meteorology – Photography, aviation and flight simulation

(The way it was 1929 – 1937)

This is a simple and charming little book retelling the life stories of the pilot Fred Max Roberts Jr when he was flying his airplanes in the Bismark region, North Dakota, between 1929 and 1937. The book was written by his son, Fred Marke Roberts, so that some of his father’s stories do not fall in oblivion. You will find here a good idea of how things were done in the early years of aviation.

An original and easy way of refueling

When came the time to refuel, the pilots would regularly land on a farmer’s field. They knew that somebody had noticed the landing and, most of the time, a fuel truck would be sent without any previous arrangements. The pilot had nonetheless the duty to make sure he landed close to an easy access for the fuel truck. Sometimes, to simplify the refueling process a bit, the pilot landed directly on the road, outside of the city.

This habit did not seem to have change fifty years later when I did a 2650 kilometers cross-country flight with a Cessna 170B, between St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, and Edmonton, Alberta. During the trip, I had to land in a field near Lundar, Manitoba, a Canadian province which is bounded to the south by North Dakota and Minnesota. Soon after the landing, a pick-up truck carrying fuel approached the plane. I had not made any arrangements for fuel. In my case, a precautionary landing was needed as the fuel gauges had started to give false indications. Since fuel was readily available, the tanks were topped before the next takeoff.

Landing in a field with a Cessna C170B in Lundar, Manitoba in 1981.

Killing coyotes against the county bounty

Coyotes where frequently attacking farmer’s livestock. When the situation was getting out of control, the farmers would phone Fred Max. The latter would take off with his Curtiss Junior Pusher, accompanied by an experienced shooter and they would spot and kill coyotes. Winter was the best season for hunting from the air since the coyote’s dark colored fur contrasted against the white snow.

The farmers, on their horses, were following the aircraft’s manoeuvers to spot where the coyotes had been shot. They then brought the dead animals back to their farm. Few minutes later, the aircraft would land as close to the farm as possible and the pilots picked up the coyotes, bringing them back to the county’s bureau in order to receive the published bounty for each killed coyote.

Super Cub and wolves shot from the air in Northern Ontario, Canada, on an aviation postcard dating from the sixties.

The American Midwest farmer’s hospitality

When a pilot landed in a farmer’s field, as a stopover on a long cross-country flight, he would often be offered a meal with the farmer’s family. If darkness was an obstacle for the continuation of the flight, the pilot was often offered a bed for the night. The next morning, after breakfast, and as a thank you gesture, the pilot would offer the farmer a courtesy flight.

A practical way to lower the costs associated with a long cross-country flight

An easy way to reduce the costs associated with a long cross-country flight was to offer airplane rides to villagers who had come to meet the pilot once at the destination. The pilot landed, waited a bit and knew that, soon, few people would come to him to ask for a ride.

The pilot Fred Max Roberts Jr hanging to the wing of his monoplane

A major concern for any pilot landing in a field was to find a fence to tie the plane as soon as possible to protect it from the strong winds blowing over the Midwest plains. But really strong gusts would sometimes break the ropes.

The pilot tells the reader that he was once immobilized in the middle of a field while a storm was quickly approaching. He got under the wing of his monoplane and hanged to it in order to add some weight. But that was not enough. A strong gust lifted the plane, broke the two tie-downs and sent pilot and plane flying at about ten feet in the air. Fearing that his plane would continue to climb without him at the controls, the pilot let go. The plane maintained a level flight while backing until it suddenly rolled and crashed.

Pilot and passengers are caught in flight by a tornado

Flying and meteorology manuals teach every pilot the necessity to avoid thunderstorms because, among other reasons, of the extreme ascending and descending air currents that are present in a well-developed cell. The pilot Fred Max Roberts Jr not only went through a thunderstorm but survived a tornado while he was in flight. His story was published in many newspapers at the time. Some of the articles are reproduced in the book.

As the pilot tells it, meteorological forecasts and weather observations were not as easily accessible as they are today. During a flight with passengers in his Waco 90 biplane, the sky suddenly darkened and the weather degraded rapidly. The pilot tried his best to fly between two important cloud formations. He could hardly see his instruments due to the lack of light, even if the flight was made during the day. He was fighting to avoid being disoriented.

Suddenly, the plane started to gain altitude rapidly by itself. The pilot nosed his ship downward and applied full power. This was useless. The aircraft was still rapidly climbing, tail first. Then the ascent abruptly stopped and a dive ensued. He pulled on the stick to bring his Waco to a level flight, but the rapid descent continued. Having no other choice, he applied full throttle and set his plane for a normal climb. Again, the descent continued until the Waco was at about 500 feet above ground level.

Eventually, they got out of the storm and landed at White Rock. Fred Max then realized that his passengers, sitting in the open cockpit Waco during the storm, had not fasten their seat belts and were hanging for dear life to a brace running across the front of the passenger cockpit.

Those are some of the tales a reader can find in “Tales of a Dakota Pilot”, an unpretentious book but nonetheless a publication that might very well surprise many young pilots, as the 1930’s way of flying so differed from what a young pilot lives when he integrates today’s world of aviation.

Author : Fred Marke Roberts
Published by : fmRoberts Enterprises
© 1991
ISBN : 0-912746-09-2

A Man, a Time and the Deadliest Hurricane in History

The book recounts the events surrounding a disaster caused by a major hurricane having taken place in the United States in 1900. The author ensures that the scientific notions connected with meteorology are explained in a simple manner, knowing very well that a big part of his readership has only elementary knowledge on the subject.

I appreciated the way the events were told, since Erik Larson’s book is not limited only to human or material disaster which ensued from the passage of the hurricane on Galveston and the surrounding cities. The reader can learn about the development of Meteorological Offices in the United States, the equipment used at that time as much as the help brought by ship captains with regards to weather observations. It is also interesting to read about all the political and commercial pressures felt by some staff of the US Weather Bureau.

The Galveston disaster was not due to the malfunction of the meteorological instruments nor their limitation. It was rather caused by the disproportionate egos of the forecaster Isaac Cline and some of his managers, as well as pressures of all kinds on Isaac as an observer and forecaster.

Isaac Cline: a disproportionate ego

Isaac had acquired an excellent reputation throughout the years. Little by little, his scientific approach gave way to a certainty of always being right and the desire to be perceived as the leading expert in the field of meteorology. In one of his papers, he refutes openly one hundred years of accumulated knowledge in meteorology.

The Galveston population had asked for a breakwater to be built in order to limit the potential damages caused by a major hurricane. But Isaac wrote an article in which he explained why Galveston was not susceptible to suffer the effects of a major hurricane. The breakwater not being seen any more as a pressing project, the idea of its construction was abandoned.

An ego bigger than nature from some administrators of the US WEATHER BUREAU

On the island of Cuba, in 1900, there were American observers working for the US WEATHER BUREAU and Cuban observers monitoring the weather for their own country. The Cubans, as natural residents of the island, had gradually acquired a huge experience in the prediction of the passage and the trajectory of major meteorological systems. Powerful countries having a natural tendency to underestimate the capacities and experience of inhabitants of smallest nations, warnings coming from the Cubans were regularly brushed aside.

If the US WEATHER BUREAU had been attuned to the Cuban weather observer comments in 1900, the terrible hurricane which destroyed Galveston would have had much less tragic consequences. But, in the “Isaac storm” book, we learn that the communication links were voluntarily cut between both countries by the US WEATHER BUREAU. The Cuban forecasters were considered like poor inhabitants capable of announcing a storm only when it had practically left the island.

“The same day that the Weather Bureau published in the newspaper of Havana that the last hurricane had reached the Atlantic, the Belen Observatory (Cuba) said in the same papers that the center had crossed the eastern portion of the island and that it would undoubtedly reach Texas. A few hours later the first telegraphic announcement of the ravages of the cyclone in Galveston was received”. Six days after the Galveston disaster, the War Department revoked the ban on Cuban weather cables and the communication of information was re-established.

Of pressures exercised by the Galveston businessmen on the forecaster and weather observer Isaac Cline

A first type of pressure on the observer was of commercial order: there was a competition between Houston and Galveston to determine which of both cities would become the major commercial center in the South of Texas. Galveston was however more vulnerable to hurricanes, because it is an island while Houston is farther away inland. Isaac Cline, the observer and forecaster based in Galveston, minimized the chances that his city could suffer the devastating effects of a major hurricane. It was out of question to depreciate Galveston in the eyes of potential investors.

Of strong pressures exercised by administrators of the US WEATHER BUREAU on the forecaster and weather observer

Another type of pressure on the observer resulted directly from Isaac’s managers, in the US WEATHER BUREAU. At the time, weather forecasts were only at an elementary stage and the US WEATHER BUREAU wanted to avoid alarming the population by using words like “hurricane”. They did not want to be the laughing stock of the population if the famous hurricane announced ended up to be only a standard storm. Isaac knew that his role consisted in delaying as much as possible the use of the word “hurricane”. Not wanting to go against the orders and to preserve his reputation with the Bureau, he possibly convinced himself that there was no major meteorological system approaching Galveston. He even told the population to stay put.

Galveston has always suffered and still does from an unfavorable geographical position. The hot waters in the Gulf of Mexico have always been an essential ingredient in the recipe of a major hurricane. This is where a storm will draw much of its energy. But, in the 1900 disaster, Galveston was also a victim of the combination of disproportionate egos, lack of judgment and commercial and political pressures exercised on the forecaster and the observer. All in all, approximately 10,000 people died in Galveston while thousands of others suffered the same fate in the surrounding cities.

If the population had been informed correctly, damage to property would nevertheless have been extremely important, but the losses of life would have been negligible.