Show na FAMOUS L V 11 HEADLINE H huntr R I 1 L A FIB solo flight cy FLOYD GIBBONS C CHARLES HARLES LITKE of jamaica N Y is dist distinguished anguished ingui shed adventurer and lie he shows up tip here at the club meeting t rooms with the story of the worlds most hectic solo flight charley took that flight in november 1929 and it had quite a few unusual features though charley axas just a beginner at the fl flying y in Z business though it was his first trip through the air he managed to make a power dive and to loop the loop six times and speaking king 0 of solo nights flights this was the solo est 0 of them all for charley not only have any passengers up tip there aloft with him he even have a plane charley had been up in the air before plenty of times but hed always had something to hang onto he is a steeplejack steep lejack by trade and he thinks nothing of dangling thirty or forty stories from the street just so long as theres a scaffold or a josuns chair under him but this particular time im going to tell you about charley was out on his own no scaffold no josuns chair no nothing charley takes off on a 24 story tumble charley had been painting the coping at the th top of a twenty four story building on fifty seventh street in manhattan and was sort of mopping up after the job he was ras dangling on his josuns chair ten or fifteen feet below the roof washing away the paint that had dripped on the bricks below the coping lie he was using a strong acid to get the paint oil off and well I 1 said a little while ago that tha charley take anything at all along with him on his bis solo flight I 1 was wrong he did take something lie took that pall of acid can you imagine anything worse to have around when youre power diving and looping the loop neither can charley there were a couple other lads in the crew with him each of them cleaning a strip of brick about six feet wide charley had just finished one strip and was pulling himself up to the roof again to ids his josuns chair he got up to the coping was reaching out with his right hand to catch hold of it when all of a sudden things began to happen the rope he was pulling slipped out of its block the josuns chair began to fall charley tumbled over backwards and went with it with twenty four stories to go before hed hit the street acid pail adds to falling mans peril when charley took up stunt flying he went into as pretty a series of loops and emmelmann Imm elmann turns as you ever saw in your life he turned six somersaults one right after another there was a cloth cloth lri F ea 0 e V f it I 1 I 1 the acid pail hit the window sill and spattered him with fiery fluid covered scaffold about thirty feet down put there to keep the paint and acid from falling on the street and he went past that like a bat out of hades then he stopped looping and went into a power dive head first straight for the pavement about six stories down charley saw a rope dangling in in front of him a rope that hung hang from the cloth scaffold almost down to the street level lie he grabbed for it with both hands he might even have held onto it if it been for that pail of strong acid hed been using it still hung in the crook of his left arm and in all his looping and somersaulting centrifugal force had kept it from spilling now it lilt hit on a window sill acil ach flew in every direction but most 0 ol 01 it landed on charleys head it burned like the devil it got in his eyes and all but blinded him its fumes made him choke his hands tore loose from the line and he began falling failing again this time though he be was falling feet first down down he went and while he fell he fought to clear his head his smarting eyes were tight shut but he forced himself to open them even when he did he see clearly but there was a long snaky blur swaying in front of him and he knew that must be the line he had just let go go of charley emulates man on an the flying trapeze he grabbed at it again and while the rope burned through his hands tearing the skin from them he got busy with his feet and wrapped two turns around his right leg that brought him to a stop a sudden jarring stop that almost broke his leg and almost tore his I 1 arms out of their sockets and there charley hung blinded and dizzy front from his fall through the air when my eyes cleared for a moment he says 1 I found myself in front of a window ab b jt ii hall half way lip the 1 side of the building there was an iron knob by the window the kind window cleaners use to hook their safety belts on and aad I 1 reached out caught it with two fingers and drew myself in I 1 rested my left toot foot on the sill but my right leg was caught in the rope so tightly that I 1 get it out one of the men up above lowered his josuns chair but I 1 get onto it my head was spinning like a top and I 1 dare let go of that knob I 1 shook my head trying to clear it it only made me dizzier plane less stunt flyer wisecracks Wise cracks with doom but through one of the worst frights brights a man ever got charley still managed to keep his sense of humor the men up above were yelling down to him what floor are you on they asked him 1 I dont know charley yelled back 1 I forgot to count them I 1 wonder how many professional comedians could turn off a pat one like that standing on a three inch window sill a dozen stories up arm the street bruised dizzy and smarting with acid burns the birds up above had to find out for themselves what floor charley was on it was the twelfth they went down there and hauled him iii ia and a doctor washed the acid oil off charley and loo looked ked him over noth ing but a strained ligament he said and a few burns and bruises I 1 i pretty good too for a lad who goes stunt lying flying without a plane i service I 1 |