FLYING THE CHANNEL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 208, 22 May 1918, Page 7

FLYING THE CHANNEL

A LONG STEP FROM BLERIOT.

■ A flight across the Channel: what thoughts of the old days of aviation, do those words recall! Nearly everyone can recollect the great days when tuousands lined the front at Dover in hourly expectation of seeing one or other of those popular idols, Latham and Blcriot, flying across froth France; how at last a tinj epeck was seen soon after dawn, only a few hundred feet high, practically 6kimming tho sea and propelled by what is now regarded as little more than a toy engine, scarcely powerful enough to Jilt the frail little machine and its stout Qiearted pilot.

Every pilot looks forward to the day iwhen he will have tko opportunity of crossing from England to franco by air, but nowadays he has an enormous advantage over tlio pioneer. With his powerful engine he can take the piecaution of first climbing- his machine some thousands' of feet, so that he has plenty of tune to make up his mind what to do if Ihis engine should fail when over the sea. In, this eventuality he may etil] be within gliding distance of the English coast, er if, on the other hand, he is more than lhalf-way across, Le can perhaps glide tlie jest of the way and land safely on Trench soil. Should lie be unfortunate enough .to bo out of sliding distance of both coun. itriee, he has time and opportunity to choose a likely-looking steamer to which Hie may piano down. Those on board are .watching him, and as ho "pancakes" into £ho sea with a splash the boat they lower reaches him long beforo his machine can .become altogether submerged. A pilot may begin his flight from England on. a sunny and cloudless day, in jwhich. case he may well congratulate himEelf on his luck. Distinctly visible as he passes over tbe sea are the two long winding lines of coast stretching far ftway into the distance, and he recognises their contours just as he has seen them Biany a time on the map. Mow him' is jtlie sparkling sea, sprinkled with tiny ships heading in all directions, but apparently immobilo, trailing thin lines of while ioaui behind them. He chooses a point and shapes his course upon this ;Uhile taking in tho wonderful eight which a, flight across the Channel affords. .Sometimes, evon on a bright, cloudless! day, a haze overhangs the Channel, ob-1 scuring the sea a few miles out and making tho opposite coast invisible. There is then nothißg for it but to iiy by compass. The pilot sets out and the cliffs Boon slip away under him and are lost to sight in the mist. Directly beneath ihim his eyes can just pierce the haze, . nnd he can see a limited expanse of gea, with little black ships dotted here and there. '

Ho knows the, tpeed of his machino and tho number of miles separating the two shores, so his watch indicates how much ground, or rather sea, lie has covered. ,Thus, although he can see nothing ahead of him, he knows when he may expect to ego the coast, provided he hns kept to [his compass route. Eventually ho is rewarded by the sight of a faint, dark, irre-. guiar line, which becomes clearer and clearer as he approaches and discloses an edging of whito—tho cliffs of franco. If the day is overcast and the cloifds nre low a pilot will bo wise to wait for better weather rather than fly low an<t through possible engine trouble risk the loss of a new machine (and perhaps himself). ' Service demands may, however, mako an immediate crossing imperative, and in such a case,, ho can push up through tho clouds to any convenient height and fly by watch and compass above the clouds. But in such a case ho does not experience the sheer joy of Channol flying, for both sea and land are invisible the whole of the time, and when at last he dives 'down through the clouds he has left the sea behind and the green fields of frimee are passing benoath him.—P.G.M., in the "Daily Mail." .