Read an Excerpt
THE SPIRIT'S JOURNEY
By Dave McKenzie
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Dave McKenzie
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-7221-6
Chapter One
PART I GEORGE DEWEY MCKENZIE
The family of the youngest child of John Duncan McKenzie and Ollie English who was twelve or thirteen years younger than John included the two older brothers and three older sisters by his father's first and second wives and all of them grew up on West 10th Street in Laurel, Mississippi. Ollie and John did have one other child together that died in infancy prior to Dewey's birth. That might explain why Dewey was raised in a manner that later resulted in his being described as a "spoiled brat".
George Dewey McKenzie quit high school when he was sixteen years old and entered the work force probably to satisfy his interest in vehicles that were self propelled. He had been driving automobiles since being twelve years old and it isn't known when he started riding motorcycles which he called, "motorsickles". Incidentally, when challenged about the correct pronunciation of the vehicle's name he'd ask, "Did you give your daughter/son a bicycle or a bysickle?"
His additional schooling was both the "hard knock" variety and some formal training. The night school mechanic's class instructor who taught him how to, "pour a bearing" in an engine block was Ray Harroun, the winner of the first Indianapolis 500 automobile race in 1911 driving a Marmon Wasp automobile.
Sometime in 1925 Dewey and his father, John had a familial disagreement and John evicted his son from the home. With no place to live he left Laurel and joined his next older brother who was the maintenance foreman at the Royster Fertilizer Company plant in Savannah, Georgia.
His brother had met, fallen in love with, and married a nurse he'd met in France during World War I who had a daughter slightly younger than Dewey from a previous marriage. The, "French Nurse's" daughter and Dewey married.
One afternoon Dewey's older brother arrived home after working late and found his supervisor in bed with his wife, the "French nurse". He responded by fatally shooting his supervisor and the ensuing legal battle for his freedom which his father helped support financially was monetarily devastating to both families. That was probably the source of the pressures that ultimately led to the dissolution of the union of the sixteen year old, Alma and the nineteen year old, Dewey.
After moving to Miami, Florida he was a mechanic at the, "Yellow Cab Company" for a short time. Then Dewey moved on to Meridian, Mississippi probably because his oldest brother was there and found employment as an automobile mechanic. That led to his being called to the local airport one Sunday morning in 1926 to repair the magneto on an airplane. The compensation he was given for the repair was a ride in the airplane.
Chapter Two
PART II THE BUG BIT
Today on the east side of Meridian U.S. Highway 11 splits into the, "bypass" that goes south around the city and the "old road" leads straight ahead into the city. That intersection is at the approximate location of the northeast corner of Meridian's first airport, "Bonita Field" which was the base of operations of the, "Key Brothers' Flying Service" when they went into business and it was the airport where Dewey first touched an airplane. He went there to take flying lessons and soloed in six hours flying a Standard J-1 biplane. He later said that "when he soloed and taxied back to the office the operator ran out and said, "Don't shut the engine down. I have a passenger for you to take for a ride." He gave the man his ride and was given his first student to teach to fly when he had thirty hours total flying time in the Standard J-1 airplane.
A gentleman in Americus, Georgia, John Wyke had purchased an unknown number of Curtiss JN4-D biplanes from the U.S. Government on the surplus market after World War I concluded and then offered those airplanes for sale to civilians. The airplane is commonly known as the, "Jenny." Charles Lindbergh purchased his first airplane there. Dewey, who may have begun to use the nickname, "Mac" by that time has said, "You could go to Americus, give the man a hundred bucks and he'd help you uncrate a, "Jenny" of your choice and assist you in assembling it. You'd take the valve action off the engine and replace it with your own, "Miller" valve action and you had a brand new airplane to start the barnstorming season with. An OX-5 engine had a life expectancy of about a hundred hours provided you took real good care of it and by that time the airplane would be so "beat up" that it was junk. One hundred hours was about all the barnstorming you could do in a season so, you'd remove the Miller valve action, junk the airplane, winter in somewhere, and the next spring you'd catch a train and carrying your "Miller" valve action go back to Americus."
The Miller valve action had one shaft per cylinder bank that all of the valve rocker arms pivoted on and the zerk fitting for greasing the assembly was located on the end of the shaft. The standard valve operating mechanism on the OX-5 had a grease fitting on each rocker arm. That amounts to two valves per cylinder multiplied by eight cylinders equaling sixteen rockers to be lubricated which "Mac" said, "Had to be done at the end of each day so that you'd be ready for the next day's flying". It is believed that Mac wore out three of the, "Jennies".
At one time, Mac was a smoker. That is he was addicted to the inhaling of smoke from burning tobacco wrapped in paper. It was a habit that he quit in 1935 or '36 and passionately hated for the rest of his life. He claimed that the barnstormer's other duty at the end of the day required that he lay his "Taylor Cigarette Rolling Machine" on the top surface of a lower wing along with the required supply of cigarette papers and tobacco supply and roll the next day's supply of, "smokes". After all, no aviator should appear to be so poor that he had to "roll his own" and if asked what brand he smoked his response was, "Taylormade."
Another standard joke was to respond to the question, "Are you married?" by answering, "Hold on, let me check the map".
The inquirer would always ask, "What's that have to do with it"?
"Depends on how far I'm from home"
There was some "rebel" in his psyche. He refused to "log" that is maintain a record of his flying time therefore, it isn't known when he flew what, where, or how long it required. He did mention owning and/or flying the Detroit Parks, Lincoln-Paige, Curtis Robin, Waco 10, Waco GXE, Curtis Jenny, American Eagle, Swallow, Commandaire, Travelaire, Standard J-1, Aeronca C-3, Aeronca K, Ford Tri-motor, Fairchild 24, PT-19, PT-26, Stinson 108, Stinson 10, Taylorcraft, Piper/ Taylor E-2, Piper J-3, Luscombe 8-A, Brunner-Winkle Bird, Meyers OTW, Waco UPF-7, Ercoupe, Great Lakes, Cessna 150, 172, 170, Barling, and the list goes on seemingly endlessly with at least one story accompanying each one of them.
By 1930 Dewey (the populace in Laurel never knew him as "Mac") was one of the pilots at "Stump Field" located at Laurel, Mississippi along with Max Holerfield, Pat Mulloy, Alton Hesler, and James Daniels. Dewey McKenzie and Max Holerfield had a contract with the Mississippi State Fair touring from town to town in the state performing one-week stands. They were the, "Flying Circus" part of the fair. The fair did not list them on the payroll and only supported them by listing them in advertisements and usually making arrangements with property owners close to the Fair Grounds in each community for the "Air Circus" to use their cow pasture, cotton field, or whatever for an airport during the fair. It is believed that this arrangement was consummated for three consecutive years. The "modus-operandi" was to perform an air show each day to attract a crowd that they would attempt to sell rides to after the exhibition flights were completed. That was their only source of income and they have said that some days they sold absolutely no rides and then on others they couldn't haul all the passengers.
There is no way to know the date and location of the attempt by Max and Pat to announce the arrival of the State Fair and its accompanying troupe of daring, appealing, handsome, financially blessed, suave, charming, accomplished, and worldly wise aviators with their sophisticated modern airplanes powered by proven, reliable, dependable, and powerful engines but, they had arrived at one community and as usual one airplane was making their arrival noticeable to the residents of the community by flying low over town.
Max was flying the airplane and Pat was in the front seat, their usual positions, and Dewey waited in the cow pasture that was going to be the, "airport" for the week for the results of the inaugural flight over the town.
After arriving over the town Pat climbed out of the front seat and worked his way out to the interplane struts between the lower and upper wings as Max flew around above the community. As they continued the operation, Pat climbed down to the spreader bar between the wheels and sat down. It should be noted that the performance was being executed prior to the installation of zippers on coveralls. (Dewey, for all of his life called them, "rompers".) Pat was sitting behind the propeller and the blast of air flowing rearward from it combined with the air flow generated by the forward movement of the airplane was more airflow than the buttons on the coveralls could tolerate. The "rompers" opened down the front and the air blast inflated them like a balloon. Every time Pat succeeded in buttoning one fastener and released it to button the next one the button that was previously closed would blow open. He couldn't climb back up to the lower wing and then into the front cockpit with his "rompers" inflated and creating the aerodynamic drag that they would generate so, he proceeded to remove them.
Of course, Max couldn't see Pat on the landing gear below the fuselage from his position in the rear seat so; he didn't realize that Pat was in trouble. He just wondered why Pat was remaining down there so long. He could see people on the ground coming out of stores, stopping cars, exiting their homes, looking up, waving, and exchanging stares with each other. He thought, "Business is going to be good".
Pat had removed his coveralls and remained seated on the spreader bar while trying to figure out how to hold onto his, "rompers" while climbing back to the cockpit dressed only in his drawers, and socks. Max had continued to fly around over the town with the nearly nude wing walker on the landing gear until Pat finally succeeded in climbing back to the lower wing.
It is not known what was thought, reported, or to what authorities, by curious onlookers, representatives of the local churches, the local gendarmes, or potential paying passengers but, no one or anything was injured physically.
Max was illiterate and gave the impression that he was not sophisticated or refined but, barnstorming pilots didn't have much contact with their passengers. Max raced "motorsickles" professionally until he was fifty-five years old and was never seriously injured.
Pat Mulloy on the other hand was from an established family who were also financially successful and never attempted to make aviation his career and yet, he was very accomplished and known internationally in later years for his achievements flying sailplanes.
Alton Hesler worked as a mechanic in various automobile and truck garages around Laurel, he became an accomplished pilot and aircraft mechanic, and was later the co-owner of Hesler-Noble Flying Service in Laurel at the airport now serving the community which grew from the original "Stump Field" and is now named, "Hesler-Noble Airport".
James Daniels was a professional pilot for the duration of his life who participated in some short barnstorming trips with Dewey and is probably best remembered for landing an airplane on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.
James, Dewey, and other pilots in the Southern Mississippi and Louisiana area had met at the new airport beside Lake Pontchartrain and north of the city of New Orleans to participate in the dedication and opening of the airport named, "Shushan Field" on February 10, 1934. Shushan Field is now named, New Orleans Lakefront. Of course, the objective James, Dewey, and the rest of them had was to haul passengers for their financial benefit.
James Daniels had apparently flown down from Laurel sometime during the preceding week because he had sold a sight seeing flight over New Orleans to a customer prior to the arrival of the other pilots.
During the flight he experienced an engine failure and selected Canal Street as the site for the ensuing forced landing which was successful. He got out of the airplane, opened the engine cowling and was making the necessary repair when the city officials arrived, offered their sympathy and assistance, and when he had completed the repair, blocked traffic for his takeoff and return to the airport.
Not much time was required for the story to circulate around the airport and as should be expected there were those on the airport who questioned the possibility of such an event ever occurring. The world wide financial depression was at its worst and James Daniels recognized the opportunity for a financial realignment. Specifically, "Change their money into mine". Wagers were offered on the feasibility of landing on Canal Street.
After the airport dedication was completed James Daniels took off, flew over downtown New Orleans, closed the throttle, landed on Canal Street, got out, and opened the cowling.
The city officials and gendarmes, after noting that this was the second time in less than a week that this pilot landed on Canal Street, refused to give his assertion of it being an emergency very much credibility. In their generosity they offered him overnight lodging in the local calaboose and insisted that he accept the offer of their hospitality however, once they got him in it they did not seem to appreciate him contaminating their calaboose. He was soon released and they blocked the traffic as he flew out after intently listening to their admonitions to stop landing on Canal Street.
One of the other airplanes flown at the airport dedication that weekend was a Curtiss Robin owned by the writer, William Faulkner of Oxford, Mississippi. That airplane was used in 1933, '34, and '35 as the refueling plane for the Key brother's endurance flights at Meridian, Mississippi. The pilot for the, "refueler/service" plane was Jim Keaton who later became a Captain for American Airlines and lived in Foley, Alabama after his retirement.
William Faulkner wrote a novel based on that airport dedication entitled, "Pylon" that the movie released in 1958 named "The Tarnished Angels" starring Dorothy Malone, Robert Stack, and Rock Hudson was based upon.
Prior to the outbreak of World War II James Daniels went to Canada, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, was stationed in England, ferried aircraft until, in self defense, he shot down a German fighter. He was then transferred to combat duty. After World War II he returned to Mississippi and it is believed that he was overcome by the vapors coming from the dust hopper of a "duster" that he was flying and was fatally injured in the resulting accident.
While operating as the South Mississippi State Air Circus Dewey and Max once spent a week at Bassfield, Mississippi and on the final day at that location a prospective passenger arrived early in the morning so, Max was taking him for a ride in weather conditions that were nearly perfect and with no wind. Of course, there was no agreement between Dewey and Max on the selection of the, "calm wind runway" so, Dewey watched Max leave taking off toward the end of the runway that had the power lines crossing it. He expected Max to approach for landing from the other end in the calm conditions so that he didn't have to cross the obstruction caused by the power line.
Dewey has said, "If you ever get lost in an airplane simply select a power line and follow it. It'll eventually lead you past the end of a runway. Also, the only pilot who's never been lost is the one who's never gone anywhere."
Another, "paying passenger" arrived and Dewey, "converted his money from, "his to mine", loaded him into the airplane, a "Command-Aire" and took off. After his take off another passenger appeared and Max departed taking off in the opposite direction from the one Dewey had selected.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE SPIRIT'S JOURNEY by Dave McKenzie Copyright © 2011 by Dave McKenzie. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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