In May 1927, at least four different people were planning to fly between New York and Paris. On the morning of 20 May, none of them had done so, yet Lindbergh took off from New York in his small plane. It was heavy with fuel and it seemed it would never get off the ground. Lindbergh hit several wet spots on the airfield and bounced dangerously. He got into the air just in time to avoid a tractor and some telegraph wires at the end of the field. For the first eleven hours he flew along the Atlantic coastline. When he turned towards the open ocean, he had flown almost as far and as long as Alcook and Brown had in 1919.It was getting dark and the worst part of the flight was just beginning. First, there was a freezing fog. For a time he avoided this by flying lower over the water. But then the fog came down to the tops of the waves. Lindbergh flew higher but it was so cold that ice formed on the wings. In the black darkness he shook the ice off by diving and turning sharply. Twenty-four hours had passed now, he was terribly tired. He was still over the Atlantic in darkness. He ate nothing because he thought it would be easier to stay awake on an empty stomach. Then dawn came. He saw a few fishing boats below. He dived down, switched off his engine and called out, 'which way is Ireland?' The fishermen were too surprised to answer. But a few minutes later he was over the Irish coast. He had navigated by his own calculations and a few simple instruments. He flew on over England and crossed Paris. A huge, excited crowd of 100,000 people were waiting for him when he landed. He had flown for thirty-three and a haft hours. It is probably the most famous fight in history. Lindbergh found it hard to take off because ______.