THE AIRWAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 698, 25 June 1929, Page 14

THE AIRWAY

By

“THE ROC”

SAFE FLYING

FLYING is safe, and lias been safe for a number of years. In the infancy of the science of practical aeronautics an exponent had some claims to the title of hero, but this was so in the case of the motor-car and even in that of the humble bicycle. But those days are gone and today the light airplane is so easy to fly and so reliable that there is nowadays seldom any excuse for giving newspapers the opportunity to blazon their poster-boards with the news of a crash.

And yet so-called “accidents” do happen, with a far greater frequency than should be the case; and often all that the public ever knows about an occurrence of this kind is gathered from a highly-coloured and usually inaccurate description of an “eye-wit-ness” (who, incidentally, nearly always happens to be working in his garden nearby). If an authoritative explanation is ever offered, it certainly r.arely blames the machine, but usually assigns the catastrophe to an "error of judgment on the part of the pilot” —all of which is unsatisfactory, and tells us nothing. What we want to know is what caused the pilot to commit this “error of judgment” —how did he come to find himself in difficulties? Was he doing something which any prudent person would know to be attended with danger, and, if so, what motives actuated him; or, on the other hand, is his judgment in the air inherently bad, in which latter case he obviously needs further instruction to improve his judgment? The last contingency in these days may, it is submitted, be disregarded as a general rule, for the reason that it is a point, not so much of honour, but of obvious policy, among qualified instructors not to let their pupils go solo until they are perfectly satisfied of their complete competence in the air. Thus, we are forced to the conclusion that the pilot was for some reason flying his machine In a manner which would he discountenanced by any good instructor.

What is this reason likely to be? In the vast majority of cases, it Is simply —Vanity; or, to put it more crudely, just common or garden swank. Vanity has ever been condemned as a sin in human beings, and many have been the warnings issued against the “coming unstuck” which follows sooner or later. In nothing have these warnings been more justified than in flying. A young pilot, and alas, sometimes an old one, there being no fool like an old fool, is anxious to show his skill and intrepidity to an admiring crowd, or individual. He thinks, "I am much too high up here, they cannot see me clearly enough, or appreciate the wonderful things I am about to show them, so I will come down just above the trees and give them a show, and maybe scare them a bit, and then they will think all the more of me.” Very well, he does so. He shoots them up good and proper, and people on the ground who have heard of low flying before are justly angry and their children are considerably frightened. His mind and his eye wander to the onlookers, from whom he seems to hear paeans of admiration, and then — “Good Lord, I never saw that tree,” or else he stalls on a turn, or finds himself unable to clear a row of buildings or some telegraph wires and, voila, his flying for that day, at least, is finished. If he is lucky he only gets Into trouble, gives the newspapers a scoop and helps the public to get fed up with aviation. And how silly it all is. If only he had kept his mind concentrated on his flying and left his audience to look after themselves and to reflect on the safety and convenience of aerial travel, he would not have made a fool of himself and earned the whole movement a black mark. A first-class pilot, like a first-class actor, does not remember that an audience exists.

Another fruitful cause of mishaps is panic. A pilot gets lost, sees nothing he recognises, and, instead of taking things calmly, finding the direction of the wind, picking a field and then living low over it several times to make sure that the surface is suitable for a landing and that there is nothing to prevent him from getting out of it again, be usually panics, shuts his engine off with a rush, then either forgets its existence or opens his throttle so violently that he chokes it, with the result that he makes, at the least, a landing that is emphatically not worth writing home about. It is better to go round ten times, if by doing so it can be better ascertained

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that all is well for landing, than to go round once and then to hit some obstacle.

One of the soundest pieces of advice that an instructor can instill into his pupils is that, in any but extraordinary weather conditions, there is no excuse for a crash, provided the engine is functioning; and engines being nowadays so reliable, a stoppage is a rare occurrence. IC such a thing should happen, a momentary panic is perhaps understandable, but even in this unlikely eventuality, observance of the two safety factors in flying will afford the pilot every chance of making a safe landing. These two factors are: (a) Speed.—Always keep at least 15 m.p.h. in hand above the known stalling speed of the aircraft which is being flown. The modern machine is fitted with very reliable airspeed indicators, and the habit of checking speed by them is entirely advantageous. (b) Height.—Stunting near the

ground and low flying generally , the primary causes of nearly ' accident which happens today rj~~ sufficient height, any mistake easily be rectified, and, in the event of engine failure, heights give the pilot ample time to reeo, from any momentary fright and to set about the business of laMAccording to his height, so vfljj choice of fields be enlarged and » plenty of height allied to speed, he will have a large select;' , The habit of flying unnecessary, over close country or towns is w for instance, if a sizeable wood lie* the route, either fly high over it it for any reason that is imposs,, then go round the edge. It tat," very little effort, and it is a wise ti--to endeavour always to have landaV ground within reach, even if an emt gency should never arise. i n earlier days when forced landicr were quite a frequent occurrence pilots were always on the r ;-, selecting fields, ascertaining wind r . ditions and metaphorically matforced landings. Even today this . a habit well worth cultivating, and with a little practice becomes eft* less," fields being noted unconsciouIt helps to dispel the ennui of P - periods in the air and, if a forcet landing ever has to be made, the direction of wind and suitable fields: the vicinity are already knownY most valuable consideration. To sum up, then, the golden rule, for safe flying are: do not show cl fly high, keep up your speed, k«cool, and keep your eyes open. Tb string of injunctions may look i.r midable, but a little reflection wil show that in reality they are nothir: but common sense. The task of pile ing an airplane is far less eiactic: than that of driving a motor-car; , pilot can spend in the air many more hours without a break than are pcs sible on the road, and the neroc; strain, if it exists at all, is nothii. compared with that of a long spell s. the wheel of a car. If these fev simple and obvious rules are observed, flying will become even safer than it is today, and nobody will be the loser.