left without an airplane for the contest, was forced to withdraw. Because Aloha was only completed when the race was nearly about to begin, the preparations for the contest were rushed; the fuel tanks on Aloha only held and the original plan was to add sufficient spare fuel capacity via forty-nine portable containers, requiring the navigator to fill the central tank, then transfer fuel to the tank in use via a hand pump; the plane was later retrofitted with a tank, obviating the need for the complicated refueling plan, which would have required the passing of written messages between the two men. Three days: three crashes, three dead Two days after they drew the thirteenth position, on August 10 United States Navy Lieutenants George W. D. Covell and R. S. Waggener took off from San Diego, California in their Tremaine Humming Bird named Spirit of John Rodgers to fly to Oakland; after flying into a fog bank, the aircraft crashed into an ocean cliff at Point Loma, killing both men. Lt. Leo Pawlikowski was the navigator originally announced; Pawlikowski had developed an abscess on his back which required surgery, and the doctors would not allow him to participate, so he was replaced with Waggener. William Davis, a Navy lieutenant who would serve as the navigator for Art Goebel on Woolaroc, was granted leave to participate in the race; he had planned to catch a ride with Covell and Waggener to San Francisco, but the leave was not granted in time, and he took a train from San Diego instead. Then, on 11 August, as J. L. Giffin and Theodore S. Lundgren approached Oakland, their aircraft, an International CF-10 Triplane, the Pride of Los Angeles, crashed into San Francisco Bay, but the two men and their passenger, Laurence Willes, were able to escape and swim to shore. The next day, shortly after British ace Arthur V. Rogers took off for a test flight on August 12 in the twin-engine Angel of Los Angeles at Western Air Express Field at Montebello, California, the aircraft reached an altitude of and began acting "queer"; Rogers jumped out of the plane as it suddenly dived towards the ground, but died as either his foot or parachute snagged on the aircraft as it crashed. Leland A. Bryant, the designer of the aircraft, was to have served as Rogers's navigator, but was not on board during the