THE FLYING WOMAN

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8681, 14 March 1914, Page 13

THE FLYING WOMAN

WHAT A FIRST FLIGHT FEELS LIKE.

That women are keener than men on flying is clear to anyone who goes to one of the aerodromes near London. Most of the passengers are women. Miss Gertrude Bacon, the first Englishwoman to be taken up, does not attempt to explain this, but in a contribution to “The Lyceum Annual” —a clover magazine produced by members of the women’s [Lyceum Club, Piccadilly—she writes enthusiastically in praise of the sensation of flight. HOT, STIFF, CRAMPED, AND DEAFENED. “I first tasted its rapture at Rheims in 1909. I found myself as the centre of a sandwich, of which one side was Sommer’s back, and the other the extremely warm radiator of the enginebehind. I was hot, I was stiff and cramped, I was deafened by the tremendous roar of- the motor at such exceedingly close quarters. But what did that matter P—l flew 1 Can any sensation of travel equal the rapturous delight of flight?” Bliss Bacon describes more comfortable experience in a^modern'twoseated Bleriot. “This time there was a padded seat for me alongside the pilot, freedom from draught, room to move, conversation all the while. It was a cross-country flight'over Surrey, rising over higher into the evening sky, and at end, from a thousand feet aloft, volplane, a swift .downward glide with tho.erigine shut off, and the nose of the* machine*: dipped downward until one nearly slid off one's seat.” GLORIOUS, BUT NOT COMFORTABLE. She was not quite so happy in a high-powered Deperdussin. “I was afraid of that big ‘Dep.,’ as I srambled up into him, and flight at 70 miles an hour was a thrilling, breathless experience—exhilarating, glorious, but not comfortable. I had no goggles to protect my eyes, there was no wind screen, I was ahead of the pilot, immediately behind the tearing, roaring Gnome motor, and the furious blast of our onward motion seemed to snatch the eyes from my head and the breath from my nostrils. It was hard to breathe, it was hard to see, it was hopeless to try and hear anything but the mighty drone of the engine. The view ahead, was right through the propeller, which by reason of its rapid speed was absolutely invisible, except as a curious thin haze. One did not want too long a flight at such a pace; it was too nerve-racking a performance altogether.”No doubt many more women would taste the delights of the air if the charges for flights were lower. As [things are, it is impossible to have ■even the shortest of flights—merely itwo circuits of an aerodrome, taking only a few minutes —for less than £2 2s.