1. Byron B. Freeland

Mr. Freeland, manager of the Red Cross Pharmacy, learned aviation during the late war, when he served in the marine corps in France. Since then, he has kept up an active interest in flying, using the air route for business trips whenever feasible. He became president of the Miami Airport Association when it was organized three years ago and helped form the municipal aviation board. He is connected with the marine reserve at Quantico field, near Washington. He has been influential in promoting all major civic aviation projects.

2. Ervin E. Ballough

Rain, wind or sun–it makes little difference to Ervin Edward Ballough, air mail pilot for Pitcairn Aviation, Inc., as he starts out on his daily run between Miami and Daytona Beach. His steel gray air mail plane looms out of the sky like a bird, with its lone pilot at the controls; neither helmet nor goggles protect him from the elements, and only his head can be seen above the cockpit. He is required to ride with a parachute strapped to him, and this is his only encumbrance. Mr. Ballough has been pilot for Pitcairn since last January, shortly after the corporation contracted to deliver mail for the United States government. He started flying in 1917 with the Royal Flying Corps of Great Britain. He was associated with Vernon Castle, the famous dancer-flier, at Fort Worth, Texas, in the same squadron, at the time of Mr. Castle’s fatal accident. Later he became associated with L. Bamberger & Co., Newark, N. J., and made the first take-off and landing from the roof of the large store. He was with the Curtiss Northwest Airplane Company in Minneapolis for some time, and later with the E. M. Land Airplane Company in Chicago. Last year during the All-American Air Meet in Miami, Mr. Ballough was winner of several races. He also won two second places in the Transcontinental air race several years ago.

3. Ed Musick

Although rated as one of the five outstanding aviators in the country, Edwin Musick, chief pilot of Pan-American Airways, is modest and unassuming. That he thinks clearly and concisely, and that his sizing up of a situation or a man is accurate, one knows instantly upon meeting him. He has been concerned with aviation for 16 years, ever since in 1913 he began flying in a homemade machine built by himself and several other boys.

The final check of pilots employed by the Pan-American Airways rests with Captain Musick, who makes constant, supervisory contact with all pilots along the Pan-American Airways system. Although greatly interested in his vocation, he never brings up the subject of his own accord. Current events and international news comes to him as topics of conversation more easily than talk of airplanes. Captain Musick has flown over all parts of Florida, and is reported to know by heart almost every inch of the state, the Bahamas, the West Indies and Central America. He piloted the first Pan-American airliner over the Miami-Havana line September 25, 1928, and also the first airliner over the Miami-West Indies route to Porto Rico on January 9, 1929.

The young chief pilot has been associated with the Pan-American corporation more than two years, having made his first run in October 1927, from Key West to Havana. He averages two trips to Santiago and five to Havana each month, and in addition makes special runs. His start at flying was made in Los Angeles. Later he became civilian Instructor for the Army, having been at San Diego, Calif., and Wichita Falls, Texas. He served as second lieutenant in the marine corps during the World War, and was associated with the Aero-Marine Airways, Inc., for five years. During the Sesqui-Centennial exposition in Philadelphia, he did flying for the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company.

4. Percy Henry

Percy Henry, pilot instructor for Curtis Flying Service, Inc., is from Louisville, Ky. He has been with the Curtiss organization three months. Before that he had been flying from various places, having started during the war in 1918. He was a member of the divisional wing which was supposed to have been the first flying unit to go abroad intact, but which never was sent across. For years he operated his own flying outfit at Louisville. “To breed conservatism and forget stunt flying,” said Mr. Henry, “is the underlying principle in teaching aviation students.” Mr. Henry returned recently from the Curtiss Instruction school at Grosse Isle, Mich., where he spent several months in compliance with Company’s plan of giving a standardized method of training in all of its schools over the country. Each instructor goes to the school annually for instruction.

5. A. B. Chalk

Only six years after the Wright brothers made their first successful long-distance flight, and at the time when airplanes were still considered an uncertain experiment, A. B. Chalk of A.B. Chalk School of Aviation at the county causeway, started flying. He is one of the oldest pilots in the country in point of service. Operating a garage at Paducah, Ky., in 1911, the task of helping repair the plane of Tony Geneus of St. Louis was brought to him. It was equipped with a 6-cylinder, 2-cycle Roberts motor. The St. Louis aviator taught the young mechanic to operate his plane and since that time Mr. Chalk has been actively engaged in flying. He served in the marine corps in 1916 and 1917 and in 1918 went into commercial business in Miami with headquarters at what is now Bayshore Drive, between Royal Palm Hotel and Flagler Street. This was before the bay had been filled at that point. When the county causeway to Miami Beach was built, he moved his headquarters to the bend, where it remains. During the recent storm he put his airplane in the hangar at Fort Lauderdale and took off immediately afterward for Key West with 450 pounds of yeast for the bakers of that city, who were without means to make their bread. Mr. Chalk and his nephew, Carson Chalk, recently completed a four month tour of the country, during which they covered 35,000 miles. From Miami to St. Louis they flew two planes equipped with pontoons for water landing, and at St. Louis they changed to landing gear. Mr. Chalk has a record of approximately 5,000 hours in the air.

6. Robert H. Fatt, Jr.

Probably no man in the employ of Pan-American Airways Company is more enthusiastic about the organization and about the possibilities of aviation as a safe means of transportation than Robert H. Fatt, Jr., pilot on the Miami-Havana-Santiago run. Captain Fatt left the employ of an organization out of the state to come with Pan-American because he wanted to fly with the “world’s safest airplane.” “Experience,” says Mr. Fatt, “is the only thing that can qualify a flier as safe. It takes experience, hours of it, to learn when weather conditions are suitable for flying, and when a flight should not be attempted. There are few deaths that have occurred in the daytime from flying which were not due to the inexperience of the pilot.” Mr. Fatt is one of five governors of the National Air Pilots’ Association. Other governors are located at Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Dallas. The organization is not of a social nature, but is for the benefit and promotion of aviators’ welfare. Originally only government air mail pilots belonged, but two years ago the membership was changed to include any licensed flyer, and practically all pilots of recognized ability are members.

Mr. Fatt has done more than 1,000 hours of night flying. Its safety, he declares, depends entirely upon the equipment. He has piloted a plane for more than 5,000 hours, and more than 3,500 of this was scheduled flying over an organized route. While employed by the National Air Transport Company he was the first to fly with air mail from Kansas City to Chicago, a route that has since become one of the most important in the country. Captain Fatt has the distinction of having made the first non-stop flight from San Francisco to Seattle. This was at the time of the round-the-world flight, when Major Martin and his party were lost in Alaska. He flew overnight in a specially built plane from San Francisco to be put on the revenue cutter Bare at Seattle, which, with its crew and a pilot for the plane, was leaving at daylight for Alaska to search for the lost party.

During his career as a pilot, Captain Fatt has won trophies of various kinds. Captain Fatt was the eighteenth commercial pilot licensed by the United States Department of Commerce. He started flying in 1918 and served as aviation instructor at various government posts. Although not superstitious, Captain Fatt has had experience with the number 13 which by many people would have been considered a warning to be careful of the combination. A mechanic on a field from which Captain Fatt was flying had been killed and was buried on Friday the thirteenth. On the same Friday the thirteenth, from the same field, Captain Fatt made his thirteenth take-off and thirteenth landing, in spite of the urging of other pilots and mechanics at the field, who advised him not to fly that day. There was no accident.

7. Robert J. Moore

One of the first commercial aviators in Miami to own and operate a plane was Robert J. Moore, who with Harry Rodgers owned the Miss Miami. For nine years Mr. Moore has taken passengers to various points around and out of the state, to Nassau and Havana, and on charter expeditions, being associated with Mr. Rogers in the Rogers Air Line. The company was absorbed a year ago by the New York Suburban Railways, and this in turn was taken over by the Curtiss Air Service, to which Mr. Moore was transferred as a pilot. He pilots a seaplane, taking off from the seaplane base in Biscayne Boulevard. Starting as ambulance driver for the Red Cross in France during the late war, Mr. Moore transferred to the aviation service and flew with the Lafayette Flying corps from 1916 to 1918, until he received a saber wound, which detained him in a hospital in France for more than a year. The thrilling experiences that have been his would fill many pages. Previous to the war, he participated in end won a number of automobile races.

7. Ed Nirmaier

Seaplane flying is a specialty of Ed Nirmaier, familiarly known as “Eddie.” Mr. Nirmaier has lived in south Florida for a good many years and is thoroughly acquainted with the subject of aviation in this state. He is general sales manager, test pilot and demonstrator for the Miami Aircraft Corporation, organized last March, which has produced one plane, the Miami Maid, and has a second one nearing completion. To Mr. Nirmaier belongs the honor of piloting the first Miami-made plane. The plane, now the property of Col. E. H. R. Green of Star Island, Miami Beach, is at the owner’s summer home, Round Hill, at New Bedford, Mass., where Colonel Green is building an airport at the cost of $1.500,000. Mrs. Green, after taking her first air ride in the Miami machine, liked it so well that Colonel Green purchased it for her, and Mr. Nirmaier spent some time with the Greens recently as pilot and instructor for her. He expects to take the second plane to Round Hill for Mrs. Green’s use. “Construction of seaplanes has been neglected because of their greater cost in building and operation, but attention is being turned to them, especially in the Miami district,” Mr. Nirmaier said. “There is a great demand for seaplanes and seaplane pilots. With 1,200 miles of coastline in Florida alone, pilots of seaplanes need have no worry about a landing field, because practically all of the 1,200 miles is suitable for landing. In addition there are numerous lakes and streams ideal for landing and absolutely safe. Even between Miami and New York there is less than 100 miles of open sea for the pilot to cross.”

Mr. Nirmaier spent two years abroad during the World War, having been a member of the first naval aeronautic detachment to cross the ocean. This detachment was the first body of Americans to land in France. He served as instructor throughout the time he was stationed in France. After the war he came back to Pensacola, serving as Navy aerial instructor there. Later he flew the air mail line out of New Orleans to outgoing ships on the Gulf of Mexico. In Miami he was associated with the Biscayne Fliers and more lately with the Curtiss Air Service Inc. He is married and has two children, Edwina and Buddy. He is a native of Cleveland, Ohio.

8. L. W. Botts

Night flying in the days before airfields were lighted for incoming planes, when even the instrument boards were not lighted, was not a safe process. It was under such conditions in 1917, the “dark ages” of aviation, that L. W. Botts began flying. Mr. Botts is vice president and general manager of the Curtiss Flying Service of Florida, having held this position for the last year and a half. He has a record of more than 1,000 hours in the air. With all this, he prefers to be known simply as a “pilot who gets there and gets back,” a reputation to which he is justly entitled. Chiefly he is concerned with administration matters of his company, but he makes frequent trips North, piloting the plane himself. Until last fall he was engaged in regular flying. He is an ex-army pilot, having served as instructor at Brooks Field, San Antonio, Texas. He has flown all types of planes and has no preference as to type of equipment.

One of the projects of the Curtiss Flying Service contemplated for this winter is a ground school to teach the theories of flight and affiliated subjects, a knowledge of which is required by the United States Department of Commerce for a flying license. Increased equipment for charter flights and for the enlarging of student enrollment at the Curtiss Flying school will be added this winter, according to Mr. Botts. A new hangar, under construction at the municipal airport, will be operation headquarters for the Curtiss organization in Florida.

9. Harry Rogers

For 12 years Harry Rogers has been piloting airplanes out of Miami. During that time he has carried more than 10,000 passengers and never has had an accident. He is the pioneer commercial aviator operating directly out of Miami and his activities have included a number of searching trips for persons lost at sea. Several prominent Miamians, stranded in the ocean, have been discovered by Mr. Rogers or by searchers in his planes. The first one day trip from Miami to New York was made by Mr. Rogers several years ago, when he delivered a morning edition of The Miami Herald in the Northern city the same night.

Two months ago, Mr. Rogers became associated with the Curtiss Flying Service, Inc., as operations manager of the marine division. Until that time, he had operated the Rogers Air Line from the bayshore stand at 734 Biscayne Boulevard, which he organized nine years ago. For three years before that he had been associated with the Aero Limited, flying from the bay field at the same location. The first commercial airplane to enter Nassau was piloted by Mr. Rogers in 1921 for the Aero Limited. The first commercial line to run to Havana out of Miami was organized by the same company, and Mr. Rogers piloted the first plane of the schedule.

Mr. Rogers began flying in 1917. At that time, he was a member of the naval militia. He became an aviation instructor and was located at Bay Shore, Long Island, N. Y. Mr. Rogers is married and has a daughter, Blossom Rogers.

10. J. E. Yonge

Mr. Yonge has had much the same experience as Mr. Freeland. Since coming to Miami 12 years ago from Tallahassee, he has practiced law. During the war he started as a cadet in the American air services and was assigned to the French air division for training, later transferred to the American army, first in the bombing unit and then in the pursuit service. He is still in the reserve department, attached to the squadron at Maxwell Field. Montgomery, Ala. He is chairman of the municipal aviation board and vice president of the Miami Airport Association. It was largely through Mr. Yonge’s efforts that the municipal aviation board was organized. Its incentive was due to complaints of guests old Royal Palm Hotel, who claimed the airplanes flying over the city disturbed them. The board was formed to provide regulations for pilots flying over the city.

11. C. D. Swinson

Capt. C. D. Swinson has served as pilot for the Pan-American Airways Company for the last year and eight months, being on the regular Miami-Santiago run. During the last four months he has piloted three new planes from Detroit to Pan-American Grace Airways in South America, and four to Miami, making the trip in each instance by way of New York.

Captain Swinson first drove a plane during the World War in April 1918, one week after he had taken his first air ride. Like many other successful pilots, it was the late war that prompted him to take up flying as a vocation. One of Captain Swinson’s most famous passengers was Mrs. Evangeline Lindbergh, who took her first night flight September 12, 1927, with Captain Swinson at the controls. The trip was made for the Stout Air Services from Grand Rapids to Detroit, where Mrs. Lindbergh met her son during his tour of the United States following his record-breaking flight, across the Atlantic.

Piloting a plane longer brings a thrill to Captain Swinson. “It’s just another day’s work.” he explains. Captain Swinson has piloted a plane 240,000 miles, making a total of 2400 hours of scheduled airline flying without accident. During his 11 years of flying, Captain Swinson has made trips over 13 countries. Flying over volcanos and long stretches of water is a part of his regular routine. The first passenger airline ever inaugurated, that of the Stout Air Services from Detroit to Grand Rapids, a one-and-one-half hour trip, was entrusted to Captain Swinson to pilot. This was August 1, 1926. He remained with the Stout organization for 18 months. Previous to that, he had done short-trip flying for Burns Fliers, Fenton, Mich. He was in the United States air service 14 months, and was staff instructor at Langley Field during part of the time.

12. Wallace Culbertson

Captain Culbertson, Pan-American Airways pilot, has been a Miamian 31 years. He is 32 years old. He was one of the first local men to become interested in flying, and that interest has not flagged but rather has increased in recent years. He was one of the organizers of the municipal aviation board formed in 1921 and served as chairman for three years. Since its organization the aviation board has planned for a large naval aviation base within a short distance from downtown Miami. The present airport was constructed as a temporary measure to take care of the planes now arriving, and, according to Mr. Culbertson, will be used for an instruction and experimental field when another can be built. A fill connecting with Virginia Key, directly east of Miami, according to Mr. Culbertson, would be a suitable site for a municipal port. A bridge would connect this with the mainland.

Mr. Culbertson lives in the old W. W. Culbertson home, 2461 S. Bayshore drive. He is married and has one son, Tingle Culbertson. He is one of a family of pioneer settlers in Miami who have been closely connected with the city’s development for many years. Just before the United States entered the World War, Mr. Culbertson took instruction in flying at the Curtiss school at Hialeah, and later during the war, served in the marine corps as instructor at Mineola, Long Island, and Wichita Falls, Texas. Previous to that he had attended Belmont University at Belmont, N.C. and the University of Kentucky at Lexington, Ky. During 1925, 1926 and 1927 he was supervising engineer for the city of Miami. He has been pilot for the Pan-American organization for eight months.

14. Basil Rowe

Probably no pilot in the Miami area is better acquainted with flying in the West Indies than Basil Rowe, pilot for Pan-American Airways. Inc. Captain Rowe took a barnstorming outfit of two planes to the West Indies in 1919. Several years later he sold this to the West Indian Air Express which organized the first air mail and passenger line through the West Indies. He was chief pilot for this company for 15 months, until it was taken over by Pan-American, with which he has been connected for more than a year. During the war, Mr. Rowe served as instructor at Rich Field, Waco, Texas, and at Weaver Field, Osseo, Minn. With 6,200 hours in the air, 19,000 landings and 430,000 miles flown, Captain Rowe has a record few aviators can surpass. He won first honors in the opening event of the National Air Races at the Sesquicentennial exposition In Philadelphia three years ago, and in October of the previous year he won first at the national air races at Mitchell Field, Long Island. He won one first and two second prizes at the National Air Congress at Wichita Kans., in 1924, and received the Aviation Town and Country Club trophy at the International Air Races at Dayton, Ohio, in 1925. He piloted the first plane to land on the historic West Indian island of Santa Cruz, the largest of the Virgin group. This was on February 14, 1928.

15. William Van R. O’Brien

William Van R. O’Brien, instructor, chief pilot and field manager of Curtiss Flying Service, Inc., with headquarters at the municipal airport, has taught and graduated 150 students since last fall. “Women can learn to pilot a plane as easily as a man,” Mr. O’Brien said. There is no process in the manipulation of a plane which calls for special strength. Common sense is the basic requirement.
“At present there is one young woman student taking lessons at the Curtiss school in Miami. The average age of the persons applying for instruction in flying is between 25 and 30. They come from all ranks of life, including vice presidents of banks, mail clerks and traffic cops.” Landings are the most difficult to learn. From 7 to 10 hours of flying instructions precede the student’s solo. He is then taught to fly straight and level, to make turns with power, climbing turns, gliding turns, normal climb and normal glide, take-off and landings. Stalls and spins also are taught. To obtain a private pilot’s license, the department of commerce requires 18 hours in the air, 10 of which must be solo. For a limited commercial pilot’s license, 50 hours is required. Mr. O’Brien returned recently from the Curtiss instruction school at Gross Isle, Mich., just out of Detroit. He was associated with the Curtiss organization in Portland, Me. and in New York before coming to Miami.