SUPERSTITION OF AIR

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 June 1942, Page 3

SUPERSTITION OF AIR

FOLKLORE OF THE R.A.F.

Although the R.A.F. is the youngest of the services it already has its folklore. Queer things happen miles up in 'the air. Instruments play tricks, compasses leave the straight and narrow path of north and south. The ground below gives the lie to the map, producing railways where none exist or maiiciously hiding a stretch of straight double track which should be a foolproof aid to navigation. To account for these strange happenings the R.A.F. has invented—or discovered, who knows?—the mysterious race of the Gremlins, the malicious spirits that inhabit the upper air.

Gremlins possess the faculty of sitting motionless on the wings of an aircraft until it is close to the British coast. They then rush off ahead and reach the aerodrome before the aircraft, where they jerk the runway from under the landing wheels sb that the pilot is unable to tell where he is.

Gremlins have also been known to incite seagulls to attack aircraft, sometimes with serious consequences to the latter and always to the former. It is probably not too much to say that whenever a seagull does attack an aircraft a Gremlin is at the bottom of it. In this form of indirect attack, the Gremlin sits cross-legged between the seagull’s wings until a collision becomes inevitable when it abandons the seagull, gains cloud cover, and, chuckling throatily, sets course for base. All air crews are advised to keep a sharp look-out for seagulls suspected of having the Gremlins. A man must not see Gremlins before becoming air borne. He should never be allowed to enter his aircraft in a Gremlined condition. It generally passes off in about 24 hours. On the next day he will probably not see any Gremlins at all and his results will be perfect.—Flight-Lieutenant Roberts, in the 8.8. C. “Listener”).