Ultimately, Bill Stultz, the pilot, received $20,000 and Lou Gordon, the mechanic, $5000. My own compensation which I had never really seriously considered was, in addition to the fun of the exploit itself, the opportunities in aviation, writing and the like which the Atlantic crossing opened up for me. Incidentally the fees from my newspaper story of the flight went back into the treasury of the enterprise.
Most matters having been settled satisfactorily, there were certain ones to be decided on from my standpoint. I wished to check the equipment and meet the pilot. And I wished to do some of the flying myself. The idea of going as just “extra weight” did not appeal to me at all. Despite my intentions, however, it turned out that was just what I did, for the weather encountered necessitated instrument flying, a type of specialized flying in which I had not had any experience.
It took us twenty hours and forty minutes to cross from Trepassey Bay to Burryport, Wales. In this time the water was visible for only a little more than two hours. We might as well have been flying over the cornfields of Kansas for all we could see of what was beneath. We were in the fog, over it, or between layers for about eighteen of the twenty hours. But I am getting ahead of the story.
Probably few people realize fully what goes on behind the scenes of any major expedition. Whether by horseback or automobile or boat or air,
