FLYING MOMENTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 68, 21 March 1914, Page 6

FLYING MOMENTS

MR. SCOTLAND IN THE CITY WILL THE WEATHER BE TOO MUCH? A THIRTY-KNOT SOUTHERLY. "Will Scotland Hy to-day/" was the lief question a bleed in the city this orning. In the tiams and on the ivumenti? people peered up anxiously , tie-w hile clouds scurrying up horn ie- south across the blue &ley. _ It was il I>ad w-eallii"- 1 most of the time — but 5? fjoofl for Hying- After the waira >ell during ii". wevk had come r. tjpical u'i'ietly v iVfi 1-c-avy rain uni chilly [uauv/ The lain had passed -xcept >r a light f-howei claiiu;> the numing. it the wind still icmnincd— a good, trfdy, wholesome southerly, but ap-M-ent!y too much tor Hying. Up at le wit'elejs t-fution <vhen enquiries were iade by n, Tost l -spoiler at 9 o'clock it as registering 29 miles per hour in .ist-J on tt-0 D<'ne= ."neniometer. Scotnd I.ii.i3pl? iving tip at ]1 o'clock for illoi' particular-;, but there waa no imuvoipont. Still, the range ran fiom 'ii :oi;ea up to thirty miles per hour — liiriv 'i l that. "No good to me," said c-tliiii--1. "A gusty thirty-mile-an-hour wo/c is final to a steady forty, hen you get up into it." THE AEROPLANE. Up at Athletic Park the wind wae deidedly strong. Patrons of the season's wtball know Athletic Park only too /ell ; how it is swept by all the winds hat blow — above all by the southerly nd northerly. Scotland's Caudron bilane waa lodged under canvas in a ght marquee, which lifted and flapped nd bellied with the gusts, pulling the ide-standards off the ground and letting hem down again with a thump. The Jaudron looked very weather- beaten — omelhing different from the spick-and-pan slimy blue-winged creature that rst took New Zealand air at Otaki ome six or seven weeks ago — it seems uite an age since then, for Scotland has riven, his 'bus, as he calls the aerolane, two or three hundred miles in the ir and made a name for himself ac a killed and masterly aviator in the iouth. An aeroplane is after all a light, rail, and fragile thing, and it will not tand too much buffeting in the air or lumping on the ground, and, above all, :ot much roughness in handling in tranit. Still it remains a fact that through 11 the Southern trip Scotland never iroke a skid or snapped a wire. TUNING HER UP. After all it does matter much ■bout mere appearances in aeroplanes, io long as the wood and wire are strong 0 bear their burden and the stress and train of the moving air, and the canvas s intact, there is nothing to worry bout. It is the engine that matters. 1 the aviator is the brain of the aero>lane, the engine is the heart, and if he heart is right and in the right place -then all's well. The Anzani engine ookeel in capital form. The mechanilians were tuning her up this morning — \U: Mann, who has been with Scotland iihee the day he landed in Otaki, and \lr. Jameson, who was Hammond's meihanician in Aucklpnd, and is now ttkng Mr. Harry Turner's place with the Haudron. Mr, Turner has finished his cave from the City Council, and was >nly up for a few minutes this morning is a spectator to have a look over the nachine. Scotland carefully inspected syery part, and gave instructions to lighten up this wire for better control md so forth. It is an instinct with jractical airmen to know when things ire right and -when they are wrong. CROWD OF SIGHTSEERS. Jis sparking plugs were taken out and cleaned and replaced, and magneto conlections made, and the petrol feed adjusted, the usual crowd looked over shoulders and asked questions of the :'sual enlighteied kind — Would she go ip to-day? and, AVas .Mr. Scotland going to fly the Strait? and so forth. Scotland discussed \atious I'Oi'nts with his iriends, and for the benefit of those who fiad not been with him down south, pro :luced some extraordinary letters he had received there. One - especially wos interesting. An admirer besought him ?arnest!y in a long epistle not to ily on Sundays for fear of tempting Providence, Sunday morning above till he must avoid, for it disturbed people in church. This referred to Scotland's Might round Christchurch on Sunday morning last, when the congregations came running out of the churches to see him in the air. "Strangely enough," he said, "it always seems io i>e fine on Sun-d-.y mornings and I can hardly resist the temptation to go up." The wind continued to blow without diminution throughout the early afternoon. A fair crowd had assembled by 3 o'clock, when, if anything, the wind wa3 stronger. Scotland had the machine out on the giound, but without the extensions of the upper plane. He ran the engine for some time and found itgoing beautifully, every cylinder firing. The spectators displayed much interest and the crowd iucreasert as the time drew on to the hour fixed for the flight. At present (3.15) there is not much prospect of Mr. Scotland going up unless the wind falls decidedly during the next hour.