SENSATION OF FLYING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 117, 4 February 1918, Page 6

SENSATION OF FLYING

DESCRIBED BY MINISTER OF MARINE. The Hon. T. M/Wilford, Minister of Justice and Marine, was m full flight over Christchurch city_ m one of the Canterbury Aviation Company's biplanes on Saturday morning. Some ■ fellow-passengers on the Maori on Saturday evening asked a hundred questions as to what flying feels like, and Mr. Wilford gave, a description of the sensations and sights he had experienced. "After wo came down," he said, _ a man who saw us pass over the city said we looked about the size of a cigar -we were in a big 100-horse-power Caudron machine 3000 ft up. \\e , just about that moment the pilot, tun, stopped his engine, and tappeo. me on the shoulder. . . , "That's Cathedral Square below, ho shouted. „ . " 'Yes, I see it,' I replied. Cathedral Square looked about the size of a wooden matchbox, and I could not, distinguish human beings on it. Inat was the only time the pilot spoke to me during the flight, which lasted twenty-sis minutes." . ■ Tho hangars and flymg grounds oi this school for the training of birdmen are at Sockburn, some distance from Christchurch. At the invitation of the management the Minister went there on Saturday morning, and was surprised at the size of the hangars, compared with those in France and England which he had seen; they were palatial. , ... „.,, .. "How do you feel about it?" Hill, the pilot, asked. , "I told him," said Mr. Wilford, "that I felt all right, but I would leave the matter in his hands. I suggested a short, straight flight until he saw whether my nerve was right. I felt quite confident myself. The pilot agreed, and I got into the front seat; after being supplied with warm clothing goggles, and cap. Then we ■started. We rose in a straight flight, and the earth just melted below us. It became colder, and the roar of tho engines deepened, and it was sublime-it typified to me what the French call the joy of living _ A friend of mine who joined the flying corps in France wrote a description of his first ascent. In it he said that his strongest impulse was to smg, and he sang and sang. It did not appeal to me then, but it does now—that apparently insane desire. I wanted to stand lip and sing and sing. Instead, \ I folded my arms to let the pilot know that I was' at ease and enjoying it. It was soon after that that he pointed out Cathedral Square to me, and a few moments later ho banked and turned, with the aeroplane canted over to one side. "I have ridden in speed-cars on Brooklands track, and have marvelled that any engines could drive a car at such speeds, and that the .cars could sweep round the banked curves without disaster. But this morning I did not marvel. It all seemed so natural. I just leaned inwards as I would in a motor-car. , ' The sensation was as though we wero being borne on a soft, strong material, steadily and safely, 'and that indescribable thrill I have just mentioned made me feel intensely alive. "The whole of Christchurch and the Estuary and Simmer were spread out like a'carpet below us. We wero 3000 feet above them, and thev looked quite in order down there. Suddenly the pilot swung the 'planes nose downward, and I could look clear into the space on whose floor tji.it enrpet v\s spread. First, I saw it from one direction, then from another. Wewere flying in a spiral, and T enjoyed it, as I did the ensuing wide sweep over the Estuary and the return to' the aero-

tkome. - \ '. "Really, it seemed scarcely five minutes after'we started-that we wore flying back over the city again. I knew wo should soon rleseontl. hut for inn life of me I could not distinguish the Socklmrn grounds, not even when wo were descending quite quickly.' "No: the descent did not make me feel any nausea. You get a.worse sonsnlion coming down in a high-speed lift than you do in a descending acronlane. Suddenly we wheeled gracefully, and there, straight ahead of us,' were the hangars and the grounds for alighting upon. Down we skimmed, and landed like a feather, scarcely lionoin? on the wheels, as tl;« machine gradually came to a standstill."