In January 1904, he and his new wife moved to Winslow, Arizona, where he went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad as a freight train engineer.

Charles grew impatient during what turned out to be a long and frustrating apprenticeship, so he moved back to Los Angeles to work in an oil refinery as a field engineer.

When Goldfield died a quick death in 1907, however, a financially troubled Walsh was forced to move his family into his father's house at 17th and K streets in San Diego.

Using only pictures from these newspapers, he sketched his own airplane design in between elevator trips at work and was determined to fly it one day.

In 1909, Walsh convinced a small group of local investors to open the first airplane manufacturing company in California.

Like Curtiss, he used a tricycle type landing gear and ailerons vice the Wright's wing warping method for lateral control of his Bleriot-type monoplane.

He was one of three local San Diego aviators, including Waldo Waterman, attempting to enter an airplane in the 1910 Los Angeles International Air Meet at Dominguez Field.

Walsh ordered a new six-foot propeller and intended to purchase one from Charles K. Hamilton upon his arrival at Coronado for the 1910 San Diego Aviation Meet.

Glenn Curtiss was in search of a suitable location for a winter headquarters and asked Hamilton to scout out San Diego for him.

[11] He was invited by a San Diego developer named E W Peterson to move his airplane to nearby Imperial Beach, California.

The engine-shutoff and starting wheel brake were controlled by a single lever fastened directly over the left side of the foot rest.

[13] By late May, he had already turned down offers to perform during the Fourth of July celebration of Baker City, Oregon; St. Louis, Missouri; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

He also made significant improvements to his airplane by this time, adding steel-rimmed wheels for his landing gear and installing a more advanced propeller.

To compensate for the aft center of gravity resulting from the increased weight of his engine relative to the one that powered the Reims Racer that he faithfully modeled his airplane after, he modified his tail to a box design, vice the single elevator.

[14] On June 2, Walsh suffered a major setback when his airplane crashed following a steep turn during a practice run on the aviation course.

[15] Later that month, Walsh acquired a more powerful 40 hp Elbridge engine, which he rented from another San Diego aviation hopeful.

[17] Powered by his three-cylinder Elbridge featherweight, Walsh dominated a small field of fellow amateur Southern California aviators in the novice air meet held at the motordrome from 22 to 23 October, winning every event.

The engine did not perform well and prevented Walsh from participating in the second Los Angeles Air Meet at Dominguez Field in late December 1910.

A week later, Walsh crashed his plane at Dominguez Field while attempting to qualify as the Aero Club of California's first licensed aviator.

Unlike the Harkness airplane, however, this Silver Dart was powered by the first production 40 hp, four-cylinder Hall-Scott engine which turned an eight-foot propeller.

At his event at Laramie, Wyoming, on July 31, he set a record for the highest elevation at which airplane flight was ever successfully conducted in the United States (7200 feet).

The farmer who owned the field sued the Pacific Aviation Company a few days later for $100 in damages to his crops and a local judge confiscated the airplane pending a settlement.

Walsh then sued the Pacific Aviation Company for $56.25 that he felt was owed to him as his share of ticket sales for the event.

[27] Following the 1911 Chicago International Aviation Meet, Walsh became a contract demonstration pilot with the Curtiss Exhibition Company.

[28] On August 31, 1911, he reportedly flew his newly assigned 75 hp Curtiss pusher for the first time at Sterling, Illinois, without incident, followed by an event in Iowa.

[30] On October 12, crowds gathered at Traction Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to watch Walsh become the first pilot to fly over the Rio Grande Valley.

The Albuquerque International Sunport has a 1914 Curtiss-style pusher representative of the one flown by Walsh on display in the terminal which helps commemorate the event.