Jersey Journal/1930/Schneider Will Go On Despite Near Disaster

Schneider Will Go On Despite Near Disaster. Jersey City Boy Waits Better Weather To Resume Hop After Two Forced Landings. Will Make Try For West-East Record. Altoona, Pennsylvania; August 15, 1930. (Associated Press) Eddie Schneider, youthful Jersey City pilot, attempting to set a new junior trans-continental East-to-West flight record, was awaiting weather reports at his hotel here today before resuming his trip. Schneider, forced down by fog and rain at Water Street, Pennsylvania yesterday, said that his plane was ready, that he had had a good night's rest and was anxious to go, but that he would not attempt to take off unless conditions between here and Columbus, Ohio, his next stop, were better than unofficial reports early this morning indicated. A narrow escape from disaster was related by Schneider on his arrival last night by plane from Water Street, Pennsylvania, at Schuttz Airport near Altoona. Schneider related that on his flight to Water Street from Huntingdon where he was forced to land earlier yesterday because of fog and rain his plane scraped the top of a tree, tearing away part of the fabric from the lower part of a wing. It was Schneider's first warning that he was flying so low, he said. Upon determining at Water Street that the damage was slight, he flew to Altoona later in the day to have the wing fabric repaired. He flew only 100 feet from the ground all the way from Huntingdon to Water Street, landing at the latter place in a corn field on the farm of Clare Harnis. Schneider said he hoped to reach Los Angeles with an elapsed time lower than the record of 33 hour and 35 minutes. An extremely low ceiling forced Schneider to land at the Huntington Airport yesterday morning, and early in the afternoon he took off in an effort to complete his flight. However, he found he had misjudged the weather conditions and soon found it necessary to make a second forced landing, this time coming down at the Water Street airport, which is 12 miles from Huntington_ This delay will not prevent him from breaking the record and he said, be planned to remain in Altoona until weather conditions were favorable for continuation of his flight upon reaching the Pacific Coast, probably at Alhambra, California, he plans to make an attempt to break the record with a West to East flight. When he set out at 5:55 a.m. yesterday. Schneider planned to refuel at Columbus and St. Louis. He intended to spend the night at Wichita, Kansas, where he would install a 250-gallon tank in his plane, and then hop to Alhambra, California. He probably will follow this course in resuming his flight, but his West to East flight course will be determined when he reaches his Pacific Coast destination. Weather reports indicated that today would bring a continuation of yesterday's cloudy weather to Central Pennsylvania, thus making Schneider's time for resuming his flight extremely doubtful. Lad's Father Confident. Emil Schneider, the boy's father, at his home, 114 Carleton Avenue, Jersey City, today expressed his confidence that his son would still make a success of his flight. When told of the first forced landing, his only remark was "Down, but not out." The boy is no inexperienced flyer despite the fact that he has been flying only two years. He has had more than 300 hours in the air of which 38 were at night. He left Dickinson High School after having completed his sophomore year to study aviation at the Westfield Airport and has made such progress since that he is considered one of the best junior aviators in the country. He is flying a Cessna monoplane equipped with a Warner Scarab motor having 110-horsepower with a top speed of 132 miles an hour. Since the record includes only time, the stops made by Schneider will not seriously affect his chances excepting in so far as he was forced to fly slowly through the fog and in landing.