Ivan was taking lessons with another student by the name of Malcolm Humphreys. He and Eden and Ivan can be seen in a few of the photos, and he's mentioned in an article in the collection. The article also mentions a gentleman by the name of Dodge, and Ivan writes home that it is one of the Dodge brothers of automobile fame, but it is obvious he's mistaken, unless we have a huge coincidence on our hands. This text was found in Aerial Age Weekly:
W. EARL DODGE TO ESTABLISH FLYING SCHOOL FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE
Being deeply interested in aviation work and to assist this country in securing aviators for national defense, Mr. W. Earl Dodge of New York, who has had an aviation camp at Newport since early summer and flew from Newport to New York and back recently, will organize an aviation camp at Jacksonville, Fla., next December. He will take 16 college men for a training course of six weeks in water and land flying. These young men are coming from various cities and will be secured by the Aero Club of America for this important purpose. There will be used several land aeroplanes and two Curtiss flying boats.
Part of the winter Mr. Dodge will be at Palm Beach and Miami, where he will make flights. In midwinter he will go to Old Point, where he will use the aviation camp at Norfolk, while making his headquarters at the Chamberlain Hotel.
In May, Mr. Dodge will have one of the three flying machines stationed at Mineola, for instruction of the same young men in land flying. At the conclusion of this they will be ready to enter the army aviation schools if they so elect and thereby make a valuable addition to our aerial defenses.
Hon. Frederick C. Eden, one of the best aviators in this country, who has charge of the flying for Mr. Dodge, will be in charge of the instruction work both at Jacksonville and at Mineola.
There are a couple of photos of this gentleman (perhaps Dodge, or perhaps the friend who assisted with the haul-out in the last post?) with Eden in the scrapbooks. Another one will also appear in the next post.
And here is a photo of the three happy aviators at the ramp where they launch the plane. Notice the water lapping the boards, right behind Eden. By the way, this is Ivan P. Wheaton, Malcolm Humphries, and Frederick Eden, left to right. Notice Ivan, in many of these photos, is wearing his Chalmers racing jersey under his coveralls.
Here's a great shot of Ivan in front of the plane. Notice the amazingly filthy beach. I think of the smell of the port of Long Beach, California when I see this. To be fair, it's possible Long Beach doesn't smell that bad any more, and this was Palm Beach, Florida, after all.
Here comes Eden and one of the students, possibly Ivan, for a landing. I'm wondering if that's the bridge that Ivan mentions in the logbook posts. If so, it certainly means that they were afraid of not becoming airborne before reaching it, and not flying over it.
Next up will be some really great photos around Palm Beach, including a couple of aerial photos of the big hotels. By the way, all of the photos are now being added to my account at Smugmug. You can see them in full screen at http://ivanpwheaton.smugmug.com/. All of them are available for reprinting through a professional photolab. I'll vouch for them by saying that I've ordered copies up to 10 inches with really good results. The photos are all from 3x5 contact prints, and keep pretty good detail. If you go there, you'll see that I've posted the photos for the next blog as well, and you can actually get an RSS feed from the account to let you know as soon as I've posted new photographs. Any photo purchased will offset the cost of the account, which is about $150 per year. Thanks!
-kpw
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