Part 14 (1/2)

”You're crazy,” he said. ”You can't go that high without oxygen. The average pilot's limit is around 15,000 to 18,000 feet. You're young and in good shape. Maybe you got to twenty. But you just imagined you went higher than that.”

”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 pa.s.s out cold at any moment when you're flying too high without oxygen. You're likely to pa.s.s out cold and fall a long way before regaining consciousness. You might break your neck.”

AeRIAL 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 pa.s.sed 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.

I looked at my flight leader. He was signaling a turn to the right. He turned sharply to the right. Our whole formation turned with him. We were heading directly into the oncoming attack of the other formation.

Just as I straightened out of my turn my s.h.i.+p lurched violently and I got a fleeting impression of something pa.s.sing over my head. I couldn't figure out what had happened. My leader was signaling for another turn.

I followed him through several quick turns in rapid succession. We were dodging the enemy formation. I kept trying to figure out what had happened when my s.h.i.+p had lurched.

Then it occurred to me: Somebody in the attacking formation, when the formation had been diving head on into ours, had pulled up just in time to keep from hitting me head on. I had pa.s.sed under him and immediately behind him as he pulled up, and the turbulent slip stream just back of his s.h.i.+p was what had caused my s.h.i.+p to lurch.

I felt weak all over. G.o.d, how close he must have come, I thought!

Later, on the ground, we stood around our instructors, listening to criticism of our flying. I wasn't listening very much. I was looking around at the faces of the other students. I saw another student looking around too. It was Lindbergh. He had been flying in the attacking formation. After the criticism was over I walked up to Lindbergh.

”Say,” I said, ”did you come close to anybody in that head-on attack?”

He grinned all over.

”Yes,” he said. ”Was that you?”

”Yes.”

”Did you see me?” he asked.