.JViy.J-lobby 9 ·5 - - - - - .
FLYING
By Clifton Bryant, Kansas City, Mo.
(Editor's note-When this feature was prepared
in mid-December the plane Bryant speaks about
lay wrecked in a Nebraska cornfield. Fortunately
Cliff was not in it at the time it cracked-up and
his loss ;s corered by in surance. His two fel/ow
club members who were in it at the time of the
crash are now in the hospital recovering.
They
took off from Lincoln, Nebr., in a fog so heavy
that all commercial aviation had been grounded
in the area. With visibility zero they crashed in a
cornfield and had to walk several miles before
finding help. Cliff intends to continue lIying.)
Like most other operators and men in
the Coin Machine Business, I like some-
thing mechanical. Until recently I spent
a lot of time outside taking care of my loca-
tions, but as my work has become more
and more inside in nature I felt the need
to do something that would take me out-of-
doors and keep my hands on a machine.
That's why I chose flying. I've always
been very fond of sports and there is all
the thrill of sports in flying, too. To me the
most enjoyable part of this hobby is the
feeling of power. Particularly on the take-
off it throbs right into you as it lifts you up
into space and there's no other experience
quite like it.
Sometimes you can get this power-feeling
in a fast car or motorboat, but not to the
same extent that you do in taking a plane
off the ground. Then, flying doesn't require
as much time as many other hobbies and
you can enjoy it the year around,
I usually fly evenings and on Sunday. It
all started out when a bunch of us at Cen-
tral decided to join the Jaycee (Junior
Chamber of Commerce) Flying Club. As
is usual, the idea appealed to a large num,
Clifton Bryant
ber of us at first, but by the time we were
ready to buy a plane there were eight of us
left in the club and our plane cost us about
$240 a piece, It now costs us $1.65 an
hour to operate the plane and we get in
about 10 hours of flying time a month each.
At the end of 1941 I had about 150
hours time and was ready to take my pri-
vate pilot's license, When you take into
consideration that instruction only cost us
$1.00 an hour you can understand that
flying is a lot less expensive than it was in
the old days.
Next to the thrill of pushing the throttle
in on the take·off, I like air-maneuvers best.
Landing is not nearly the thrill it was in
the beginning but spins, power-dives and
take-offs send your blood tingling every
time.
Now, don't get an idea from this that I
would like war or combat flying. Frankly,
there is nothing that I would like less. In
fact, I'm sure that the more I learn about
flying the less I will desire to add my
hazards to it. And most other people I
know, who fly, seem to feel the same way
about it.
I particularly like flying because there's
more of what you might call "feel" to it.
You take off and you get up there and
every thing changes. You get an immediate
change of perspective. First the horizons be·
come much wider and everything looks dif·
ferent from the air.
For instance, the first time I flew back
over my hometown, I didn't recognize it.
Although we were only 1,000 feet up, I had
to look close on the way back to see it. It
seemed much smaller from the air and al-
though we were only going 85 or 90 miles
an hour I had a very difficult time picking
out things I remembered on the ground.
That's one of the first things you learn
about flying, to look quick for the things
you want to see, even at low altitudes. I
never intend to use flying for anything but
recreation, that's why I took it up in March
of 1940 and why I've stayed with it- that
and the fact that I now get much more
pleasure and understanding out of newsreels
and newspaper accounts on subjects con-
cerning aviation,
•
Coin Machines
Then and There-
A coin machine of sorts was in popular
use in Florence, Italy, about 1500 A. D., to
sell rose water in small earthen jugs. A cop-
per coin delivered an odd-sized weight which
when deposited in the proper slot opened a
door long enough to draw out a bottle. If
you didn't grab your bottle fast enough you
were out of luck unless you kept the door
open by force.
* * *
Bread is supposed to have been sold on the
streets of Babylon by means of coin machines
as early as 450 B. C. These machines were
made of wood and brick and all the machines
in the city stood together under the eye of a
municipal official.
* * *
A coin machine for those who liked to try
their luck was set up in the market place of
Nurenburg, Germany, in 1614 by Johan
Winck. The player dropped a small coin
into a designated slot and a door opened,'
awarding him either a smaller coin , a larger
coin, a belt buckle, a meat pie, or a scarf.
* * *
Two hundred odd coin machines existed in
France about 1730. All were government
owned and operated. Principally these distrib-
uted two-leaf bulletins of the week's news,
though others sold hard cakes, honey drops
or water for horses.
NEW DISTRIBUTOR
WANTS
EXPERIENCED
MUSIC MECHANIC
Must have thorough knowledge of all
music: equipment. Send referenees. sal-
ary expected and qualifications . All
replies conftdential.
One of the surprise highlights of the Packard Christmas party was a double wedding. Buddy
Drollinger, Packard service manager, was married to Dorothy Phillips (first and second from
left) and Dorman McShan , Packard engineer, married Juanita Sheffer (fourth and fifth from
left). McShan was inducted into the U. S. Army December 31st.
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