LURE OF STUNTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 521, 26 November 1928, Page 14

LURE OF STUNTS

FOOL FLYING TAKES GRIM TOLL FLIRTING WITH DEATH Monday morning’s account of flying activities of Sunday is beginning to read like the week-end reports of the i early automobile craze-accidents, some ; grim, some comic, some downright i tragic, says a special writer in the “New York Times.” A large proportion of flying accidents is due to inexperience, to faulty machines and to what may be called “fool flying.” It is obvious, in an occupation that calls for great skill and in which much depends on judgment, that an error in either is liable to have more or less disastrous consequences, depending upon the degree of the error committed. It may be blamed on faulty instruction or on the inevitable results of man attempting an unnatural feat; but more often than not, so far as the embryo airman is concerned, it is because he has disregarded his instructions. Accidents due to faulty machines are really rare, although only recently a patent case of asking for trouble occurred, and whenever one asks for trouble in the air one get it speedily and sometimes mercilessly. A Fatal Experience The case in point is that of a flight | in a home-made airplane. Those who know the amount of research that each part of a plane, each wire and pin undergoes before it is accepted as suitable, the stresses and strains to which each spar or strut is subjected, the endless experiments that are carried out on each new model—those who know all this will not be surprised that this plane came to grief. The maker of the plane lacked technical knowledge and technical facilities. His plane looked perfect. But up In the air the wings buckled under the terrific strain put upon them and crashed. Accidents are not all due to the crazy gambols of inexperienced pilots. Every so often the best of good pilots, intentionally or otherwise, runs a risk and suffers a crash. Why? It is not so difficult to explain as it seems. Danger Ever Present But, first of r’ , it must be recognised that there is always latent danger in flying. The danger is restricted to two things, which may, however, occur not only unexpectedly but with great rapidity and in a variety of ways. One is collision with another plane in the air or with some object near the ground; the other is a fall, no matter how occasioned. In 99 per cent, of cases the cause of either is avoidable by the simplest of precautions. And yet accidents continue to roll up. That is because embryo Lindbergs neglect the precautions or because skilled pilots ignore them. All in all, there is a sure remedy for every conceivable emergency—except collapse in the air, which is too rare to be any considerable factor—that may take place in the air. That is the situation at present. For the future, because of the ever-developing safety factor in airplanes, the emergencies that a pilot is likely to face will presumably diminish as rapidly as research can evolve a more perfect airplane. Normal and Criminal Risk So long, however, as it remains human to err there will be pilots who will take a chance. And as long as they take a chance with their own necks there probably will be no way of stopping them. Where they take a chance with other people’s necks the law will step in and demand its penalty—a stiff enough one to discourage i foolish antics. For to gamble with other people’s lives is as criminal in the air as it is anywhere. There is here no allusion whatever to so-called stunting—aerial aerobatics—for these performed at safe altitudes and with sufficient skill are as safe as straight flying and necessary to complete the training of every good pilot. It all comes down to a matter of altitude. Going up in a plane for the first time one will possibly be surprised to find how tame it is. It the day is calm and the pilot does not indulge in any liberal flights of fancy, about the only unpleasant thrill experienced is if the nose of the plane suddenly drops down as the pilot; throttles off to glide back to earth. It i is just the same feeling one has when an elevator drops suddenly down. Except for this the passenger’s first flight will be one of sheer delight derived from the novelty of the experience. Imagine then, how used to flying a pilot gets. To him there is rarely a thrill unless he makes one. Flying through bat’ weather may bring him many anxious moments, but an expert knowledge of meteorology and aerial navigation will go far toward restoring his self-confidence, and common sense can do the rest. If he flies high he loses most of the sense of speed, for the higher he goe3 the smaller the patchwork of fields, forests, streams and towns on the ground looks and the slower his speed appears. In fact, with only a moderate head wind, the plane may appear to be going at a snail’s pace, despite the fact that his air speed indicator records 90 miles an hour and his actual ground speed may be as much, or more than 60 miles an hour. Even his stunts, performed, say, at 3,000 ft, will lack much of their thrill, because the pilot is not close enough to the ground to measure the speed of his perform-

ances against a solid background. ’ So down he comes to do hi. , flying, and often to swell the*'*' end casualty lists. His »!_ e * t amusement is to go ’ —flying low over the zooming up over whatever happen to be in the way divines again with engine full on flatw out, and zooming again over th.»i > * obstacle. The “stunt-mad” pilot, the one almost certainly ends his flying Ll* in disaster, has stunts of hair-raising character. He has lea™!' to perfection how to do ail the iT* batics of the air at safe altitudes in the learning of them he has j veloped. as most flyers will, jn to highly-skilled pilot of outstandij ability. But that is not enough him- Low altitude, the patron der of Hhe airman, smiles alluringly m-. him and beckons him to descend t 50ft for a frolic, while Death stand grimly by. Down he goes. Hedte hopping is his first stunt—it may h. said here that tricks near thegro® are stunts and those high up in tit sky are. technically, aerobatics, ti skilful performance of which ahemi be part of every airman’s traiain*but even this form of excitement pals and he is off on the hunt for ne» thrills. The roll or side loop is a favouia stunt near the ground and aaaj pilots go in for a half loop withi half-barrel roll on the top of it wig only a hundred feet or so from the “floor,” and then flying on upait down. The full loop is another star that ever delights the fool flyer-, stunt more crowded with thrfflh; uncertainties than most of the other If the pilot makes a nice, tight tai; the plane probably comes out of thh evolution at a higher altitude thu it entered it; but if he does noth may crash, or the pilot may try to pull the plane out too suddenly at the plane may buckle up in the at One pilot doing this stunt cat it» fine that he brushed his undera: riage off on completing the loop, sabsequently making a perfect landii; without wheels. But that, certainly was a narrower escape from dead than any man could wish.