AIR CLIMBING.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1917, Page 4

AIR CLIMBING.

(By a War Pilot.)

There is no satisfaction like flying a machine that can climb, and climb high and fast. To be at 20,000 ft up with a powerful engine and a wellrigged machine is to feel a sense of power that nothing else can give. From the very ground up a quick climber is a joy . . . a little run, and then a clean sweep away. Regardless of all the precepts of experience, you can torn sharp as yon climb, and turn and climb again. That, could never be done in a machine which could not climb that way. Engine and build make play ot what else would be a certain “ crash.” The reason is simple. No machine can fly without “ flying speed ” —a certain minimum speed tln’ough the air peculiar to its own type. Climbing on a turn near the ground where currents are uncertain and there is no elbow room, you may lose tins minimum speed. Then the whole thing will slip out of yonr control. There will be a side slip, a nose dive, and a thud, through which yon hear the splintering of wood. It may sometimes take two hours to get the pilot’s body out of that medley of engine and wood and wives . . . the machine may oven capsize as it crashes.

But what a difference in a machine that is built for c innb ! The engine can pull yon out of anything an.i the machine will respond.

~ In the early days, when even longdistance reconnaissance was done in machines that are now considered just, about good enough for school work, the battle with insufficient height was an awful strain on the nerves.

It is bad at anytime to be too near the ground, but for those who had to stagger over the lines at 4,000 ft to 5,000 ft hugging and jealously guarding the little height in hand, it was no joke at all ; and yet even those machines were marvels of development, considering how little the world knew about aviation. /Wain, in fighting, climbing-power is half the battle. Height means speed: yon can put your nose down and dive, and see the “ air speed indicator ” rise to dizzy figures. Height means control ; you can see the other man better than lie can see yon — especially a single seater. The bird of prey attacks from above. Height may mean the power to drive the other machine down—even by bluff. Even bomb dropping, reconnaissance, and photography need height ancl climb, and need it more and more.

In a good climber you can get your height and lose it, and get it again as you choose ; but in a slow one you can never dare “ lose height,” without a very good reason. It is sacrificing power. In the machines of the early days the limitations of time were a terrible li an dicap. “ Climb” —the power to climb fast and high—is one of the secrets of aerial success, as it is also one of the most difficult problems to solve. In gaining'climbing-power other things may be lost which are essential to’r the machine’s particular work. War demands many types of aeroplanes. *\* # * *

But with all the improvements that may be made nothing can ever replace the human element With a machine that is capable of sailing up I,oooft a. minute, a steady hand is yet needed to make it to db its best. There must also be a sensitive touch. More than all. there must be just that instinctive kuowledge of how to make the particular machine give its best which only a first-rat# pilot possesses.