<p>In November 1912, Lieutenants H. H. Arnold and Thomas DeW. Milling were detached to Ft Riley, Kansas, with two Type C Wright aircraft to experiment with artillery regulation from the air. Several types of signalling were tried, but radio messages in code worked best.
</p>
<p>The same year, the Army opened an aviation school at Ft William McKinley, near Manila in the Philippine Islands. Summer rains flooded the flying area, and the unit moved to the shore of Manila Bay, installing floats on their three airplanes. One by one, the three planes were destroyed in accidents, and the school closed.
</p>
<p>Both College Park and the winter site in Augusta continued in the training mission until 25 February 1913, when equipment and personnel were ordered to Texas City, Texas, in case the Mexican revolution required a US presence.
</p>
<p>The second Congressional appropriation of aeronautical funds again allocated $125,000, although $1 million had been requested. Congress authorized 35 per cent extra pay for officers regularly assigned to flying duty, limiting to 30 the number who could receive this largesse.
</p>
<p>In mid-1913, the lease at College Park expired, and was not renewed. All the equipment stored there after the move to Texas City was shipped to the Army's new flying school at North Island, near San Diego, California. The site had first been exploited by Glenn Curtiss as an alternate to Hammondsport, New York, for pilot training. The Army rented space and began flight training, continuing its experiments with new ideas and equipment. There were further tests on a bomb sight, and Lieutenant Milling developed the first practical safety belt.
</p>
<p>The Signal Corps had begun keeping flight records in 1911, with one stated reason being the need to keep track of accidents. They were occurring often enough to cause concern; each fatal crash was followed by a sudden loss of interest by the War Department and an expressed desire to shut down the program. From 17 September 1908 until 28 February 1914, 11 fatalities occurred in the Army's aviation program, killing eight pilots.
