“No, I didn’t imagine it,” I said. “I really went up that high.”
“You went ga-ga and imagined it,” he said.
He added: “Don’t fool around with that sort of business. You’re likely to pass out cold at any moment when you’re flying too high without oxygen. You’re likely to pass out cold and fall a long way before regaining consciousness. You might break your neck.”
[AËRIAL COMBAT]
I was flying in a student pursuit formation of SE-5s. Another student pursuit formation of MB3As was flying several thousand feet above us. The formation above us was supposed to be enemy pursuit on the offensive. My formation was supposed to be on the defensive. We were staging a mimic combat. Kelly Field, the army Advanced Flying School, lay beneath us.
I had to watch my flight leader, the other ships in my formation, and the enemy formation.
I saw the enemy formation behind us and above us in position to attack. I saw it nose down toward us.
I looked at my flight leader’s plane. He was signaling a sharp turn to the left. He banked sharply to the left. Everybody in our formation banked sharply to the left with him. The attacking formation passed over our tails and pulled up to our right.
I saw the attacking formation above us to our right, banking to the left, nosing down to attack us broadside.