The History: Octave Chanute left with Mr. Will S. Dough of the Kill Devil Life Saving Station. Sailing on Dough's boat, Chanute headed for Manteo on Roanoke Island.

Map Of Elizabeth City And Kitty Hawk, North Carolina Area

The brothers worked on getting the starting track level. [Their machines would slide along the track like a train. When the machine reached the end of the track the operator would take off.] The brothers decided to place the old machine on the track to see how well it worked. They brought two of the rails to Big Hill and launched the 1902 glider. Orville reported that 5 out of 6 launches were successful!

The brothers also noticed that the cloth and trusses on the machine were loose and caused the upper and lower surfaces to move a lot as they operated the wing warping mechanism which twisted the wings. This "looseness" also affected the operation of the front rudder. They hypothesized that the heat from the stove in their camp building had dried and shrunk some of the glider's wooden components.

Orville noted in his diary that they spent most of the afternoon reading and chopping wood.

On December 14th, Will Dough assist the Wrights on Wilbur's first attempt in the new machine. On December 17th, he would witness the first flight.