Sensation of Flying

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 February 1918, Page 1

Sensation of Flying

DESCRIBED BY MINISTER; Or MAKINE. The Hon. T. M. Wilford, Minister of Justice and Marine, was in full flight over Christchurch city in one of the Canterbury Aviation Company's biplanes on Saturday morning. Some fellow-passengers on the Maori on Saturday evening asked a hundred questions as to what flying feels like, and Mr Wilford gave a description of the sensations and sights he had experienced. "After wc came down,"'he said, "a man who saw us pass over the city said we looked about the size of a cigar— wc were in a big 100-horse-power Caudron machine 3000 ft up. Well, just about that moment the pilot, Hill, stopped his engine, and tapped me on the shoulder.

" 'That's Cathedral Square below,' he shouted.

" 'Yes, I see it,' I replied. Cathedral Square looked about the size of a wooden matchbox, and I could not distinguish human beings 011 it. That was the only time the pilot spoke to nie during the flight, which lasted twentysix minutes.''

The hangars and flying grounds of this school for the training of birdmen arc at Soclcburn, some distance from Christchurch. At the invitation of the management the Minister went there on Saturday morning, and was surprised at the size of the hangars, compared with those in France and England which he had seen; they were palatial.

"How do you feel about it?" Hill, the pilot, asked. "I told him," said Mr Wilford, "that I felt all right, but I would leave the matter in his hands. I suggested a short, straight flight until he saw whether my nerve was right. I felt confident myself. The pilot agreed, and-I got into tlie front, scat, after being supplied with warm clothing, goggles, and cap. Then wo started. We rose in a straight flight, and the earth just melted below us. It becamc eolder and the roar of the engines deepened, and it was sublime—it typified to me what the French calt the joy of living. A friend of mine who joined the flying corps in France wrote a description of his first ascent. 111 it he said that his strongest impulse was to sing, and he sang and sang. It did not appeal to me then, but it does now—that apparently insane desire. I wanted to stand up and sing and sing. Instead, I folded my arms and let. the pilot know 1 was at ease and enjoying it. It was soon after that that, he pointed out Cathedral Square to me, and a few moments later he banked and turned, with the aeroplane canted over to one side. "I have ridden in speed-cars on Brooklands track, and have marvelled that any engines could drive a car at such speeds, and that the cars could sweep round the banked curves without disaster. But this morning I did not marvel. It all seemed so natural. I just leaned inwards as I would in a motor ear. The sensation was as though we were being borne on a soft, strong material, steadily and safely, and that indescribable thrill I have just mentioned made me feel intensely alive.

"The whole of Christchurch and the Estuary and Sumner were spread out like a 'carpet below us. We were 3000 feet above them, and they looked quite in order down there. Suddenly the pilot swung the 'plane's nose downward, and I could look clear into the space 011 whose floor that carpet was spread. First, I saw it. from one. direction, then from another. We -were flying in a spiral, and I enjoyed it, as I did the ensuing wide sweep over the Estuary and the return to the aerodrome.

"Really, it seemed scarcely five minutes after we started that we were flying back over the city again. I knew we should soon descend, but. for the life of me I could not distinguish the Sockburn grounds, not even when we were descending quite quickly. "No; the descent did not make mo feel any nausea. You get a worse sensation coming down in a high-speed lift than you do in a descending aeroplane. Suddenly we wheeled gracefully, and there, straight ahead of us, were the hangars and the grounds for alighting upon. Down we skimmed, and landed like a feather, scarcely hopping on the wheels, as the machine gradually came to a standstill."