FLYING NERVES

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16209, 11 May 1918, Page 5

FLYING NERVES

IIOW PILOTS GO "MOULDY." '•Poor old So-and-so," said the Squadron Couinir-nder. "He's lose tho best thing he had—his nerve.'' There are hundreds and hundreds of "poor old So-and-sos'' in the Air Service. You can find 0110 or two of them oil practically any flying-station: their nerves tor flying have given out and there they are "on ground duties," in the official phrase. They :;re by 110 means all the victims of "crashes." Klying nerves are rnosc complicated things, and a pilot will often confess to haviug "cold feet" when, to all outward appearancc, he -is perfectly fit. The whole business is mental ; there is 110 twitching of hands or eyelids, for example, and frequently the' doctors can discover no positive signs ot' the condition. A pilot "will say, "l. have lost confidence in myself! lam at ihe idea oi' sly in.2. 1 want a rest." Ho gets a rest. It is perfectly well recognised that he is probably speaking the sheer truth, and that it would be absurd io say to him, "We can find 110 trace, of nerves in you: we believe you are malingering." The most likely outcomo of adopting such an attitude would be a horrible crash and one pilot and one machine less in the service. /

The nerve strain of flying is enormous. but peoplo who aro "full out"' and really fond of going up are not constantly aware of it--fortunately. So long as a man "does not notice" that lit' is flying and feels quite at home in the air his nerves are till right. As soon as he begins to thinic too much about it. they are wrong.

Very few people can go on flying constantly year after year. That gift belongs to rare exceptions—to men like Hawker and Wing-Commander Samson, for example, who can still go up day by day with the same zest as they did before the war.

Sooner or later the majority of fliers go "mouldy." There is one mail, famous as one of the earliest seaplane experts, who seldom goes up nowadays, and when he does he is almost afraid to "bank." There is mother, celebrated two years ago as one of the star "boj* pilots," who Ins never had a bad crash, but who has '"yone stale," and now does "with the greatest caution the "stunts"* which formerly lie perforhied with the most brilliant dash and daring. A third who once would fly across the North Sea with equanimity is now unable to sleep ■if he foresees the chance of such a iournev on tho morrow.

The biggest trouble of all is that j five times out '-of six a pilot who is • temporarily excused fly in" docs not get back his old form. To "be an expert; in the air you must fiy regularly, just' as to excel at billiards you must play that game regularly: and though a man who has been "off"' with "cold feet" for a time ira-v go back ind still be quite a useful flier, he is sel-j dom his old self in the air. I

He thinks too much—and that is more or less fatal. 1

"I used to be frightened to get uo end look out of doors in the morning lest it v/as a fine day and I'd have to fly over the lines," a pilot once said to me.

There you have a who'e Novel of Nerve 3 ni n Nutshell.—W.P. in London "Dr.iiy Express.")