AIR CURRENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

AIR CURRENTS

\ contribution to the discussion on nr currents, which arc particularly important in gliding, is made by Admiral Mark Kerr, who states that the lat< liistav Hamel told him that he found n flying over fields of different pro bints. that some of them with bright <dours—poppies, for instance —pro (need a rising current of air, and other luller fields near had the opposite am •icutralising effect. “I have passer from land to sea very often in a hot • uthern climate.” says the admiral lu the early morning, after the sun i- •>, the land heats much more quick!}

than the sea, and a rising current is produced over the land and a consequent falling current over the sea. In the evening, after the sun has gone down, or during the great part of the night, the opposite effect is very noticeable, for the water holds the heat much longer than the land. . . . Watching the seabirds flying beside or astern of my past experience I understood that they were gliding in the air which had been Irnntod by the ship and her funnel, ami, consequently, with this rising current they, with a gentle glide, could keep their height. When there was no wind they were naturally directly astern of the ship. Tf one of the birds on the edge got out of the rising current. I saw him swoop round, using his wings and turning up into it once more. People often talk of air-pockets. I do not. believe such things exist, but they generally mean going from a rising current into a descending one. which gives the -ensation one feels at the first start of a descending lift in a house.”