PERILS OF THE AIR

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10278, 13 May 1919, Page 7

PERILS OF THE AIR

THRILLING EXPERIENCE BRIEF MOMENT IX A KITE BALLOON. For some weeks' the executive officer of tho United States destroyer T , ono of tho ships that lias an American observation balloon tied to its tail on its convoying trips out of a French port, had been spofing young naval and balloon pilots about their soft jobs (writes Frazer Hunt in tho “CJiiengo Tribune”). “They don’t even class you fellows as real 'flyers,” ho went on jokingly. “You are'just kidding yourselves about your hard job. Ugh I They don’t even lot you wear the gold wings of a flying man on your blouse.” “Say, will you comb up with me some blowy day, when wc’rc out on a fast troop convoy?” the young pilot pleaded, “Just do two hours with me I dare you to.” So It was that on the destroyer T ’s next trip out the executive officer, who is second in command of tho ship, stood with tho pilot in the T y’s stern by the winch that was pulling the observation balloon down to change tho pilot and observer. This day the descending balloon was tugging! at its steel cable, swinging far from ono side to tho other, plunging and dipping, not only from the motion of tho ship that was its moving anchor; but from the heavy wind that was blowing, with its swirls and puffs and pockets 1 . Olose to the ship now the basket with its two men was whipping across tho stem of the destroyer like a pendulum that had suddenly gone stark made. DOWN THE. JACOB’S LADDER. When 20ft above the deck the men in the basket unsnappod the parachute rope from their shoulder harness, and tied on a heavy rope that ran through a pulley attached to the basket. Then 1 hey dropped the other end to men on the deck of tho destroyer. _ Then they climbed over the edge of their swinging, plunging cage, and started down tho Jacob’.s ladder.

This ladder, ' hanging: below the basket like tho tail of a kite, was being whipped about like so much string. One second it would he far out over one side, and the- ’ho next it would swing across the rk and plunge far out on the other side. The trick was for tho two men to land on the deck without getting any bones broken. Little by little tho men on the ship holding the ropes tied to the pilot and observer would pay out slack as they came down tho ladder. One was whipped about so violently that he lost hold of his ladder and hung helpless, suspended like a man on a gallows, only by the rope tied to the harness about his shoulders. By luck and careful calculating he was dropped like so much lead in the centre of the deck as ho swung by. Tho piot, however, clung to his ladder, and calling for plenty of slack in the rope that held him jumped clear, landing on his feet on the deck after two or three wild minutes. 5 ■ -

Everything was' now ready for the new pilot and his volunteer observer, tho executive officer, to make • their trip. All they had to do was to climb into this bucking, plunging basket that was hanging some ton feet above the deck. A PERILOUS BATTLE.

First they strapped, the topes that the others had been swung down by to their own harness. , Then timing the swinging ladders they grabbed them, and with the help of the ropes swung over the pullevs tied to the balloon basket they fought'their way to the car. Once aboard tho wicker, basket that was three and one-half feet by four square, with sides chest high, the pilot ordered tho men to send tho balloon up. After the perilous battle to get aboard the basket the sensation of being carried high into tho air and thrown about like chaff in the wind was almost a cheap one. Anything was a relief from the dangerous climb up the rope ladder. Two hundred feet, up the pilot un. strapped tho rope from his hack and snapped in place another rope that was fastened to the parachute held in a box on tho outside of tho basket. At a moment’s notice now he could jump from the car and after dropping about a hundred feet like a rocket the giant silk umbrella would open and he would float gently down, landing with about the same force as if ho hndjumped from a 10ft wall. Tho executive officer took tho cue and arranged his own safety rope. i p and uj> and up they wont, swinging in wide circles, doing strange dips, diving and plunging and rolling like no ship of tho seas has ever done. Bach now hundred feet of rise opened up a new horizon to them. Smoke away off to the port, twenty miles away, in a minute changed info ships, and then, as they rose up and up, they could count thorn easily. Now worlds Were born constantly for them. .SLOPING THROUGH THE AIR.

A thousand feet they gained, and then they stopped. 'l'hoy wore fairly galloping through the air now. To the thirty-knot speed of their destroyer had to be added the thirty-mile wind that they were testing against. Now and again they would strike air--ockets and drop liko a paving-brick ton or fifteen foci. W was a wild, mad ride.

“I haven’t been so near actually seasick since my first) cruise as a midshipman,”* shouted the “Jfixock” into the ear of the pilot. But confession does not help much with seasickness, so for some minutes the ship’s officer didn’t enjoy to the fullest his air voyage. But there was something big and stirring and fino and adventurous about it that this older officer caught even at his worst moment.

Away down below them, dotting the ocean like so many toy ships, wore tho troopers zigzagging in formation —and those two - men tossed about in tho swinging basket of ibis kite balloon siiared deeply in tho grave responsibility of seeing tho United States navy landed these 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers on those ships safely in a French harbour.

High above boro they could sweep the ocean with their glasses for 40 miles in all directions.

“What would happen if this stool cable would break P” the volunteer observer of this particular trip asked tho pilot. “Probably wo could bring her down safely by opening tho gas valves and letting out hydrogen,” ho answered. “If it looked bad, wo could always jump in our parachutes and save ourselves. Just before wo let go I’d pull this rope that would rip open a section of the bag and bring the balloon down.”' Tho ship's officer shuddered a little

when he thought of letting go everything and jumping overboard with only the promise of a parachute to break the thousand-foot fall. AH in all. he’d had quite enough of kite bal-looning—-he’d do his sailing' after this on tho water and not in the air. He’d been tossed about, bruised and battered, and was ready to go down. He told the pilot so, and ten seconds later the officer on the ship’s bridge had the order to haul down the balloon. NOSH DIVED TO THE WATER.

The first 600 ft of descent was rough going. Every lurch and dive of the slup’s stern was translated to tho swinging basket. This was bad enough, but when 400 ft above the ship the boat went into a deep dive, pulling uho nose of the balloon down suddenly, a heavy air current hit on top of tho balloon, and, like a flash, it nose-dived to die water, dragging the basket with it. The next second the men were in the water. »

With splendid seamanship, the captain drove his boat into the wind, turned it. shut off his engines, and then let the wind carry him slowly back until he was drifting alongside the men, in the water. It was but a half minute’s work now to throw them linos and pull them aboard. It was half an hour later that tho youthful balloon pilot wjio had the “soft job” and the skip’s executive officer, balloon observer for a single trip, met. They bad dry clothes on, and were smiling over their escape. “Say, do you know what I’m going to do?” questioned the older officer. “Well, I’m going to try to get that rule not permitting you balloon men to wear gold wings on your blouse changed; From what I know now ; you should be wearing a double pair on both aides of your chest. He-work, that’s what I call your job.”