DEMONS OF THE AIR.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 87, 24 September 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

DEMONS OF THE AIR.

WHEN AIRMEN LOOK DEATH I.N THE FACE.

" Nerve.-'' " sad one of our most brilliant airmen, a year or so ago. to the writer. "No, we've no use for them. But, as a matter of fact and speaking for myself, 1 woud rather drive an aeroplane than a taxi-cab any day. \ on see there is so much more space in the air. Of course there are tinifts when a nun's life depends on a cool head and nerves of steii. and the fiver who ha<

net both at his command had much bet. t«4i remain on terrai lirma. 1 knew some whose nerves have boon absolutely ruined by a bad smash or a hairbreadth escape from death, and the.v have very wise'y not tempted Fate again."' Presence of m nd and nerves of . teei were certa nly necessary in the case or Flight Sub-Lieutenant Warneford. who, it will be remembered, brought down a Zeppelin in single combat, looped tha loop, came down in enemy's country, put his machine into running order, and reached heme safely. He .wo 1 deserved the congratulation of hie King and the Y.C.

Probably no a, : rman has carried a stouter heart or more splendid nerve above the cionds than Mr. B. C. Hueks. who has looked death in the face scores of t mes without a tremor: and never more closely than when, a couple n! 1 years ago, he was giving an exhibition of bomb-dropping. He was flying 000 feet high when a bomb which he was about to rolense bccime jammed in the moehaai-in, and exploded with great, force, wrecking hreal elevator and severing two of his tail controlling wires.

A terrible death seemed inevitable: 1ml; fortunately he kept Ins head. " I owed mv escape.' he says, "very 'argely to the perfect balance of my 111:1ciiim aid to the fact that I was alone. If I had had a ptissenpcer nothing cou'cl have saved mo. As it was the main wings supported me and the engine, and by careful manoeuvring 1 wa<s able to pi", no safely to earth without the use of anv elevator." CHEERY!

Only oare Mr. Bucks confesses wnv Ir's nerve really tried. He was just

about to go aloft for his hundredth feat of looping the loop when a ip'egra.m from a near relative was put into Ins hand. "Dreamt last night that yoi: won d have serious accident 0:1 hundred h loop. Very worried'' —such was the al inning and oniinious message i;>' rc-.-j I], a message calculated to take the heart cut of the bravest man.

A p?ifort hurricane was blowing at at the time, and. m Mr. Huoks says, "it certainly seemed long odds that 1 should be tossed about as helple-sly as .1 feather and perhaps smashed to earth. I>ut in f-pite of the dream-omen and the Kale he did not hesitate lor a. moment. He climbed into his neroplai'?. completed his century of loop* to the breathless wonder of the watching thousands. and came safe and smiling down again".

No less cool and daring i> Squadron Commander Cyril Porte, who has done such magnificent work at the front, and who simply does not know what fe ;.r is. Probably no flyer ever risked his life more recklessly than Commander Porte in one air-race which made all who witnessed it ga-p with horror. The race was so closely contested that, three-quarters of the way round the last lap, it was impossible to say who would win. When rounding the last pylon into the winning straight, Porte, in order to save a few yards, swung his aeroplane. wlreh was travel ing at eighty m Us an hour, over to an almost vertical position. For a second or two os breath-taking horror his lower wingtip actually swept the grass—an inch lower and he must have beet killed a,nd his machine smashed to fragmentsthen, with a quick movement of the 'ever he brought the aeroplane back on an even keel, and snatched a brilliant victory bv a few yards.

A DARING FLIGHT.

M. Roland Garros, one of the nio-i brilliant and daring Airmen in the world, .scorns to revel in risking his life. As he confesses, he "trusts to luck ana never worries." ;ind his luck has certainly rescued him from a hundred deaths— not the least certain of which kerned to he when he made his marvellous flight of .">OO miles across the }lediterranean from the R ; viera to Bizerta, in Africa, en a machine which could no) alight on water. Hut i ven Garros never took great ev liberties with Fate than when lie and the late Gustav Hamel tried to eclipse each other in the recklessness of their antics in tin air. O'imhing to a height of a mile cr so. until they were hut small specks against the blue of the sky. for half a.n hour they kept tin watching crowds below breathless with wonder and fear as they performed iti quick succ-cision the maddest antics they could conceive—diving headlong a thousand feet down l ; ke shooting stars, turning giddy somersaults, flying head downwards, dropping with awfuf swiftness towards the earth tail first, describing intricate figure* at lightning speed, and swooning down, first on one wing] tlicn on the other.

I When at last the pair of dare-devils came to earth, the judges were compelled to d ; vide the honours, since, as one of them raid, ''neither of them went nearer to death than the other." It was observed with amusement, when Garros (i imbed smiling and unruffled out of his monoplane, tliat lie was wearing patent leather dancing-shoes and white si'k socks, and that, from his wellcreased trousers to his pomaded black hair, he looked as immaculate a dandy as if he had just returned from a stroll in P.'ccadilly.

AN UNNERVING MISHAP

Only onto. Garros declares, has lus r.erve lv cn in danger. ci' failing him; and this was under such conditions ot terror as might wo 1 make even 1; stout lier.rt qua'!. This was when, ei'ier ol'iiibMig .several thousand feet, he suddenly heard what he described as a "horrible crackling sound"' from his motor. "I soon realised.'" lo .'ay-, "that the machine had lost its balance. Perspirat on stood in beads on my forehead, an l my heart began that cold, hard beiting which shows better than any theory how simple ir tinct can herald the real moment of danger. I.uckMv 1 had the happy inspiration to switch off my sparking apparatus; and

rftiT some urnerving moments my motor (iinio to a standstill. The question arose l.oiv to make the descent —J ivont down a.s s'owly as I possibly could, nnd at la t. to my un>peakahle relief, fame t<> earth safe and sound." Mr. Grahame-White cniiftvatat that his e'o est brush \v : th death was when he was J'iving an exhibition flight m America, at Be!mont Park. He was coming down to earth when a gust ot wind caught his machine head on, jamming the head down and <aus : ng the nwoplane to ri>e. "To my horror." he says, "it war, unending tad first, describing a glow arc in the a!r, the end of which Aust he that the machine wouM turn turtle and crash to earth. I crouched down low in the car, filling a ; lit:'c space as posvblc. my only chanie being to take advantage ot every hit of protection that the overturning machine might affcrd me. t dung tighti'y to the sides op the car: hit: when the crash came my hands were tern loose, and T was hurled out. huried in a shroud of canvas, miriculous'y c caping with a few brumes. The

officials; rushed towards me, and wer< amazed to find that I was alive." FIGHTING THE GALE. Even such a cool-headed, seasoned flyer its Lieutenant Beaumont, whose name was on all lips three or four years ago, confesses that he has had very anxious moments, as when once he gave an exhibition flight at Calais in a wind blowng fifty 'miles an hour. "The Bleriot." lie says, "plunged and reared, flung up her tan, bolted down the wind and became, h most unmanageable. I broke out in a cold sweat, realising that on'v by a miracle could I hope to come down again in safety. But tlio machine and engine behaved magnificently, and with a swift and sudden plunge I dropped .and luckily fell lightly. But never again will 1 attempt a II ght in such a wind !" It was in a similar gale that Vedrines, during his. thril ing race with Beaumont round Birtain for a £IO,OOO prize, had the most exciting and also the most perilous of a'l his experiences. '' I was chasing Beaumont to Manchester." he says, "when I swept into a rainstorm, which changed to hail, and the hailstones rattled off my machine with the sound of bullets pattering on a wall. Then the wind caught my machine, and I was pitched and tossed and rocked like a cockleshell. I thought every moment would be my last —it seemed im-po»-ibi"o to escape a terrible catastrophe. However, somehow —I don't know how —I ultimately landed, or fell, and people told me I was at St. Helens."