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Daredevil Lindbergh and His Barnstorming Days
Midway through his second year as an engineering student at the
University of Wisconsin in Madison, Charles Lindbergh decided to indulge a
long-held curiosity. He was determined to learn how to fly a plane. His quest
led him, on April 1, 1922, to Lincoln, Nebraska, the site of Ray Page's Flying
School. Before so much as sitting in the cockpit, Lindbergh learned all he
could about the mechanics of the plane he would be flying. Finally, on April 9,
Lindbergh took to the sky for the first time. His first flight proved to be a
transcendent experience: "...Trees become bushes; barns, toys; cows turn into
rabbits as we climb. I lose all connection with the past. I live only in the
moment in this strange, unmortal space, crowded with beauty, pierced with
danger," he later recounted in "The Spirit of St. Louis." Unfortunately,
Lindbergh's new-found enthusiasm for flight was not shared by his flight
instructor, Ira Biffle. "Biff," as he was called, had been so shaken by the
flying death of a good friend that he began to dislike flying. More and more
frequently he concocted some excuse for not taking to the skies. Lindbergh grew
frustrated; a flight instructor who doesn't like to fly was not the best
teacher. Moreover, Biff Biffle was the only flight instructor at Ray
Page's School. To make matters worse, the school's only training plane was
being sold.
The man buying Ray Page's plane was Erold Bahl, a no-nonsense aviator
determined to make flying a respectable profession. In 1922, aviation was still
in its infancy and was regarded by most with a mixture of awe and suspicion.
The practice of "barnstorming" had been devised to impress people with the
skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes. The name derived from the fact
that these air shows took place in open rural fields. Barnstormers would fly
over a region and drop leaflets down upon the locals announcing when the next
air exhibition would take place. Daredevil stunts were promised, as were
five-dollar plane rides. "Slim" Lindbergh was hired by Erold Bahl as an
assistant. As a promotional stunt, Lindbergh volunteered to climb out onto the
wing and wave to the crowds below. This practice was known as wing-walking.
Lindbergh soon determined that in addition to wing-walking, he wanted to learn
the then novel practice of parachute jumping. For years, he had been tormented
by nightmares of falling from a great height. Parachuting, he was certain,
would allow him to face down that fear. For instruction, he went to Charles
Hardin, who, along with his wife Kathryn, designed and demonstrated parachutes.
On his very first attempt, Lindbergh barely, but successfully, pulled off a
"double-jump." This stunt involved wearing two parachutes, attached to each
other. After the first chute opened it was cut off, allowing the jumper to
free-fall. Then, the second chute would burst open just before the jumper
slammed into the ground. The crowds loved it. Hardin taught Lindbergh all the
finer points of parachuting, including how to land in almost any condition and
avoid injury. It was a skill that would serve Lindbergh well throughout his
life as an aviator.
Lindbergh's reputation on the barnstorming circuit grew when he teamed up with
Harold J. "Shorty" Lynch in the summer of 1922. During a four-month tour of
Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Montana, Lindbergh did a little of everything:
parachute jumping, wing-walking, and mechanics. Leaflets rained down on small
towns and rural hamlets announcing that "Daredevil Lindbergh" was going to be
in the area. Crowds were entranced as Lindbergh stood on a plane's wings as it
did a loop-to-loop, or hung from its underside, seemingly, by his teeth alone.
As the months wore on, however, Lindbergh decided he wanted to be the one
flying the plane, not just performing the stunts. In April 1923, he purchased
his first plane: a World War I surplus Curtiss JN-4D, or "Jenny." The fact that
he had never flown a Jenny before, or soloed in any plane, for that matter,
didn't dent his confidence.
The Jenny was considered a light and maneuverable plane. But it also had a
reputation for being under-powered and slow. And, to make matters more
interesting for the pilot, it had no brakes. To make up for the Jenny's
shortcomings, Lindbergh was forced to develop exemplary piloting skills. As a
stunt flyer, Lindbergh soon mastered the whole routine: barrelrolls, spins, and
dives. His mother, Evangeline, accompanied him on a ten-day barnstorming tour,
dropping leaflets out of the cockpit as Lindbergh buzzed the fields and towns
below. Barnstorming, while exciting and glamorous, proved to be a difficult way
to make a living. To make ends meet, Lindbergh was forced to take jobs as a
flying instructor, handyman, and gas station attendant. By 1924, Lindbergh was
looking for other ways to put his flying skills to use.
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