THE TENSE MOMENTS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5080, 26 January 1927, Page 1

THE TENSE MOMENTS.

FACTORS IN AIR CRASHES.

PERIODS OF HUMAN LAPSES.

Sometimes, watching an expert bil-liards-player and seeing him mane shot after shot with uncanny precision, one has the impression that he. will never stop ; and then, suddenly, to one’s surprise., he breaks down at a simple stroke.

A problem of psychology this, and there are similar psychological problems which are engaging attention in connection with aeroplane crashes in our Royal Air Force (says Harry Harper in the Daily Ne.ws). The most expert exponents of any art have moments when, often through fatigue, their superlative skill deserts them. Occasionally it may not even be fatigue, but jusr carelessness or inattention. Or the very skill they possess may make them over-confident.

In one’s mind as one writes is, a certain R.A.F. fatality. Here you had a man of extraordinary dexterity in flying. He had just been doing wonderful things up in the air. Then he came down for a spell, and on reascending was guilty near the ground of a mistake which a pupil at a flying school would have been careful to avoid. He “stalled” his. machine, or lost flying spiled ; and the result was that he crashed.

Accidents such as these are the penalty of some perfectly human lapse, Of a mistake which—remembering that in flying one cannot afford to make mistakes —exacts the dire consequence of death.

There are danger periods which investigations now show to exist. It is not .when an Air Force pilot is learning to fly that there, is special risk ; nor iii the phase when he is. becoming proficient. But there is a definite danger-time when, having become a practical pilot and yet with his confidence untempered by experience, he may do something foolish simply because his cleverness is not tinged by sufficient caution. •

Again, later, may come a dangerspell when a pilot of vast experience, is guilty, through the carelessness born of familiarity, o'f some trifling error near the ground which, despite his skill, he cannot remedy before his machine crashes.

Remembering that an air force has during times of peace to prepare itself constantly for war, such problems of psychology are specially difficult. One might buy almost complete safety by refusing to. alftw one’s pilots to do anything potentially risky. But in that case one would develop a mediocre force which would receive scant mercy from the daring pi'ots of some dashing service. No ; the solution does not lie there. Our pilots must, as a matter of fact, be encouraged within reason to be bold —to show . spirit and initiative. But at the same time they must be reminded constantly of the need for vigilance while in the air. It must be borne, always upon their minds that the penltay of error may be death. Furthermore, and this is a point now receiving particular attention —each man must be watched individually in his flying. Not only his physical strength, but his condition mental l }’, from day to day must be a matter of undbstrusive concern. Any

sign of “staleness” or of nervqs must be. looked for closejy. And if he seems off colour he must remain for a time on the ground.

It is a human hand, a human eye, a human brain, which are in control of the. winged projectiles wq now send hurtling through the sky ; and the air force which studies most closely the psychology of its pilots; will be able to render itself most efficient for any great emergency with the least loss df life in peace-time crashes.