WINGS AND SAILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 27 (Supplement)

WINGS AND SAILS

BY AB INITIO

RESEMBLANCE IN USE

If you wero searching for points in common between flying and any other outdoor pursuit, you would find that in its general characteristics it bears a close resemblance to yachting. This may not appear so 011 tho face of it, but it is not difficult to trace an invisible bond uniting the two occupations. Contrary to opinion, there is really little enough in common between flying and motoring, a comparison that is sometimes accepted as being apt. Wore it possible for tho motorist to be suddenly spirited from tho roads up into tho air, his shortcomings would be sadly in evidence. Thrown on to his own resources, without guidance from swishing lines of traffic, 110 pedestrians to pursue and 110 traffic inspectors to avoid, 110 would be an utter stranger to his new surroundings. His highly developed senses, which got their training in the school of "keep to the left and not too fast," could hardly adapt themselves to tlie pilot's rule of "keep to the right and plenty of speed." When tho weather grows dark and stormy, the motorist merely switches 011 the lights and windscreen-wiper and drives 011. Not so with the yachtsman and aviator. .They have to read the signs in the sky, and decide whether to alter plans and wait until conditions become more favourable. To each of them the wind is a wonderful ally and a dangerous foe. Bad visibility is a bugbear, requiring great caution, and they possess a marked respect for fog, sparing no pains to avoid it. The yachtsman would readily understand what is meant by "touch" in its application to the control of an aeroplane. He is constantly sensing tho strength and direction of the wind when at the tiller, and his main object is to maintain the greatest speed with the minimum of drift to leeward. Co-ordin-aticn of mind and muscle is developed after years of practice, until accurate judgment is merely a matter of instinct. Tho pilot may read other signs to discover wind strength and direction, but he is none tho less interested in this invisible medium. Similar Need for Room

Up in the air, the man whose life' had been spent with yachts would understand the pilot's aim to keep some altitude in hand, because it is similar to the advantage of a windward position. An aeroplane that flies over tho country at a few hundred feet is courting the first dangerous situation; in the event of engine failure its gliding radius is very limited. A yacht that loses its position to windward is never a winner in a race. On the other hand, the motorist, with four wheels always on the ground, is still part of the terrain, and he uses this solid contact to advantage in quick starting and stopping. An aeroplane can only use its brakes after touching the ground, and allowance has to be made for sufficient space to finish the run. It requires rather a different mentality to appreciate this point, and the yachtsman is best qualified to understand the position, for his vessel has no brakes at all.

Skids often occur in the air, but with less danger than in the case of a motorcar partially losing its grip on tho surface of a road. There is plenty of room up aloft ; and unless an aeroplane is keeping in formation it does not matter very much should it skid outward on a turn, although it is a sign of bad flying. It would be almost impossible to discover whether you were as much as ten feet out on a curve in the air—but to a motorist this would be quite startling if it occurred on a bend. Allowance for Drift Few motorists are acquainted with the meaning of drift, unless it happens that they are potential police-court cases, but pilots and yachtsmen include this in their calculations in getting from one place to another. In an aeroplane, drift occurs from the movement of the atmosphere across the face of the earth, and allowance has to be made for this fact in plotting a course. It can be seen that a wind of high velocity will produce a great deal of drift if it blows across tho line of flight, and tho course has to be altered many degrees to compensate. Currents in the sea can be likened to drift in the air, although their effect is much less. The principles of navigation in the air and on the sea are similar. Variation and deviation are terms familiar to both classes of navigators, who in the plotting of a course are laying out roads and routes which the motorist finds already provided for him. But theso other routes are invisible, and in obtaining the direction from the compass one derives far more satisfaction than in keeping to tho twists and turns of a highway. One of the most exhilarating tricks in the air—it has no counterpart on land or sea—is known as hedge-hopping. It is too risky to indulge in often, because, the practice places entire dependence on the engine's reliability, and if it "let you down" tho consequence might be too sad to dwell upon. But the joy of flying only a few feet above the surface of the earth at 100 miles an hour, leaping hedges, haystacks and houses w r ith complete abandon, is too groat to leave unsampled. It provides, a feeling that is rarely experienced when you find you can jump over tho tallest obstacle without much trouble, and tho huntsman would probably be quite envious. Gliding down from a height is comparable to steering a yacht on tho wind. Tho singing of the wires rises and falls with the speed of tho machine; otherwise it is very silent after the roar of tho motor has died down. Sometimes you feel the aeroplane gently lifted by an up-current, or it may sink quickly under tho influence of a down-draught. And all the time there is the invisible eloment to be employed to the best advantage. Pilots get to know where to find currents of air that will assist them on a cross-country flight, in the same way that yacht»men will instinctively make tho best of "light airs" in variable weather. It is an interesting fact that pilots 011 the-stretch between Koepahg and Darwin can find, at certain altitudes, a following wind on both tho outward and tho inward trips. "Stalling"

People are sometimes at a loss to understand tho expression "stalling" as npplied to aircraft. It really has 110 relation to tho stall that occurs with a motor-car, because that type of stall does not throw tho car out of control. When an aeroplane stalls, it loses steer-age-way in the same manner as the rudder of a yacht ceases to act when tho speed gets below a certain point. Of course, tho speed is liighor when flying, but tho principle is tho same. As the aeroplane approaches stallingpoint, you feel the controls getting more sluggish, and it requires a coarser use of them to obtain the same effect. Then comes the moment when they will no longer hold the aeroplane on its course, and tho nose drops until speed is regained. If the earth is too close, you may not get an opportunity to regain flying-speed I Each of the three pursuits has its particular merits, but taken by and large there is nothing to approach the complete freedom, tho sonso of escape and joyous independence, that comes from flying or yachting. They bring you into close touch with Nature, the source of a great deal of happiness to humanity.