Bill Bruce on Forest Patrol

by Henry Harley Arnold

Bill pressed slightly with his left foot and the plane responded. Furthermore, the rudder bar returned to a neutral position. He tried to get some right rudder, but it was just as solid as formerly. By this time the lights of the city were well behind him. He judged that he was about five or six miles out over the ocean.

The one thought that entered Bill’s mind was that his controls might lock in place. If that happened, he would have to follow the course which the airplane took. Once more Bill shoved slightly with his left foot and the plane responded. He held the foot in place with a view of making a wide circle to get back to the landing field. He realized that the circle with such a small amount of rudder would be a very large one, but he could not take any chances of having the controls lock and the movement of the plane thus be limited to a small circle.

Landing fields were scarce in the bay region. The city of San Francisco was on a peninsula with the ocean on one side and the bay on the other. The land between was thickly settled and built up. It would be difficult to pick out a landing field in the day time and almost impossible at night. Bill’s one chance lay in his being able to jockey his plane, crippled as it was, back to the airdrome.

CHAPTER IX—AN UNEXPECTED DUTY

The bay with its lights along the water’s edge had now lost its beauty for Bill. The night had become an agent which seemed to add further dangers to the perils which already seemed to conspire against him. Bill’s one idea now was to get his plane back to the landing field as soon as he could. He then would try and jockey his plane into a position which would eliminate the use of any right rudder in making his landing.

The circle which he was flying was an exceedingly wide one. It took him down the bay as far as San Mateo and he was loathe to make it smaller. There was always the chance that his rudder bar should lose all of its remaining mobility. He cut across the end of the bay and approached Alameda. He could see the lights on the field and wondered if he would make them safely.

The circle took him over the ferries plying between San Francisco and the East Bay cities. Goat Island revealed itself by the lights of the various buildings and the Naval Training Station. He was directly in line with the landing field. He felt more secure now, for, with everything going all right, he would not have to use any rudder to make the landing.

Bill throttled the engine and started to glide to the ground. He hoped that he would miss the three hundred foot flagpole standing somewhere between his plane and the field. That caused him some anxiety for a while, and then he realized that he must have passed it. His plane was now a short distance from the lighting truck.

Bill leveled off and let his plane sink to the ground As the wheels hit, he felt the plane veer to the right Bill gave it all the left rudder that he could. The turn to the right ceased, but he had over-controlled and a left turn started. He tried his right rudder and found it to be ineffective as formerly. The plane turned rather sharply and ended in a ground loop.

Fortunately they were not traveling very fast when the ground loop took place, so that no damage was done. Bill did not even attempt to taxi up to the line. He stopped his engine and turned to Breene.