SAILING ALOFT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 102, 30 April 1913, Page 7

SAILING ALOFT.

THE THIU_—S OF FMGHT. AN EXPERIENCE AT AVONDALE. It is not improbable that facilities for indulging in the thrilling experience of sailing in an air craft will soon be available in Auckland, for the results being obtained with the bi-plane owned by local enthusiasts are improving perceptibly. This is the only aeroplane brought to Auckland so far which has aecomxrlodation for a passenger. During yesterday some really stable flights were" secured over the Avondale racecourse at various altitudes, attaining a maximum of about 30ft-, and on one or two occasions a member of the "Star" reporting staff occupied tbe passenger's seat. The sensation of flight is delightfully novel. Seated behind the pilot, in the attitude of a horseman occupying a trotting sulky, one grips the wooden stays at either side and awaits the crucial moment when the propeller will commence its furious revolution,, and the still more exciting instant when the big structure of straining wires and canvas planes will be loosed from its . leash and set forth at a bound on its j journey of specillative destination. Off she goes, racing over the ground at a speed of something like 40 miles an hour, for a distance of 100 yds., w<hen the pilot, by pressing a lever, tilts the canvas elevator ahead, and, like a yacht rising gracefully to a gentle wave, the birdmachine gathers the breeze beneath her wings and glides upward to the strange air currents ahove, fulfilling the mission for which she was intended. For the time being, one loses tally of men and things below in the uncommon glow of sailing at elegant poise, and it is even j with regret that one feels the bi-plane j responding to the touch of the levers controlling her descent. Not a whit precipitous is the return journey, for the downward glide is as gradual as has been the upward, and when her pneu-matic-tired wheels come to earth their spring action adjusts matters so that the aeroplane, without jolting, continues to run along the grouud as freely as a motor car, until the engine is checked and the break-power applied, to deliver a passenger with a whetted aviation appetite. The pilot yesterday was Mr. Sandford, who has had experience of aviation in Australia, and he confidently expects to achieve greater things in the near future. His best flight so far extended over almost the full length of the course, at a maximum height of about 30ft.