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Pilot %u201cWild Bill%u201d Hopson, who flew a route between New York and Chicago, was killed when his plane exploded in mid-air.a life expectancy as short as 900 flying hours. But, over time, the safety record improved. In 1919, one pilot died for every 115,325 miles flown but, by 1926, the number had dropped to one pilot death for every 2,583,056 miles flown.Of course, some pilots learned to fly safely, despite extremely adverse weather conditions%u2014like Charles Lindbergh, who flew the CAM-2 route between St. Louis and Chicago. He actually got his nickname %u201cLucky Lindy%u201d not as a result of his later transAtlantic flight, but because he was forced to parachute to safety four times, twice as an air-mail pilot. On one occasion, Lindbergh had to jump from his plane after getting lost at night during a binding snow-and-rain storm when his plane ran out of fuel. As he drifted down to earth, he heard his airplane start back up again%u2014and aim straight toward him. As he descended, he slowly glided his parachute away from the downwardly spiraling plane. He counted five spirals before it disappeared into a fog bank. Lindbergh landed safely in a cornfield, while his plane barely missed a house before crashing into another cornfield about three miles away. Lindbergh and several other CAM pilots became members of the Caterpillar Club. The informal organization was founded by the Irvin Airchute Company to recognize flyers who were saved by an Irvin parachute after they jumped from a disabled airThe Air Mail ScandalIn the beginning, the commercial operators were paid %u201cat a rate not to exceed four-fifths of the revenue derived from the air mail.%u201d Later, they were paid by the pound. This resulted in abuse by some airlines, whereby they hauled heavy freight, and called it mail. Because of such scheming, Congress passed a new Air Mail Act of 1930 to update the Kelly Act. Three weeks later, Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown asked William Patterson MacCracken Jr. to meet with executives of the top airlines to hash out a deal that would consolidate airmail routes into transcontinental networks. This was later referred to as the %u201cSpoils Conference%u201d because only a handful of airlines divvied up, among themselves, all the available air-mail routes. This prevented smaller carriers from bidding on routes, Irvin Caterpillar Club lapel pin.plane. The name refers to the original parachutes%u2019 ropes, which were made of threads produced by a silk caterpillar. Other parachute companies joined Irvin in issuing certificates and lapel pins.