THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 1912. AIR EXCITEMENT.
The most exciting moments in aviation are probably those unrecorded. Tho flight that ends in tragedy makes away with the only possible historian. But various airmen, askedby the "Royal" to describe their "most exciting flights," found that those which just did not end tragically were quite sensational enough. Mr F. B. Fowler, for instance, recalls a journey during which he first flew into a fog, and while in the act of turning to fly out ngain, was caught by «. gust of wind and sent' straight down into the Solent's, waves. His aeroplane added to the excitement by her behavious on mooting with an unfamiliar element. "As .she struck she turned, a complete somersault, and in an instant I was right underneath' her in the sea." Fortunately, an airbag kept both man .and machine afloat until a launch, came up to the rescue, but this descent was a very good specimen of aviation "thrill." Mr Robert Loraine considers his most exciting
flight was on an occasion when he practically flew in two. elements .at once. He went up in a mist, wliich soon changed to "a regular deluge of rain." Having set out from Bournemouth for The Needles, he was supplied with sufficient petrol for ono and a ihalf hours. Flying through air and water, he lost -count
of time, for the torrential rain soon stopped hfs watch, and as the machine struggled on through the stormy the airman .was doubtfully wondering how long th'e petrol would hold out, and if ho would ever reach his destination. He arrived with -skaetly Two minutes to 'spare! Mr G. W. Ham el, the winner of this year's "Aerial Derby 1 ," ihad Ihis most exciting experience during the Gordon Bennett Race in 1911, when he was iftfiab tibxougli tiro aj* £gg>
about sixty foot pitching on the grass full length, and then rolling over and over for many yards" ; and Mr 0. Grahamc-White also describes I a landing when his monoplane tumj ed a somersault with him in the air, and then crashed up.siue down on to the turf. It was a sensational end to a gcctl flight, for man and machine arrived triumphantly, though upside down, as winners of the World's Speed Championship. Now Mrs Do I Beauvoir Stocks, who was the first air-woman to gain a pilot's certificate in England, seems to have achieved it with very few excitements by the way. Her most thrilling reminiscence is that of a "misty flight," with a stiff rudder, at the Hendon Aerodrome, ending with the most perfect exhibition of a "pancake" landing from about thirty feet; and the sensation was chiefly annoyance at having made "my clumsiest landing on record be-' fore a crowd."
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19120912.2.9
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10718, 12 September 1912, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
461THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 1912. AIR EXCITEMENT. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10718, 12 September 1912, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Wairarapa Age. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.