To avoid being sighted and identified when passing the amphibian, the airplane must cut inland instead of making a beeline for the golf course.
“That would make the return to their objective form a rough letter “L” in the air.
However, at the far end of its flight the amphibian must turn inland a similar distance to fly over the golf fairway. That made the flying problem one of speed and not of distance traveled.
The airplane, selected for its wing-camber and span that gave it a low landing speed and good sustentation, was not fast.
The amphibian was even more slow.
“Distance to cover, seventy miles,” Larry pondered. “Our best speed, Jeff said, once, was about seventy miles an hour. The ‘phib’ does sixty, top.”
He made his calculation.
“No leeway to get to the hangar—Sandy might, barely, because he was on the track team, last school term. That is our only chance. But, at that, it will be ‘nip-and-tuck’!”
No air race can give the thrill of other forms of speed competition as does the horse race, the motor boat or sailing race, the track meet or the automobile speedway contests.
The distance is too great to permit spectators to observe it, the ships scatter, seek different elevations, or in other ways fail to keep that close formation which makes of the hundred-yard dash such a blood-stimulating incident.