The heavily laden plane slowly continued to gain altitude. About 50 miles into the flight, the pilots encountered light fog. Since the Weather Bureau had not indicated bad weather in the mountains, the aviators disregarded the fog and flew on. When the pilots reached Banning, however, they found the tops of the hills covered in fog. After wasting 1_ hours looking for a break in the fog, they decided to turn back. Even if they could find a route through the fog, they had by now used up too much fuel to complete the trip to New York.

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The pilots returned to Rockwell Field. As they flew over the field, they dropped a note to the ground saying that they had decided to abandon the transcontinental flight. Instead, they would stay aloft and try to break the world endurance record.

A plane took off from the field with a message hurriedly painted on the side. When it closed on the T-2, the pilots read: “Message received. Drop messages on marker at start of runway.”

The pilots circled Rockwell Field for the rest of the flight.

After just over 35 hours aloft, the T-2 touched down, to the cheers of a thousand well-wishers. It set an endurance record, but it was declared unofficial by the Aero Club of America because the proper arrangements had not been made prior to the flight. Nonetheless, the flight proved that the T-2 and its pilots could stay aloft long enough to make a nonstop transcontinental flight. All they needed was favorable weather.

The aviators hoped to make a second transcontinental attempt in a few days. However, maintenance problems and unfavorable weather caused a longer delay than expected.

On November 3, after only 3_ hours of sleep, the pilots rose at 3:30 a.m. and headed for the airfield to prepare the plane for the flight. By 5 a.m., they were ready to go. All they had to do was wait for adequate light to safely take off.

Kelly once again took the controls for takeoff. He flew as straight a course as he could out to sea, while still avoiding Point Loma. He kept all his initial turns gradual, minimizing loss of altitude. After twice circling North Island, the T-2 headed east, toward New York.

No fog hampered the fliers this time, and they gained enough altitude to fly through the mountains in California without any difficulty. Across the Colorado River, Macready took the controls, and they continued on through the mountains.

As they approached the Continental Divide, Kelly doubted his ability to fly over it. However, with each gallon of fuel burned, the plane rose a few feet. Eventually, Kelly coaxed the struggling Fokker to an altitude of 150 feet. But just as they reached the divide, a sudden downdraft forced the plane to within 20 feet of the ground. Only Kelly’s quick action averted disaster. With airspeed near the stall point, he barely missed a large mound and turned to fly back down the mountain. He flew like this for 10 miles, expecting to crash at any minute. As the plane burned fuel, the gradual loss of weight enabled Kelly to nudge the plane high enough to cross the Continental Divide. After 40 minutes and two attempts, they crossed with 30 feet to spare.

The many delays so far had left the flight behind schedule. Crossing the divide at dusk, Kelly found night rapidly closing in and no moon yet risen. For 1_ hours, the plane bored onward in total darkness with no visible landmarks for guidance.

As the pilots later wrote, if they “could reach Tucumcari, New Mexico, the long night’s flight could be commenced from a known starting point and over comparatively good country.” Thankfully, they were soon able to see the city’s lights in the distance.

As the plane headed east, clouds began forming, sometimes blocking the moon and forcing Kelly to fly close to the ground so he could follow his “iron compass”–the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks.

Their intent was to follow the railroad tracks through the night. However, the bad weather made this difficult, at best. When Macready lost sight of the tracks, he would have to follow the compass and estimate the amount of his drift. Whenever the headlights of a train appeared, Macready would regain his bearing and make any necessary adjustments to his flight path. As they flew on, thunder and lightning rumbled and flashed on every side.

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