Sundays were always big days at the airport. Most of the gang didn't have steady jobs so spent" most of their free time and Sundays at the airport. There they could do lots of 'hangar flying' and enjoy the comradeship of the more experienced students and pilots.

Sunday afternoons were always the time, too, when the student pilots could demonstrate their abilities for the crowds of spectators that parked for some free entertainment. And Max always hoped that there would be at least one new student in the crowd that he could 'hop' a few passengers to keep his operation solvent.

And Max was always thinking of new ways to attract a crowd. One of the first was a try at the national altitude record for light planes. The student he picked for the trial was one of Winona's first aviatrixes, Miss Helen Henn, a cute little high school student and one of the gang.

Helen cranked up one of the first Cubs Max owned, a small 38 hp Taylor Cub. It was loaded with gas, nine gallons, enough for approximately three hours of flight. She climbed steadily for about two hours until the small engine could no longer operate in the thin air over 13,000 feet. She managed to climb still higher as the gasoline load lightened and finally leveled off at 13,800 feet, which set a new altitude record for light planes of that era.

Parachutists also were employed to garner a crowd on Sunday afternoons. Max made one of the jumps but had quite a scare when he attempted a subsequent jump at Black River Falls so gave up that sport. In the future he would hire his chutists.

One of the parachute jumps was made by another aviatrix, Miss Stella Kindem, a professional nurse from Minneapolis. She made jumps on several Sundays at the airport and had one of her 'closest' calls here.

Her leap that Sunday was made from Max's Ford tri-motor, from which the door had been removed. Max took off about 5:30 p.m., late in the afternoon, as he knew there was a huge crowd to witness the stunt and he wanted to postpone it as long as possible so as to get as many paying passengers to take a ride, at $1 per person, in the big tri-motor.

There was a quite strong east wind that Sunday so Miss Kindem was a bit wary of making the jump but decided to regardless. Max flew her to a point about 2,000 feet over the road the known as "Lovers Lane", about half mile east of the field. He figured that with the strong wind she’d drift to the airport right in front of the crowd. She stepped out of the plane for her spectacular stunt.

She dropped about 1,000 feet before she pulled the ripcord, while the crowd watched with anxiety as she drifted over the field. She dropped nearer and nearer to the water filled gravel pit at the west side of the airport, where Lake Village now is. When she landed not more than 200 feet from the pit, she was dragged 60 more feet before she was able to collapse her chute and untangle herself from the harness.

Miss Kindem made several more parachute jumps at the airport that summer and always attracted a good crowd of spectators.

One Sunday afternoon, Kenny Brommer, who lived near the airport repaired and flew a Nicholas-Beasley, monoplane, I think it was called, to a height of over 16,500, seeking another altitude record. Kenny abandoned his try due to the lack of oxygen at that altitude. Kenny's plane was an odd looking contraption. The cockpit looked more like a stubby bath, tub with the occupants sitting side-by-side. The engine and propeller were above and behind the tub and wing, which was suspended over the funny-looking cockpit. But it flew and that's all that mattered to any of the gang', and Kenny Brommer was one of us.

Another time a Chicago pilot came to the show in a plane 22 years old. It was a Thomas Moore. Scout, powered by a Le Rhone engine. This type of motor which was used in the Camel biplane of WWI, one of the fighter aircraft of that war, spun with the propeller. The whole engine - went around spewing 'its lubrication, castor oil, all around. This airplane, too, was the subject of many hangar talks among us.

But the highlights of every Sunday's show was the aerobatics that the airport gang performed. Sunday's program always was a mixture of stunt flying and comics.

Part of the entertainment came from the ground where Charles ‘Airwheel’ Kingsley, one of the younger members, dressed as a clown policeman and directed crowds.

Then Bobby Bean, Clayton Brown, Harold Nelson, Nealon Thompson and I would do our act of snap-rolls, loops, wingovers and spins with no thought of accidents or mishaps. Roy Vose and Kenny Brommer in a Cub and Kenny’s Beasley would put on a mock dogfight and aerial combat.

One Sunday it was Clayton Brown’s turn to star. A crowd of several hundred persons watched as Clayton, then one of the youngest commercial pilots in the United States, completed 60 loops in less than 15 minutes. The loops were actually made in nine minutes and the remainder of the time was required to enable Clayton to climb his little ship to a safe altitude.

"I think I can make 100 loops on the next trial," he said afterward. "The only difficulty I experienced was a tiredness in my arms from holding the ‘stick’ in place".

The airport gang also thought they could set an endurance record for light planes by transferring five-gallon cans of gasoline to a Cub from a moving automobile. After a couple of unsuccessful tries a successful pass of the can was made.

The refueling attempts were made in connection with Clayton Brown’s plan to try for a new world endurance flight record for light planes. The record at that time was 24 hours. Our Cubs carried gasoline in a nine-gallon tank sufficient to last but three hours, so several refueling passes would have been required. After several more attempts this record was abandoned, but I feel sure that with a smooth runway instead of the rough field the attempts would have been successful.

Max enjoyed demonstrating the big Ford tri-motor, too, on Sunday afternoons and was always demonstrating its versatility, flying it first with all three motors operating, then shutting off one of them, then another until he would make a final Passover with just one of the engines operating.

One Sunday he announced that he would loop-the-loop with the big Ford, so that brought out another big crowd. Near the end of the afternoon Max took off in the big plane, climbed to about 3000 feet, then dove the monster and hauled back on the controls and did three loops. It really brought the crowd to its feet.

When 'Max landed he got several plaudits from the crowd. But the young man who got the most welcome from the gang was Ray Boberg, one of Max's students from over: in Wisconsin. Ray bad stowed away in the restroom all the while Max was stunting the Ford.

We never made the Guiness Book of Records back in the 30's but we sure had fun trying. Those were the 'good old days' of aviation.