12: Hawks and a Lot of Water
I had just let down through 7,000 feet of clouds and here I was flying in circles at 5,000 feet. I was supposed to be over land but all I could see was water.
I say I was flying in circles because I was so horrified it seemed I could do nothing else. There wasn’t any fixed object upon which I could head the ship and get a compass bearing. That frightened me. I had only an hour and a half’s supply of gasoline left and here I was at 5,000 feet, the visibility so good that I could see seventy-five miles, but no consolation from what I was seeing.
If I were to live to tell this story, I had to gain control of myself. The first thing to do was to start flying west to get to the shore as soon as possible. This going around in circles had to be stopped. Finally, he
