Clyde Pangborne, of Pangborne and Herndon fame, the two flyers who were
first to fly non-stop from Japan to America over the Pacific Ocean, and
also of Pangborne and Turner fame, the flying team that won third place
in the London-Australia Air Derby in 1934, was operations manager for
the famous Gate's Flying Circus for many years. He flew into Lewiston,
Mont., in October, 1923, with his aerial circus. He had a contract with
the fair association of that town, giving him exclusive rights to all
the passenger carrying and flying to be done at the local fair then in
progress.
He landed an hour before he was supposed to put on his first performance
of stunting, wing-walking and parachute jumping, the preliminary
crowd-attracting procedure before the money-making of passenger
carrying, which was one of the attractions the fair had advertised. He
found another pilot and plane, with chute jumper, there ahead of him,
all set to do business in his place.
Pangborne told the other pilot to get out. The other pilot said, "So
what?" Pangborne said: "I got a contract, and I'm going to town to see
about it."
He went to town and told the fair association about it. He said he would
sue the city if they didn't get that other guy and his chute jumper off
the field by the time he was ready to put on his exhibition.
The fair association went out to the field. They got hold of the other
pilot and his chute jumper. They reminded the pilot that he had flown
out of that field the previous year, and, in departing, had overlooked
the small matter of paying a certain amount of rent he had agreed to pay
for the field. They told him to get out or go to jail by four o'clock
that afternoon.
It was a conclusive argument. The pilot cranked his ship, got in his
cockpit, called to his chute jumper, a long, slim, gangling kid who was
obviously disappointed at the turn affairs had taken, because he had
been all set to have some fun jumping that day, and took off.
The chute jumper was Charles Augustus Lindbergh, who had not yet learned
to fly.