My Life To My Children by Jack Vilas Revised Edition

My Life To My Children by Jack Vilas is a reprinted memoir from 1929. It was originally written only for his children and close friends, and was not available to the general public until now. Enjoy devilish boyhood pranks and delightful descriptions of shackers from northern Wisconsin nearly one hundred years ago. As a graduate pilot from the Glenn Hammond Curtiss Flight School, Vilas earned Hydroplane Pilot License No. 6 from the American Aero Society. Six weeks later, he was the first person to attempt and complete a 63-mile flight across Lake Michigan. With no compass or flight instruments, he successfully flew a 75-horsepoweed Curtiss Flying Boat from St. Joseph, Michigan to Grant Park, Illinois, in 1913. After railing his flying boat to northern Wisconsin in 1915, he took Chief Forester Edward Griffith for a ride to demonstrate how easy it was to spot forest fires by air. This led to an official appointment by the Wisconsin Conservation Commission for Vilas to become the first flying fire warden in the entire world. The Wisconsin Plan soon became a vital part of fighting wildfires in forested countries around the globe. Vilas flew his surveillance missions from the forestry headquarters at Trout Lake in Boulder Junction for the salary of many thanks. Purposefully edited for a youthful audience and beyond, this book contains footnote descriptions of unfamiliar 20th-century terms and background information on historic pioneer aviators who Vilas knew. The Afterward contains a Vilas timetable, a listing of historic markers dedicated to him and his accomplishments after the memoir was written. My Life To My Children is an entertaining MUST READ for lovers of pioneer aviation and local northern Wisconsin history.