|
Apparently the only water facility for landing there was a nearby river and Lieutenant Geiger found the area was not suitable for an airdrome site. After further investigation, he
selected Fort Kamehameha on the east side of the narrow entrance to Pearl Harbor where both land and sea flights could be made, weather permitting. It took four days before
part of the equipment could be moved from the engineers wharf at Fort Kamehameha to the station site less than one-half mile away. Other equipment, which came by rail to
Puuloa Train Station, two miles from the fort, sat for days until a truck could be commandeered to move it to the station site. After considerable difficulty, on July 17, 1913 a tent
encampment was established and the camp was officially designated Signal Corps Aviation Station, Fort Kamehameha. Lieutenant Geiger lived at the fort and the enlisted men
stayed with a nearby coast artillery company. It was not until late July, 1913 that assembly of the two planes began and on Friday, August 1, 1913, S.C. No. 8 was declared ready for use. In order to put the plane into the water it had to be pushed on a small cart over the tidal flats "a distance of fully one-quarter mile." Taxi tests were conducted on the water that day for about ten minutes but no flight was attempted. Lieutenant Geiger decided to attempt a flight the next day, but the pontoon was damaged while pushing the plane over the rough coral flats. It had to be taken back to the hanger to replace the damaged pontoon with a spare. A little after 7am on a warm Friday morning, August 8, 1913, Lieutenant Geiger made aviation history by making the first airplane flight in Hawaii in S.C. No. 8. The 75 horsepower eight-cylinder Curtiss motor sputtered and backfired as the plane bobbed like a cork on its signle pontoon in the middle of the channel entrance to Pearl Harbor. Lieutenant Geiger opened the throttle and turned the plane east into a 10mph wind. He flew over Pearl Harbor but it was "a short flight with machine No. 8 in order to test the balance of this machine." Lieutenant Geiger described the hazards: "The entrance to Pearl Harbor, (except the channel) is a flat coral reef and the water except at high tide is so shallow that it is extremely dangerous to attempt to rise or land anywhere else than the channel. The presence of buoys, ranges and stakes also increases the danger of rising or landing anywhere than in the channel." Lieutenant Geiger was compelled to land twice while attempting a turn, because of the gusting winds, a condition he had never experienced back at North Island. On August 9, 1913 he flew again, this time with a passenger, to test the balance with two people aboard. Because of the kite-like construction of the plane, flying had to be limited to when there was little or no wind, which only occurred early in the morning. Seven flights were made during the week of August 17 - 24, 1913 for a total of one hour and fifty-four minutes of flying. On August 27, 1913 Lieutenant Geiger flew another passenger. On August 28, 1913, the Curtiss Tractor Scout, S.C. No. 21, was tried out for the first time. He described the flight as a series "of short jumps over the water," which lasted 35 minutes. S.C. No. 21 was an experimental plane that had been in several accidents during its test flights at San Diego in June. Lieutenant Geiger immediately found the main pontoon was weak and the machine flew with one wing low caused by the braces on one side of the wing being short. The twisted wing gave the biplane a tendency to dive in right turns and to over-bank in the opposite direction. In fact, so many things were wrong with it he suggested that he be sent back to the Curtiss factory to tell them how they could improve the plane, but the Signal Corps did not |
|
|