EARLY DAYS IN THE AIR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 16960, 11 April 1917, Page 4

EARLY DAYS IN THE AIR.

EPISODES IN THE TRAINING OF

AN AVIATOR.

THE FIRST FLIGHT.

BY A PILOT.

With no small good, fortune an 4 the waste, of much time I had at last passed the perplexing period of obtaining my commission, and was ordered to report myself at W without delay.

It was a bleak spot on the crest of a hill behind the town; wind swept and lonely. Aerodrome was a courtesy title for a wide open space, level in parts, bumpy in others, with an unpleasant right-hand slope. Along one side were eight or ten hangars, a row of giant sentinels* squatted in front of them aeroplanes or-varying shapes and sizes. I was at first treated. by the members of the mess with some disdain; to them I was merely a "quirk" who had yet to -rove himself. This was undoubtedly good for me, and helped to detract from the clptud of selif glory with which my new uniform bad endowed me. I soon learnt that war flying was not the meek heroic business of civilian days, but rather a matter-of-fact, cold blooded profession, a profession the very intricacies of which overwhelmed me. .

AERIAL SLANG.

The quaint terms of th« more experienced men puzzled me not a little ', until I learnt that a "bus" was % ' more generally understood term thaa) ,{ an aeroplane, and that being "all 6t •- a doodah" was a picturesque way of saying that a pilot had got-nervous m mid-air. A "Hun" and a "quirk," 1 1 discovered, were young gentlemen 01 about my own accomplishments: fa /stunt" or "joy ride" indicated 3 trip in the air; the "joy stick" was that wonderful piece of mechanism that conrols both ailerons and eleva- -■ tors, and I also learnt that no self respecting airman ever talks of liis - hat, but rather of his "gadget." My head' soon filled with such strange - terms as "gas-bags," "bloaters,*' 8.E.5," "glides," "bumps," "stream i lines,' and "nose dives." -This was followed by heart break- •' ing struggles with a MoTse key and~its intricate system of dots and dash- ' es, known ih; the service as "umptys" ' land-."iddies/? and with a Lewis gain ' that possessed a hundred and one different traps for the unwary- with ■ parts as numerous as the moods'of ' a woman. To load it, to change the * tray, to clean it, to take it to pieces' V- , and to refit it, were all lessons of • this novel curriculum. - "

There were maps; decent, honest efforts of the Ordnance' Survey that were distorted and re-shaped and re- x read until.they no longer represented ••' inanimate; variously coloured ' plans of the stfrface of the earth, but were " given animation, and fcespoke a glo- f " ■ rious panorama of brown ; ' altitudes,/blue lined rivers^ green * ' tinted plains grey blotted towns and villages, straight, black lined rail- » ' * ways; that were criss crossed into - ways; that were criss-crossed into-.^v-' fnS T,U jJ,y o a 'PPelations such a»4?^ ■ AC3I, DF22; maps that were to be* read by compass and by scale. TACTICS IN. THE-CLOUDS. A hoarse voiced, extremely capabl* warrant officer then pounded into my thick head some small part of the - theories of aerial tactics and strategy; to distinguish between "line" and "area" reconnaissances (the one «-' •necessitating flying and observing ;' along a line between two given points ' on the map, these points having been , already marked in before leaving the , ground—the . other comprising a whole area or district); a few tips on ' aerial combat and when to attack and when not to attack. V ■■ Added to ' these accomplishments I ' learnt that a war pilot was expected to be an expert .photographer, and ts be able to "rig up" and "take down" 3' wireless telegraphy set. The next\day > there followed a course on bombs and" bomb-dropping ,with a few remarks about instruments—the' "revmeter," that registered .the number of revolu- > tions the..engine is making per moment; the "altimeter," for giving the height above sea-level; the compass,' the most necessary 'adjunct of sill to successful flying, and the lighting set for night-flying. At last the day arrived when I found myself ready for my first trip aloft. I was equipped like an Eskimo in a woollined leather coat and overall trousers, a knitted Balaclava helmet, and over that again a woollen skull cap; the whole tied down tightly beneath the chin. A large woollen muffler around my neck and a pair of unsightly goggles completed the picture; -my face '' >, and hands having already been treated \^i with a generous dose of vaseline, which I had been assured would keep out the cold. I clambered over into the front seat of the machine, the engine wns started and tried, and the whole frame throbbed and shook as the wheels were braked by two large wooden blocks. At last we were really off. Swiftly we sped across tb^e ground, and the wind , whistled by bur faces. There was a pandemonium of noise, and we were rising, rising into < space, and as we rose the noise of the racing engine grew less. ( ■ * SHOCKS. Suddenly the unexpected happened. The machine lurched over in a most alarming manner. I found myself staring up-at tiie sky. For the first time I . felt really frightened, with that fear that is only given to the airman to endure. The machine was not, however, as I believed, trying to hurl itself tothe ground below, but was performing the very usual manoeuvre of banking— turninp;—though somewhat sharply in , a .left-hand direction; but I was not Teassured until I caught sisrht of the anile'on the pilot's face behind me, and then I knew that the angle had been sharper than usual for my own particular benefit, to try my nerve. The worst fi'igtlit of all, however, was yet to come. The engine stopped suddenly. Instead of ths steady rythmic roar, it coughed and spluttered weakly. Down went the nose of the aeroplane in front of me. No longej: did T iind myself staring vaguely up into the heavens, but down to the earth beneath, that seemed every second to be' rushing up to ...meet us. I was surprised — no more, alarmpd — at the speed at which we landed, and quite I expected a horrifying jolt as wo N touched the "■"earth, but was pleasantly surm-ised to find how lightly we lauded and taxied across to the hangars, where the engine was shut off, and th;.fc wonderful craftooff f power and Ftrengt'i became ngain an inanimate block of metal and wood.