[4] Gunn was mentored by aviators Lincoln Beachey at the Curtiss School in Hammondsport, NY, Warren S. Eaton, Horace Kearney, and Glen Martin.

[6] His nephew, Curtis Joe, recalled hearing that Gunn had learned to fly in Los Angeles and San Diego.

[3] The San Francisco Examiner reported that Gunn fell from a height of several hundred feet, saying "that he was not killed outright is little short of marvelous.

[2] On August 4, 1912, Gunn demonstrated his flying skills for three of Chinese president Sun Yat-sen's children and General Lan Tien Wei.

[11] Wei "expressed himself as delighted with the experience" upon landing,[11] and recommended that the Chinese government recruit Gunn as a pilot.

[16] Gunn had been offered a commission as a captain in the Chinese army,[13] though he intended to spend his first six months in the country making freelance exhibition flights.

[15] However, new president Yuan Shikai, fearing that Gunn intended to side with his political rivals, put a bounty of 5,000 dollars on his head.