH FOR VEIUUN RACER Aviator Straps De Palma in Seat; Executes a Few Evolutions. One day last fall while Ralph De Palma -was serving Uncle Sam as director of flying fly-ing at McCook field, near Dayton, Ohio, a tall, lanky stranger appeared, asking for an airplane. He looked languid and bored. De Palma wondered if the visitor vis-itor was strong enough for flying the aulo racing star ia himself athletic, compact, com-pact, hard and mentally alert. But the .stranger wore an aviation uniform, and, furthermore, had an order for a plane from ihe commanding officer. They had been tuning up some new scout planea with liberty motors. ' One of these was assigned to the stranger. He climbed in, sighed his approval anr soared up into the ether. Once aloft, the languid visitor put that boat through about every thrilling stunt known to the crack flier. lie may not have been actually ac-tually an ace, but ho certainly fiew like one. ' "Like to take a trip with me?' he asked De Palma on alighting. The motor star accepted. He waa somewhat new at fiylng then, and also dubious. Hut a director di-rector of flying is supposed to fly. "Want to do a few stunts?" asked the stranger when De Palma was safely ; atrapped In. "A nice question:" commented com-mented Do Palma afterward. "There I 1 was, atrapped in and he running the l show. Would we do a few stunts! There was only one answer we did them!" De Palma's service in aviation was rather brief, as he enlisted a couple of . months before the war ended. But it 1 lasted long enough to give him a well- rounded experience In flying, both of the stunts which miKht be compared to the thrills of the speedway and long-distance flying, which ia comparable to the long grind of automobile rod racing. And the veteran str lost no time in getting back to his own game, firm in the conviction con-viction that it beats aviation for thrills. "Flying seemed monotonous, compared with motor racing," he eaid.