We started south with mountains on both sides
of us when the clouds came down over the tops of the mountains. We
were squeezed into a narrow valley and couldn't see ahead of us. We
took a chance, continued on, and finally made it. Remember all this
time I had to fly with the stick Jammed to the left and the right
rudder pushed half way in to keep the plane level. My arms were very
tired by the time we reached Las Vegas.
We stayed in a motel in Las Vegas just outside of town. At that time
the city was undeveloped and the buildings were very far apart. The
streets were mostly dirt. We headed for the nearest casino and
started gambling. It was only a matter of hours and our money was
gone so we wired back to Oakland and each got $100 advance on our
next paycheck. We went back to the casino and after a couple more
hours were broke again. The next day the other pilot caught up with
us and we took off for California.
We flew in formation very close to the ground the whole way and
whenever we came to a lake or other water, I would go up a couple of
hundred feet above the others coming down to Join them when we were
over land. We made it back to the base all right and the next day the
planes had to be flown across the Bay to Hamilton Field which some of
the other pilots did. The one who flew the plane I had flown from
Nebraska could only get it a couple of feet in the air. He flew all
the way across just above the water.
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