Bill Bruce on Forest Patrol

by Henry Harley Arnold

Bill did not try to gain any altitude for a while, as speed was essential to the success of their plan. His plan was to arrive over Glenbrook at about four thousand feet. He hoped that Earl would start sending to check the set long before they reached the place, and then the O. K. panel would probably be waiting for them when they flew over the station.

They were flying along at three thousand feet when they reached Ferguson. Then Bill felt Earl poking him in the back and, turning, saw that a note was being passed forward to him. Bill took the note and read it. “I can’t get any juice from the generators. Did you remove the safety wire from the generator propeller before you started?”

Bill shook his head, “No.” To land and take off the safety wire would consume a lot of valuable time. Something else must be done. It was necessary that the radio function. Otherwise, the plan could not succeed. Bill wrote a note and handed it to Earl: “Do your stuff as you have never done it before. Put that emergency stick into the socket in your cockpit. Follow the movements that I make as I pilot this plane. Learn what you can in the next few minutes, for I am going to climb out on the wing and kick the generator fan loose. You are going to pilot the plane while I do it. I don’t care if you never before have piloted a plane. That makes no difference. Get busy.”

Earl was perfectly willing to try and follow Bill’s instructions. At first he over-controlled just like any new student would. Then he seemed to be able to keep the plane on an even keel. Bill did not touch his stick for some time and the plane ran along perfectly all right. Bill then started to climb out onto the wing.

He had one leg outside of the fusilage and the plane started to veer to the right alarmingly. Earl was giving it too much right rudder. Bill motioned for the correction but had no success in making himself understood. He returned to his cockpit and put the plane on an even keel. Once more he was about to get both legs out of the cockpit, but this time the plane started to climb at such an angle that he knew it would stall. Bill was able to correct it by leaning in and pushing forward on the stick.

Bill learned by this time that Earl was so intent upon trying to fly the plane that he could not see any of the signals which Bill gave for correcting the position of the plane. It was up to him to get out on that wing, kick the fan loose and get back into his seat as soon as possible, and do it before the plane was entirely out of control.

Bill waited until the plane settled down into a level flight again and then started to climb out on the wing. He had both feet on the wing and was about to move forward to the leading edge when the nose of the plane again went up at decidedly too great an angle. Bill hesitated and tried to get Earl to push the stick forward. Earl would not even look at him. Earl had his eyes glued to the inside of the cockpit.

Bill decided that the same thing would happen every time that he left the cockpit. Accordingly it was just as safe to get the job done this time as it ever would be. Completely ignoring the dangerous angle at which the plane was climbing, he continued to work his way forward. By the time that he reached the leading edge of the wing, the plane had almost lost all flying speed. In a short time it would fall into a spin. He must get back to the cockpit as soon as he could. Otherwise the plane would certainly fall and be out of control during the fall.

Bill did not take much time to consider what was the proper thing to do. He was in a position now from which he could stoop down and give that fan a kick and break the safety wire. It was doubtful if he could ever get there again, judging from the erratic way in which the plan had traveled through the air during the past few moments.

The few seconds spent in kicking that fan loose might be the ones needed to save the plane from falling into a spin. On the other hand, it might fall into a spin before he could get back to the cockpit even though he did not try and release the fan. Apparently it made no difference.