The load tests were made from the old Camp Kearney parade-grounds near San Diego. At daybreak, one foggy morning, I took-off from the field at Dutch Flats and headed for the Army’s three kilometer speed course along Coronado Strand. The visibility became extremely bad over San Diego harbor and I was forced to land at Rockwell Field, North Island, and wait for the fog to lift before running the speed tests. The sun soon dispelled the fog and I took the plane four times over the speed course at an average of 128 M.P.H. in a slight cross wind. I was carrying about 25 gals. of gasoline and over 400 lbs. of extra tanks and equipment. On the way to Camp Kearney I ran a number of tests on the relation of motor R.P.M. to air speed, and by the time I reached the old parade-grounds’ field I had collected quite a bit of valuable test data.
I decided to run one more test before landing and had it about half-way completed when I allowed the data board to come too close to the window where a gust of air carried it out of the cockpit. I was flying over mesquite, over five miles from Camp Kearney, at about a 1200-foot altitude at the time, and could only spiral around and watch the board flutter down into the top of a mesquite bush. There was a small clearing about 200 yards from the bush, in which it was possible to land a slow ship. I landed at Camp Kearney and sent for one of the cabin Hisso Standards used by the Ryan Airlines for their passenger service between San Diego and Los Angeles. When the Standard arrived I flew over and landed in the clearing near the lost board which was clearly visible from the air; but, after a fifteen minute search, I was unable to locate it from the ground in the thick mesquite. So I took off my coat and spread it over the top of another bush, then took the air again with the Standard to locate the board in relation to the coat.
I had no difficulty in locating them both and found them to be about fifty yards apart. I landed again but could not locate the board, so moved my coat to the spot where I thought it should be and took-off again. This time I had placed the coat within twenty feet of the data board, but it required several minutes’ search in the thick mesquite to finally locate it.
After I returned to Camp Kearney with the Standard, we made preparations for the weight tests of the Spirit of St. Louis.
The tests were to be made starting with a light load and increasing the weight carried by about fifty gallons of fuel for each test up to three hundred gallons, which was to be the maximum load tested. The plane passed its tests easily and took-off with three hundred gallons in twenty seconds or 1026 feet, and made a maximum speed of 124 miles per hour. The tests were made in a quartering wind varying from two to nine miles per hour and at an elevation of about six hundred feet above sea level.
The final flight ended at dusk and the plane was left under guard on the field over night. The next morning, after most of the gasoline had been drained, I flew it back to Dutch Flats where final preparations were made for the flight to St. Louis.
I was delayed four days at San Diego by a general storm area over the United States that would greatly jeopardize the success of an overnight non-stop flight to St. Louis. From this flight I expected to obtain some very important data for use on the final hop from New York.
On the afternoon of May 9th, Dean Blake, Chief of the San Diego Weather Bureau, predicted favorable flying conditions for the succeeding day. The next morning I took the plane to Rockwell Field and at 3:55 P.M. Pacific time, I took-off from North Island with 250 gallons of gasoline for the flight to St. Louis, escorted by two Army observation planes and one of the Ryan monoplanes. We circled North Island and San Diego, then headed on a compass course for St. Louis.
The ship passed over the first ridge of mountains, about 4,000 feet, very easily with reduced throttle. The escorting planes turned back at the mountains and I passed on over the desert and the Salton Sea alone. And at sunset I was over the deserts and mountains of Western Arizona.
