Page:The Fun of It.pdf/218

182 Long Island. The record shows that her instruc­tion covered thirty-three lessons with a little more than four and a half hours in the air. Shortly after she soloed, the Moisant flyers went on a tour of Mexico and America, but Harriett Quimby chose other worlds to conquer.

In 1909 Bleriot had flown the English Channel for the first time, and the feat evidently appealed to Miss Quimby as a mark to shoot for. At all events, on April 12, 1912, she crossed the English Channel from Deal, England, to Epihen, France, in her Bleriot monoplane. Hers was the first cross­ing by a woman, and probably the most perilous heavier than air flight up to that time attempted by a feminine pilot.

On this flight Harriett Quimby had an experi­ence in fog flying. When she took off the visibility near the ground was poor but for safety’s sake she wanted to fly high. Therefore, she plowed through to sunlight on the top of a layer of clouds at 6000 feet. Fortunately she had a compass and by fol­lowing it managed to reach the opposite shore with­ out being able to see it on the way across.

In appraising this fine feminine feat it must be remembered the pilot had no parachute and none of the instruments known today. Besides such lack, her plane and engine were far inferior in many ways to those in the air today.

I have seen pictures showing Harriett Quimby as she dressed the day of that flight and on others too. Extraordinary clothes! There was as much