LOST IN THE FOG

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 71, 18 December 1918, Page 5

LOST IN THE FOG

AIRMAN'S HAIR-RAISING EXPERIENCE

ON THE CHANNEL FERRY

(By Royd Cable, jn the "Westminster Gazette.") A Ferry Pilot onco told me he had a very pleasant and "cushy" job, especially when. , you compared it with the one in n squadron working over Hid lines. Because we had just made an ideal flight across Channel on a beautiful summer day, and were sitting in comfortable deck-chairs basking in the sun outsidethe Pool Pilots' Mess "somewhere in France" after a good lunch, I was at first inclined to believe him. A little later he told a story that made me revise this belief, the more so as it was not told to impress, and was accepted by the other Ferry Pilots there present so casually and with so little comment that it was apparently an experience not at all beyond the average. A chance remark was made about a recent trip on which he had been lost in the mist, and had two very close shaves from crashing. Since none of .the others asked for tho. story, I did; and got it at last told very sketchily and off-haaded. and only filled in with such details as I could drag out of him with many questions. He had started out one morning to fly a new fast 6ingle-seater scout machine to France, and while getting his height before pushing out across Channel, noticed there was a haze over tho water, and that -the coast on the other side was also rather obscured, although not to any alarming extent. But before he 'had got over to the French side quite a thick mist had crop up Channel, and he had to come down to a couple of thousand feel; to pick up his exact bearings. He lost some tinio at this, but at last recognised a bit of the coast, and found he was rather oft' ins line, so swung off and pushed for the depot landing ground.- Before he reached it the mist, which had been steadily thickening, suddenly swept over in a'solid wave, and ho found any view ot the ground completely gone. Hβ climbed a couple of thousand into the sunlight again aiid looked round fur a bearing, thought he could make out the ground in one direction, and, opening his engine full out, pushed off for the spot. But either his eyes had deceived him or the mist had boat him to it. He flew on. with nothing but crawling, drifting mist visible below him, dropped down again, and peered over the side; down aiur (linrjj again until his altimeter showed liim to oe a bare coiiplb of hundred feet up. There was still no sight of-ground, and since he was now in thick mist liimself ho could see nothing but dim greyness below, all round, and nbovo him. He climbed through thinning layers of mist into daylight, and headed straight south by compass, figurine that the best plan was to try to outny the mist area, and -when he could see the ground anywhere, pick up a bearing and a drome—any drome—and get down on it. ' ' .

But after half 'an hour's flight he was still above crawling banks <|f mist, _an<l by now lnad not the faintest idea of wnero he was. He had made several dips down to look for the ground, but each time, had caught not the faintest indication of it. although he had dropped dangerously low according to altimeter. ITe began to wonder if the altimeter was registering correctly, but camp to Hip lurlilv-ihi-pleasant conclusion that if ho could not trust it he certainly could not distrust it to the extent of biilievins'hc was Helif , than it showed, dropping down and perhaps banging into a clump of trees or telegraph wires, <ir any other obstruction. Hβ admits that ho began to gel: a bit rattled hnre. Ho became oppressed with a desolating sen?i> of his- utter nloneness. especially when he was lov down and whirling blindly through the mist. Ho was completely cut oft' from the world. Firm ground was tilery b"notlh Mm w>mowhere cheery companions, homely hting* lik,; cosy rooms and fires and hot col Fee; but while the mist lasted he could no more touch any of them than he could touch the moon.

Completely Lost. To make it worse he was completely lost, and had not the faintest idea where lie was. Ho was steering by compass only,.and if ho was drifting to the east lie might be approaching.the lines and Hunliind, and if to the -west might even now be over the sen. For an hour ami a half ho 'flew, trying to keep a straight course south, and seeing nothing but that dim grey around him when ho caino low, the sun and sky above and the wide floor of mist beneath when he climbwl high. Plying high he had the same senso of alonenessy of being tho only living tiling in an empty world of his own, of cut-off-ness from tho earth, that ho had -when he was in the blanketing mist. It was a different kind of, aloiiwiess, but even more desperate, from the feeling of helplessness that went with it. Here he was, a , fit, strong- man, with every limb, organ, and sense perfect, with « good, found, first-class machine under him, with a bright sun and a clear sky aliovo, able to control his every move; nient, to fly to any point of the compass, to go up or down or round, at any angle or speed he liked—exc-ept a speed low enough to allow him to drop to the ground without smashing himself and his machine to pulp and splinters. All his power was reduced to nought by a liiero bank of mist, a thin, impalpable vapour, a certain amount of moisture in the atmosphere. His very power and speed were his Midoing. Speed that in free air was safety was death on touching the ground except at v a proper ansle. nnd with a clear run to slow in—an anglo he could not gauge, _ a clear run he could not find for this deadly mist. It was maddening . .'. and terrifying. Ho decided to make one more try for the ground, a last attempt to see if ho could get below the mist blanket without Hitting the earth. He thrust his nose down, and plunged, flattening out a little a* he came into the wist, shut off his eiigine, «nd wtnt on .down in a long slide, with . bis eyes on the altimeter, lifting and staring down overside, turning back quicklp to rend his height. At three hundred he could see nothing—at two hundred nothih—at a hundred- still nothing but swirling greyness. He flew on, still edging down, opening up his engine every now ■ and then to maintain flying epeed, shutting it off and gliding, his eyes straining for sight of anything solid, his 'ears for sound of anything but the whistle and whine of the wind on his -wings arid wires. Down, still down, his heart in his mouth, hie hand ready on the throttle, down . . . down .... ' Everything depended on what sort of surface he was living above. If there were flat oopen fields ho must catch sight, however shadowy it might be, of them before touching anything. If there were trees or buildings below, the first sight he 'got might be something looming up before him a fraction of a second before he hit. Down, steadily and gradually, but still down, down . . . then, up—suddenly and steeply, his hand jerking the throttle wide open, the engine roaring out in deafening notes that for all their strength could not drown the thumping of his heart and the blood drumming in his ears. A hundred feethe climbed steeply, but even then, with the panic of immediate peril gone, he kept on climbing in narrow turns up into the sunlight again. "Phew!" I Hβ had had a deadly narrow escape, had been so intent on staring down for the ground that almost before he knew what was happening he had flashed closo paet something solid, something that his wing-tips catching would have meant death—a straight upright pillar, then another, with faint pencilled linos running between them—a ship's masts and rigging. And as he shot up, almost straight up, he had a quick glimpse of another three shadowy masts jerking downwards into obscurity before and then beneath him. Ho must be over a harbour, or dock, or perhaps some sort of canal basin. Ho kept hie upward course until ho was in sunlight again, carefully examined his oil and petrol guages and his compiles, and set a northerly course. The mist might be over all Trance; he would make a try back for England. He held on until ho had run his main petrol tank out, switched on to tho gravity "emergency tank" set on the lop plane, and kept steadily on his course. Ho had an hour's petrol there, and that ought, he figured, to take him woll over England and inland. Ho decided to keop going until he

could see signs of Ihe mist thinning, or until his petrol ran almost out; tut when it was about linlfympty, and he thought he must bo back over the Channel and a good many miles inland, he slid down through Hie mist on the chance of being able to see (he ground below it. He went down to a hundred feet, lower, could see nothing, opened his engine out again, and began to climb. Then he had another hair-raising deadly scare. He saw the mist in front of liim suddenly begin to darken, to solidify, to take shape, to become u solid bulk stretching out and thinning away to grey mist to either side, above him, and below him. For one flashing instant he was puzzled, for another he was panic-stricken; knew with a, cold clutch of terror at his heart that he was charging at a hundred miles an hour full into the face of a sheer-walled cliff. Actually his speed was hie saving—his 6peed alid th; instinct that did the one possible thing to bring him clear. He had gathered way on his upward slant, his engine running full out. He hauled the control lever hard in, and his machine, answering instantly, reared and swooped and shot straight up parallel with the cliff face, over in the first half of a loop, and straight away from t!ii» cliif, upside down, until he was far enough out safely to roll over to an evon keel. It was so close a thing that for an instant he saw distinctly the cracks and crevices in the cliff face, held his breath, dreading to' feel the jar of wheels or tail on the rock, and the plunge and crasli that would follow. A long way out he slanted up, with his heart still thumping unpleasantly, climbed until ho was in the sunlight; again, and turned north.

He found the mist thinning ten minutes later, cleared it i"n another fire, glided down, and picked a good field, and landed—wilh about ten minutes' petrol in his tank.

And that same afternoon, when the mist went, ho refilled his tanks and took his machine over to France, and delivered it to the depot there.

But a Ferry Pilot, you'll remember, has a "cuflhy" job.