EARLY INSTRUMENT FLYING DOOLITTLE 349 



I spent the hours flying low in the vicinity of McCook Field and on 

 the main air routes in and out, memorizing the terrain. I knew every 

 high building, tree, silo, windmill, radio tower, and high-tension line 

 in the area. I could therefore fly in — or under — adverse weather 

 safely when other equally experienced pilots did not fly. This was 

 not because I was a better or more daring pilot than my colleagues; 

 constant practice had simply extended my limitations. The trick was 

 to learn your limitations, gradually expand them, but never go be- 

 yond them. I thought I was being smart, but the conmianding officer, 

 learning that I frequently flew in that area when other pilots did not, 

 thought differently. Unaware of my training plan, he removed me 

 from the job of chief pilot in the flying section, advising me that I 

 did not have judgment enough to be a pilot, and assigned me to the 

 airplane section as an aeronautical engineer. 



All these things went through my mind as the weather deteriorated. 

 I planned to fly contact all the way and therefore, in order to avoid 

 the mountains, took the route Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, 

 Schenectady, Albany, and then down the Hudson River. There was 

 no particular problem getting to Albany, but from there on the ceiling 

 and visibility became marginal. Soon I had passed the "point of no re- 

 turn" and no longer had gasoline enough to go back to Buffalo. 



At one place I found it expedient to slow down and hover with 

 the left wing of the airplane over a brightly lighted southbound 

 passenger train traveling along the east side of the Hudson River. 

 Presently it went through a cut, making its pursuit too hazardous, 

 so I left the train and followed the riverbank. I considered crossing 

 the river and landing on the parade ground at West Point, but aban- 

 doned this idea as the weather remained flyable — barely. Upon reach- 

 ing the lights and heat of New York City, and finding the ceiling and 

 visibility slightly improved, I flew south to the Battery hoping 

 to be able to get to Mitchel Field from there, but the East River and 

 the area to the south were "socked in" and I could not go on. I next 

 tried to get to Governor's Island and land on the drill ground, but 

 it was fog shrouded, as was also the Yonkers Golf Course which I 

 next hoped to use for an emergency landing after having turned north 

 back up the Hudson. I then returned to the Battery with the inten- 

 tion of crash landing in Battery Park, but a chap ran out into the 

 middle of the park and waved me off. He apparently thought I mis- 

 took it for a flying field. 



It is interesting to note that the George Washington Bridge across 

 the Hudson at I79th Street was under construction at this time. There 

 were as yet no suspension cables or other horizontal structure, and only 

 the great vertical piers on each side of the river had been completed. 

 I had passed the east pier three times without seeing it. 



