Pioneer Aviator Tips His Wing to Voyager : Barnstormer Praises Pilots

Martin Jensen is writing a congratulatory letter to Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, who completed their historic nine-day nonstop, around-the-world flight Dec. 23 aboard Voyager.

“It took a lot of guts, I’ll give them a lot of credit for that, especially since I didn’t think they could make it,” Jensen said.

The 86-year-old man knows a lot about both guts and the odds of flying.

Almost 60 years ago, Jensen was one of only two pilots to complete the first air race from California to Hawaii in the 1927 Dole Air Derby, in which 10 people died. Only two of the 15 planes to qualify for the race ever reached Wheeler Field north of Honolulu, and newspapers across the United States condemned the race, one describing it as “an orgy of reckless sacrifice.”

Early Barnstormer

As one of the nation’s earliest barnstorming fliers, Jensen did loops and spins for crowds from San Diego to New York. In 1925, he married his wife, Marguerite, on the wing of a plane over Yuma, Ariz.

Jensen later taught aeronautics in Pennsylvania, did show flying for the New York Daily News and the Tidewater Oil Co., flew the MGM lion across country, and later worked on engineering problems for the Langley Aircraft and Douglas Aircraft companies until retiring in the mid-1960s.

But his proudest exploit came in August, 1927, when he weathered a harrowing 28-hour flight across a foggy Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Honolulu.

For flying enthusiasts, the time was one of tremendous excitement and heart-stopping risks, symbolized by the first civilian solo flight from New York to Paris by Charles Lindbergh in May, 1927.

Offered Cash Prizes

James Dole, scion of the pineapple dynasty in Hawaii, decided to try to put the Pacific on the aviation map by sponsoring a mainland-to-Honolulu civilian race, slapping down $25,000 for the winner and $10,000 for the second-place finisher.

Dole publicized his offer in June, 1927, and pilots immediately scrambled to line up for the race. Until then, no civilian pilot had made the flight successfully, although two in 1925 had come within 300 miles of the islands before having to ditch their planes. A three-engine U.S. Army craft made the first California-Hawaii flight in late June, shortly after the Dole civilian contest became public.

Jensen had learned to fly in the U.S. Navy while stationed in San Diego and subsequently had been working as the pilot for an inter-island air tour service in Hawaii, making the first regularly scheduled flights from Oahu to the chain’s outer islands.

“I figured I could make the flight,” he recalled. Jensen learned by chance from a potential competitor in the race that a partially completed plane was available in San Francisco. The would-be purchaser of the craft had put down a diamond ring as a security deposit but had forfeited it.

Scramble to Get Ready

At that point, with only about 10 days left before the race’s scheduled Aug. 12 start date, Jensen had to scramble to get the plane completed. Rules of the race required someone proficient in celestial navigation, and because Jensen was skilled only in compass readings, he had to find a navigator in short order.

Several people applied, Jensen recalled, including a 14-year-old Boy Scout and a 16-year-old girl who thought the flight could propel her into the movies. Jensen settled on a ship navigator named Paul Schluter after Schluter successfully weathered the loops, spins and rolls that Jensen subjected him to during practice flights in the Bay Area.

In the meantime, tragedy struck even before the race, now pushed back to Aug. 16, began. A plane piloted by movie star Hoot Gibson plunged into San Francisco Bay during practice. Another known as the Angel of Los Angeles crashed on its way up the coast. A plane christened the Tremaine took off from North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego and smashed into Point Loma while fighting to get out of a fog bank.

Jensen’s plane was christened Aloha and was painted in flashy Hawaiian colors. The pilot sat in an open cockpit in front, with the navigator squeezed into a small hole in the tail, surrounded by gas tanks holding 405 gallons of aviation fuel. The two men used a trolley line equipped with a clothespin to send messages back and forth. If either failed to notice the communication, the other also had a long stick at his disposal to prod his colleague.

Eight Planes Line Up

At exactly noon on Aug. 16, eight planes lined up at one end of a 7,000-foot dirt runway in Oakland. The first plane was forced to return shortly after takeoff. Another trundled halfway down the strip and cartwheeled. A third stalled just after takeoff and crumbled back to the ground.

“It wasn’t too encouraging,” Jensen said.

Two other planes made fine takeoffs but were never seen again.

The Aloha made it into the air safely. It was followed by the Woolaroc, whose pilot, Art Goebel, would win the race, arriving about two hours ahead of Jensen.

The last plane to take off broke down shortly afterward, and returned. Taking off the next day to look for the two planes by then reported as lost, it would become the third craft to be swallowed by the Pacific.

In all, 10 people would die as part of the Dole derby. “And I knew every one of them,” Jensen said.

Unending Fog

After his own takeoff, Jensen said, he and Schluter soon found themselves encased in an unending fog.

“After about seven hours (near sunset), I started to climb to 4,000 feet to try and get out of the fog,” Jensen said, “because I knew the hazards of blind flying, especially at night in total darkness. But then I found myself with vertigo.”

Jensen said he went into three violent spins but recovered each time because of his experience with stunt flying. However, the three instances had left him dangerously low in altitude and while he attempted to maintain a 100-foot height to make out the horizon along the water, he realized that a wave had hit the left landing wheel.

They arrived at Wheeler Field at about 2:30 p.m. the next day--with hardly any fuel left.

The $10,000 Jensen won for finishing second ended up with his Hawaii backers who had put up funds for the Aloha. “I told everyone that I finished second--and last-- in the race,” he said.

‘Reckless Sacrifice’

As word of the results spread, the Philadelphia Inquirer called the race “an orgy of reckless sacrifice.” The St. Louis Star said Dole had sponsored a “death-dealing stunt” and the Louisville Times labeled the race “aviation asininity.”

But Jensen said all adventures carry risks, noting that the tragedies during the race accelerated the search for better instrument-flying equipment.

The Aloha was sold to a New York businessman and later burned during a hangar fire at Roosevelt Field in New York.