The old adage, "Be careful what you wish for...", was once again proven true today for me. It has been raining off and on for at least a month and when we do get to fly we never see anything. I suppose the Huns are as waterlogged as we are and can't get off the ground. So, imagine my surprise when I spotted a flight of three Aviatiks with a straggler about a mile and half back from the flight. I immediately gave the signal to pursue, which of course was totally unnecessary and away we went. By the time we had closed the distance on the straggler he had managed to rejoin his flight, but we pressed the attack anyway. As I was closing the distance, one of the Hun observers must have cut one of my control lines because I immediately flipped over and started spinning. I fell about a thousand feet before I was able to regain control of my machine by applying full left rudder and full left aileron. If I relaxed either of those controls I dropped my right wing and started to spin again. Fortunately, for me I could see Droglandt aerodrome was just about two miles away and so that is where I headed. I was finally approaching the field to land, after what seemed like an eternity, when I noticed that I was side slipping horribly toward the trees lining the field. I applied power which allowed me to clear the trees, but now I was coming in too fast. I killed my engine and just let her drop onto the field. I cracked my landing gear which caused my right wing to dip into the earth which changed my direction of travel and before I knew what had happened I smashed into the side of a hangar. As I sat there dazed and confused about what just happened, I was quickly surrounded by onlookers who pulled me from the wreckage. The most amazing thing of my wreck was that I had nary a scratch, but my bus was a complete write-off. Both Edward and Roderic had seen where I had crashed and they landed not long after. Afterward, Edward told me that he had bagged two and Roderic had bagged one of the Aviatiks, so in spite of my adventure the patrol was quite the success.
Member and provider of banjo music for the Illustrious BOC