THE AIRMAN'S INSTINCT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVIII, Issue 12070, 25 October 1913, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE AIRMAN'S INSTINCT.

If an airman once loses control cf his machine his fate is as good as sealed. Yet there are some men so- plucky, r.o wonderfully full of resource, that even in the most awful dilemmas they never lose their heads, but will snatch at anv desperate chance and somehow manage to come out unhurt. Sablating is such a man. In July last, relates Pearson's "Weekly, he was flying with a passenger and had reached a" height of fully a- thousand feet when a gust of wind caught his plane. There was a sharp snap. One of the levers controlling the planes had broken. Sablating' "acted on the instant. Scrambling swiftly out of his seat, he crept forward and operated the planes directly by hand. The machine volplaned, swiftly earthward, but though it smashed on landing, neither of the men was hurt.

One of the Eghert brothers, acrobats, was on top of a coach near Liverpool . when a wheel came off and the vehicle 'upset. It came quite natural to him to wait till the coach was half over, then jump wide, landing on his feet. It was exactly in this fashion that the well-known airwoman, Madame de Laroche, saved her life at Rheims. Her machine was brought down by the "wash" of another aeroplane passing too close, and she managed to keep her head and jump clear.

. Monsieur Le Blon, by his quickness and cleverness, on one occasion saved not only his own life, but those of :i number of "other people. - This was at the Doncaster flying week three year ago. It may be remembered that the weather was very bad. Le Blon was flying in a. gale, when a heavy gust surging behind the monoplane swung it broadside on, heading off?to the right. He tried to regain his line of flight, but the machine refused to come round. J Then he descended quickly. But by this time he was almost on the irails bordering the course. He touched earth at forty miles an hour. Immediately in front were the white posts and rails fronted by a ditch. T e Blon was equal to the emergency. He jerked forward his elevating lever and. like a. horse rising at a fence, the plane jerked forward and over the obstacle. But now a worse peril confronted him. He found himself charging at the speed of an express train straight for the packed ranks of the spectators. Again he threw himself on his steering column and swung it over, leaning his body over. With a great swoop, the plane leaped into the air. So close was it to the crowd that the wind of its passage sent hats flying this way and that. But it nose; —rose to 50 feet, and then came hurtling down. The wheels crumpled, the propeller flew to frag-1 ments, but no one was hurt. I