FOOLHARDY AIRMEN.

Northern Advocate, 25 January 1922, Page 7

FOOLHARDY AIRMEN.

TAKiNG SPECTACULAR RISKS

It is an old —if a foolish —dodge for an air pilot to fly towards an object nt terrific speed, ;uid then just miss a collision by climbing a few seconds before tlio object i.s reached. At Brooklands one day at certain famous pilot was disporting himself (and a passenger) in a very fast monoplane, and time after time he came down to wi'.i'hin an inch of a shoVl and showed his prowc s by narrowly missing .t. He tried the trick*once too often, and flew into the top of the hangar at over a hundred miles an hour. By so:r.:e miracle the pilot was not killed, though the passenger lost his life. Incidentally, the sound of the impact was hoard milcr; away from the aerodrome. It is a ort of a trick that makes life interesting to the peace-time aviator, who gets bored with tin• safety of ordinary flying, but such dangerous pilot ing is not cncournged by the authorities. i!. Latham, who made a big name as a pilot, once made a sheer drop of three thousand feet—with nothing but the earth to break ihis fall'

lie >hould haxe been according to the mathematicians who work tJie.se things out in figures, but in reality he was very much alive, for he crawled oat o.C the wreckage unhurt, Some time later he was killed while out big-game sho-oting.

Hendon has seen some thrilling narrow escapes. Not long ago a pilot was flying a tiny "bantam" maehinc which did about. 110 miles an hour, and at '.hi.s speed ho crashed into -some iron girders which supported a shed. The aeroplane was smashed almost >to matchwood and the pilot hung upside down, fixed into the girders and soaked through with petrol. In this uncomfortable position he queitly waited until he was rescued. An hour later he was flying as gaily as ever in another machine. The late Colonel Porte, of Deperdussiu fame, was flying in an aerodrome race, and kept so low that on turning sharply at one pylon, or post, one of his wings eaugtfit in /#ic ground and dug out some turf. The Colonel was beiiit on winning flat race, and, as the craft was not upset lie continued flying with a broken wing until he reached the finishing line. There is no other rcoord of a similar incident. Colonel Porte later died in his bed. Another Hendon pilot who also died in his bod was Lawrence Hall, and he nearly slipped from his machine while looping it without a .s«fetv-belt to hold aim in. The machine hung upside down at the top of the loop. The' control stick happened to be greasy and oily, and it was as much as Fall could do to keep himrelf in the machine until it got en to a downward path. A.nother narrow squeak occurred at ohorcham, in Sussex. There was a "secret circle plane' there, ancTit "was tested earlv one morning by Mr Gordon England. Suddenly the machinc crashed and fell on to the Brighton railway lire. The fall was broken by some telephone wires and Mr England was not rerieusly hurt. At the time an express vas approaching the wreckage which lay across the line, but, the train was stopped in the nick 'Of time. Other pilots had similar accidents on how ''circle planes,'' but not one man was killed. The enthusiastic inventor, w-ho had never had a single lesson in .lying, took up one of the later models end. through lack of experience, dived with it into the River Adur with fearful force. The inventor calmly swa.ni ashore and >adly watched the wreckage sink. Later he was killed as an able-bodied seaman, which proves Low Grange are the workings of fate.