LEARNING TO FLY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 80, 1 November 1916, Page 7

LEARNING TO FLY.

INTRICATE MOVEMENTS IN THE AIR. An officer in the Royal Flying Squadron, now in Salonika, writing liome from Yorkshire by the last mail, gives a vivid description of wha| flying means,; though it makes the ordinary man, who prefers performing his “stunts” on terra Anna, nervous to read of his doings above the clouds. “I would not be surprised to be sent abroad any day now,” he writes, “as it is eight days since Will went out, and we both got our wings within a few days of each other. I don’t like this place as well as the other aerodromes I’ve been at, as we don’t get enough flying. 1 have only done half an hour since I have been here (one week), and don’t suppose I’ll do much more till I get to the front, as 1 have done my ‘2O hours’ solo, which is the required amount before being sent overseas. 1 have tried a few stunts, such as stalling steep spirals and looping, but I think I like a very steep spiral, with the engine off, best. You go round and round in a very small circle with your planes almost perpendicular, doing from 55 to 60 miles per hour. W’hen you are in one of these you have to use your opposite rudder, which then acts as a tail elevator, holding the tail down, the aelerans (controls) on the wings then act as a rudder, and so keep the nose up.

“If you think that out it will give you some idea of how vertical you can put a machine in a spiral. It is very confusing for the first time, especially if you watch your outside wing. 1 generally keep glancing at my instruments, and the inside wing. Stalling is a very good practice to beat ‘Archie (anti-aircraft shells), svs you stop still in the air for a few seconds. What you do is to pull your nose straight into the air till you arc almost vertical, and then cut your engine off; you then hang until you have lost flying speed, and then the machine nose dives, and all you have to do is to hold the controls back and sit tight. It is much slower than a loop, and you must lie back and watch the sky. One fellow told me the first one ho tried he went up too vertical, and the machine toppled backwards, but finally righted itself. I really don't know what happened the first one i did, but 1 know it finally came out with one wing low, and I believe it was a good tail slide.”