Random Aviation Research
Jo and I have just turned in the final draft of Steel Blues, the sequel to Lost Things - all about a transcontinental air race, a cursed necklace, and a string of murders that comes back to haunt the characters - and so I've begun work on the book to follow, Silver Bullet. Among the useful and fun online resources is the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's America by Air exhibition's companion website, from which I excerpt part of a disciplinary letter sent to an Air Mail pilot named William "Wild Bill" Hopson:
"I am writing you in a friendly spirit to give you the idea of the Department in regard to this matter. I believe you have not realized that you have been taking unnecessary chances with your own life and government property.
I am not blaming you altogether for the crashing of #63 at Bellefonte. After mature thought I do believe that your desire to pull off a spectacular take off lessened your chances for a successful take off."
"I am writing you in a friendly spirit to give you the idea of the Department in regard to this matter. I believe you have not realized that you have been taking unnecessary chances with your own life and government property.
I am not blaming you altogether for the crashing of #63 at Bellefonte. After mature thought I do believe that your desire to pull off a spectacular take off lessened your chances for a successful take off."