QUEER AIR STUDENTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 255, 16 July 1918, Page 6

QUEER AIR STUDENTS

THE AERODROME'S "PUPS." "Pups," as flying pupils are called, sometimes include some queer iel owe. - "This is my sou," said a fathei tome one day at Hendon. "llfl yants to learn to fly. Here's a cheque for the fee He's only iifteen, nnd-a bit timid,, 0 I should be obliged if you would, keep an eye on him. Jdontwant Lim to start leading a gay liteI promised to shelter this addition h> the "nups"" list ' aud ? WaS Z\ lL -n fore ne became good-humouredly know as "the baby." When he got into the machine he was almost lost to »»*?«- ing to his small build, and as his wrwta were not. strong it was some time fctfoie he could "wangle" the control lever which, on the type of aeroplane we ueia using, was rather stiff. On another occasion a man apparently between GO and 70 walked into my office and asked for .particulars of the fl>inc instruction given at the school. I told, him that beforo entering into any contract I should like to see the pupil .on. whose behalf he wns making iiin.nint's- - looked rather hurt.and replied. I am the pupil." ~ I politelv referred Mm to another school Three! months later the old man. (between CO and 70 owned a pilots cerImaqinc a motor-car stripped of m.ujl. guards, with no upholstery, covered in In. the. mud of ages, badly dented and generally suffering -from inexcnsiible neglect; in it a man of 32, unshaven tor a week and dressed in a well-worn suit, torn and ragged, and with no collar and tie. Such a spectacle handed me ft bnncli of notes one day and joined the flyini* "pupi , " waiting list. v ... He was an Oxford man. Only once did 1 sec him at all properly dressed, and that was on the occasion of Ins interview at the War Office when he sougkt k commission in the old R.F.C. He got it and was killed on service a few months "I will ioi'i your school," said another prospective "pup" who came from one of the Dominions, "if I need not fly on Sundays. I always go to chapel then «U mother objects to my doing anything else on Sunday." , , 1 agreed to his suggestion and hP became one. of the best pilots in the school. "What's your weight?" I asked ft stout Army captain, aged 21, whose «fc ambition was .to lly. "Eighteen s one ho replied. "Of course, it,'s a bit hca\y. "Never mind.M said. "We'll do some tb We did. >r ni'e first machine that earried him over the ground refused to lift him in the air as it had been deewned. only for light school work. Eventually wo got him up in another aeroplane, but when he came down he j*aid to me: I m so afraid of bursting the sides of the 'bus , when I'm ft thousand feet up! That pupil did not take hie pilots ticket. _