CROSS-COUNTRY FLYING.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1919, Page 7

CROSS-COUNTRY FLYING.

SOME INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS,

(By a Tavnnaki Pilot.) The Daily Mail has published a number of short articles on flying, contributed by different pilots. All the articles are more or less interesting to readers, touching as they do on various branches of the air service, but, although some are absolutely correct in detail, most of them convey wrong impressions. They are attractively written, but they are laughed at by those who know their job. The city man reading his morning paper in the train says: "What an interesting article!" The pilot reading the same paragraph in his mess says: "What utter rot this fellow writes!"

I will drop my modesty for the moment, and try and excuse myself for writing this by telling you that I am a cross country flier of some experience and am what is called a "weather hog," which is a name given to a pilot who enjoys being "up against" it, and who will continue to fly ivhen others say he is "dud" or totally unfit. Finding one's way in very fine weather is quite a simple matter, especially if the point to be reached is near the coast line, because one has only to climb 4,000 or 5,000 feet to see 50 miles ahead. To find a point one has never seen, in misty or cloudy weather is, however, quite a different task. If I were flying in New Zealand I would recognise every township and river and most of the roads in both islands, but over this side of the globe there are very few rivers of any consequence and such a multiplicity of roads, railways and towns, which together with misty atmosphere, make finding one's way a difficult matter until the necessary experience has been gained. Then again the country looks different in different lights and very different when covered with snow.

In flying by map when clouds are low we either creep along below them, keeping a sharp look out on the ground, usually following roods in France or railways in England, or we fly by compass above the clouds. The latter is where the new pilot is often hopelessly lost, because he not only has to calculate his speed over the ground, but has to reckon on drift, which varies at different heights. Drift is the amount of leeway an aeroplane makes, due to wind blowing, and this is seldom parallel to the route, and a machine heading n.n.w. may be travelling north over the ground. Our instruments tell us the exact, speed we are travelling through the air. Therefore we have only to know the velocity of the wind at the height we are flying, and, if lucky enough to guess the drift correctly, we know when to dive through the clouds and spot our objective. The above method is quite good for short flights if the compass is to )>e trusted and watched carefully, but difficulty increases with distance. One degree of error makes no difference in twenty miles, whereas after 200 miles a small error has sent us miles off the course. Again when the wind is s.e. in London it might easily be s.w. in Paris. England givei her pilots splendid chances of acquiring, acknowledge during their training, but studying storms is dry work and only about 5 per cent, take advantage of the lessons. Personally, I have found that Clement Wragg's lectures on cyclones an'! anticyclones when he toured New Zealand have been most, helpful in my present work. It is rather interesting to note the different speeds we can travel at; against a strong wind we would only be able to hold our own with a fast train, but with a gale behind 200 miles per hour is often done. A year ago I averaged 180 miles per hour over a distance of 200 miles, without asking too much of my engine, and now, of course, our service machines are much faster.

Now I come to the most interesting part of my letter —the sights one sees from above. Being a student of nature, I absolutely feed upon her wonderful variety and changes of seasons. The sight of a country covered with snow on a clear sunny winter's day is one to be remembered. Houses, trees and frozen canals can still be recognised, but roads and railways have almost disappeared, and in the contour of the country is practically lost. When spring comes the colors change every day. What beautiful shades of green we get, first on the trees and hedges, and always changing with the rapid growth after being held back with six months of English winter. Later we get wild flowers in the field. There will be here and there a bright yellow field and sometimes the field adjoining will be a beautiful pink, no doubt clover. From April till October the colors change rapidly. Grain crops, of course, change from the light green stripes on a [black soil to the gold of the harvest to cut, and I have seen fields absolutely crimson with poppies on the way from Bristol to France. Before we dive into winter again Nature gives us a feast of golden brown when the leaves change to their autumn tints and there is plenty of variety in the tints. To fly over , a forest in' England or France in October at sunset is to view a picture which cannot be described and cannot possibly be forgotten if the observer has any artistic tastes whatever.

I was not going to say anything about my beloved Channel, for fear of taking up too much space, but I must at least say' a few words about it if only for sentiment. I know every yard of the shore on the English side and every metre from Dunkirque to Dieppe, and always feel at home when over the sea. The shipping interests me, I frolic round the naval drifters at a few feet above the sea, and return the hand waves of the sailors, pass on to a cargo tramp and see what sort of a deck cargo she is carrying. Barges, fishing boats, destroyers and light ships all have some interest, and the lighthouse at Giskey is picturesque. Calias, Boulogne and Dunkesque send up so much smoke that you can seldom see them distinctly, but they all interest one. So if the pilot says and they do say—that cross-country work is very tame put them down as soulless creatures who do not deserve to view the works of Nature from the air. When the war comes to an end 1 hope to be able to fly over some New Zealand country because I think with the clear atmosphere' and beautiful scenery one could have even a greater feast.