SAFE FLYING

Southland Times, Issue 18965, 13 June 1923, Page 15

SAFE FLYING

ESCHEWING UNNECESSARY RISKS. Aviation experts contend that if “stunt” flying be eliminated, if unnecessary risks are avoided, and if the air-worthiness of all flying machines is properly tested by competent public inspectors, “safe and sane flying” will soon prove' itself to be at least as free from accident as any other method of locomotion in general use to-day. Commenting on one of the quite unnecessary risks often taken by aviators, the Aeronautical Digest says: “It seems that when an aeroplane moves at the rate of 200 miles an hour and it is sharply turned in the air, the aviator loses—or may lose—consciousness for a moment as a result of ‘centrifugal force.’ That means, of course, that he tends to go straight onward, and the compulsion to change his direction suddenly brings to bear on his brain a pressure so strong that it ceases to function. “That, is comprehensible enough, but it cannot be recalled that the phenomenon has received previous mention. In it may lie the explanation of many accidents to aviators that have been classed as mysteries. The Unconsciousness of Lieutenant Maughan in the tests recently made at Garden City was only momentary. In another man it might have been longer—long enough to bring him crashing to the ground. “But why, by the way (asks the Digest), is it necessary to make at these high speeds turns that are so sharp? They must bring tremendous strains on the aeroplanes as well as the aviators, and in both ways constitute avoidable risks.”