LEARNING TO FLY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2649, 21 December 1915, Page 8

LEARNING TO FLY

—: q N.Z. MAN'S EXPERIENCES ' IN A NAVAL AVIATION SCHOOL it ■ e AIR POCKETS & "CRASHES" - d ' i n Like most beginners, the amateur I o airman is generally reticent as to his < J' early experiences, as being a new art j there is so -much groundwork to learn ' d that cannot be acquired by book-loarn-o ing or study. A man may learn to '• drive a motor-car by taking the wheel ° with an expert sitting beside him, and < iiiay learn to/drive a motor-cycle with '< c -somebody running beside him. to teach i 1- h : m the value of tho levers, but when i a'man'wishes to fly he takes on a much i j" greater . responsibility, even if he has : a skilled man alongside him. It is in i <? the flapper stage where many mistakes i of hancf and head are made, all of ; which make for proficiency later on. i One of the most interesting • letters ! dealing with the stage noted comes from ] " Mr. Eric Calder, of Auckland, who left j New Zealand some six months ago to i 5 take up the science of flying. He ] " writes from the Royal Naval Aid Sta- ■ e tion, Kent, as follows: — • ! . Flapping His Wings. '.'Well, as I told you at the end of my last letter, I have flapped my wings at last! The sensation is like—no- >• thing else in the world. I can't find a - simile that adequately describes my i- feelings on my lirst 1 joy ride. j I went 1 s up in a Caudson bi-plane, with one of . s three instructors, and circled round the , '> aerodrome for about five minutes. Wo 4 were buzzing along the ground, as I' 1- thought, at about 40 to 45 miles an s hour, and I began to wonder when wo. would rise, when I looked oyer the • side, and was somewhat surprised to see that we were about 100 ft. up, off the aerodrome. This shows what an : easy, graceful, the _ old • ''buses,' as we call them, have in a calm air. Interrupted six times." : i- , "Sunday. October. at this . t point on Thursday 'night' I received • e word through by telephone that a 'Hie- ! '■ boo" (Zeppelin) was seen passing over ; d -about twenty minutes before, so I had ! - to chase round for various officers, and ; then take my stand by the 'phone, and ; take all messages. _ We sent' out ' a j couple of machines in the direction, of | Sittingbourne, a town a few miles away, . where we could see the flash of drojj- • }' ping bombs, and could hear the anti--0 air-craft guns popping away. I don't • r think any damage was done by t'he visi- ! 0 tor. . .We are called at about 4.45 : a.m. by the night-duty officer if 'it is 6 not too windy or misty, and after a '• cup of tea and biscuits start flying'at ' 5.15 a.m. The hour of rising will get later as the winter comes on. Flying 1 continues till about 8 a.m., when we : adjourn for breakfast. At 9.15 there ■ is usually Morse practice till 10.15, fol- ' lowed by a lecture on meteorology, enI) gines, or aerodynamics from 10.45 till' : e noon. Lunch is at 12.30, after which ; o we are supposed to rest or sleep till 3, when there is more flying if the weather s is good. If it is raining or blowing (1 we usually have to take some aero 6 engine to pieces and assemble it again. Tho flyiiig goes on till it is dark. Din- j a ncr is at 7.30 p.m., and is quite a ; lengthy performance. Judgment in Landing. "After my joy ride in the morning I ■ >, did not go up, again on Monday, but j • went threo times on Tuesday for 27, . n 2D, and 19 minutes respectively, when j rny instruction began (I nearly said de- . ]1 st'ruction). The next day 1 wont up again several times, arid practised land•s ing, still, of-course,-in the dual-control ; machine, the instructor looking after' the engmo aud doing most of the flying. Landing properly is not ' very 1 ' difficult, but requires a lot of judgment'. If you don't flatten out soon enough and come down too steeply, you may carry away the landing chassis, and if you flatten out too soon without 6 enough speed the machine will 'stall,' ; j and slide back ignominiously on itf= : tail. In neither case is the pilot like--11 Iv to break his neck, but the- machine generally objects to the bump, and rof tires to the hospital for a day or so. "What Hoi She Bumpsl" "I next did a couple of flights in the back seat with the instructor in front correcting my mistakes. . I don'i think he went to sleep. My instructor then porsuaded me to try my wings by myself. It musi have looked funny l- to the onlookers, all right. After slith- ; l- ering- about the ground in no particular ic direction at all, T suddenly rose inta : • the air before I had attained sufficient speed, but evidently righted myself before reaching the stalling points, as nothing tragic happened. Evidently, T r- was warping too much or giving tho j. old 'bus too much rudder, as next thing I was zooning round over the ''aerodrome sheds, which is quite contrary to the flying school rules. After making a circuit of the aerodrome, I came down, but as the landing was Bomewhat bumpy, I switched on and went jvj round again, misjudged the landingplace, and so went round once more. The total time in the air was 14 mine_ lites. Of course, I expected to be D f 'strafed' by the commander, but he w made no cutting remarks, so I breathed .y once more. On the - 23rd I tried my L hand at a second solo flight, and this ;v time climbed to 3000 ft., and stayed up for ty 35 minutes. My control was somewhat (j. better, although the landing'was rather to bumpy. Tho next day I did not get up ig at all,' but yesterday I managed te s t create a little diversion, although my r ]£ escapade was tame compared with' a s . couple of others' doings. I climbed d! up to 5000 ft. and then decided to come s d down part of the way with the engine off. I did so, and when I got down to ay about 1500 or 2000 feet, suddenly got be into some horrible air-pocket's, which be bumped me about some, so that I. did a few spirals,' and then lost the aerois dome. ' n . Two in a Ditch, 'in "Consequently I had to -pick out the on most likely-looking field, for when I ds tried to get my engine going again the ns jolly propellor had-stopped altogether, in- I managed to dodge some sheep, a id. fence, and a ditch, landed > all .right, ur and pulled up with my chassis and pojpellor submerged in the iottom ot a re- ditch, and the tail pointing skyward, ns It, was certainly most' ludicrous, and at although the air bumps were most dists, concerting, I. rather enjoyed the landing.l lay down in the sun to rest after he my labours, and in about five minutes ry observed another flier walking towards Jo- nie, and, glancing behind him, saw his to machine quietly resting at tho end of It my field three or four hundred yards >n- away in another ditch. After we had rs. mutually consoled each other, another nd machine came overhead, saw our plight, and flew back to bring over a gang of lftt rescuing.mechanics. When they arrivfas ed, wo lioard t'hat another machine had •go come down, busting its propellor and both wings, the pilot, as usual, being quite unhurt. lam sure there is a special guardian angel looking after airmen, as although machines ora-sh sometimes, it is really wonderful how seldom tho pilots aro injured. 'Crash' on " is the term used wlieliever a machine is '•P' at all damaged in its landing, and does its not nccsssarily mean that the. aeroirs. plane lias been very badly smashed be!cc- yond repair. . . . When flying on a fnirHy ly calm day one experiences tho most ' exhilarating sensation imaginable— something like racing in a motor-car, r.nly much more so. In the Caudron, which is the 'bus I have been flying, the rush of air is very considerable, and gaggles are necessary if you wish to fly t degree of comfort'."-