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Ballooning is perhaps the one outdoor sport where brains count for everything. The pilots study meteorological conditions round their particular starting point for months. True the wind is the sole driving, force, but its direction and intensity vary from height to height. The: thing is to keep the craft at that altitude where the wind effects are most: favorable. Suppose a balloon im equilibrium at a certain height. The: sun may come out, heat the hydrogen, contained within the gas, cause it to rise too high. The unskilled pilot: may let out gas in too much of a hurry, drop rapidly, throw out too— much ballast to check his descent, shoot up and lose more gas. "Bobbing up and down," he soon exhausts both gas and ballast and must land, throwing out food, instruments, clothing—a disgraceful sight. This year's elimination race was held under exceptionally favorable circumstances, with a steady, strong wind almost due north. Superiority in handling asserted itself as usual. All the balloons sailed away late in the evening at five-minute intervals Two balloons were forced down about the middle of next day in Oklahoma with less than 700 miles to their credit. Another landed at Moline, Kansas, the evening of the second day. Four other contestants covered over 1,000 miles, and landed during the third day. The winner was W. T. Van Norman (Goodyear Co.). With his aide (C. K. Woolam) he landed near Rochester, Minn., over 1,100 miles from the starting point. The distance was within approximately 73 miles of the American distance record of 1,173 miles made by W. R. Hawley in 1910. Honeywell (Kansas City) was second, Peek (Army) third.