FLYING STOATS NECESSARY

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13750, 25 April 1918, Page 6

FLYING STOATS NECESSARY

BRITISH AfRMAfM SAYS THEY SAVE LIVES Hi ACTUAL BATTLE. V, YSHINC-ThX, P ';. I". Hair-raising stunts by stuHi-if aviators may seem foolhardy !■■ !!m e >■*■::! observer, but they are. a viiai pari •:'■ the. army fliers' training Lieut.-Colonel i',. K. Lee, of the IJri'tisl! t-'lying Cay-, declared here to-d.iy. "To forbid student aviators to attempt these stun!-, may save a fewfatalities at training camps on i!; : s side," said Colonel bee, "but will certainly be the cause of hundreds of them

For the last three days Colonel Lee, head of the British aviation mission in iht Cnib,: Slates, hac l:ocn doing war tricks in the air over the National Capitol to show officials and others what the American air fighter must prepare to do when he flies over the German lines.

Doing the Immelmann turn, the loop-tlie-loop, the falling leaf, and other breath-taking feats have caused many to turn their faces and gasp. This demonstration of what a lighting man must do in the air, coming at a time when several student aviators have been killed at American camps, raised a question as to whether they were really necessary or were only stunts. Most emphatically, said Colonel Lee, they were necessary when the airman went into battle if he expected to out-

.manoeuvre his adversary, slip out of fetgut places, and become an efficient ■•fighting flier. Moreover, Colonel Lee said, they were

not dangerous provided the pilot had been trained and knew Ids machine.

The ability to perform them was indispensable, the Colonel declared, if the aviator was to be an effective lighting factor.

"If the pilot is to be given a fair chance of doing well on the Western front it is well he should be taught acrobatics in the air," said Colonel Lee. "The so-called danger in flying lies not with tiiose who do stunts in the air, but

with those who cannot do them. All evolutions have to be shown the pupil by stages, and there should never be a ] osition in which the airplane can be placed from which a pilot cannot with c; 30 r.rtifv it, knowing cxactlv what In' is dnir.p.

"Unless a pilot con turn his machine any way and every way at any time in oiler !tj manoeuvre for position, all the straight flying in Hie world will not help hiiii when In; has to fight.

"Formation flying is one of the most important things of modern day fifing, but it must be borne in mind that -as

soon as a formation of approximately Its own strength is met and general action ensues it is individuality and capability of the individual fliers which will win.

"It '..-, not a question of showing off the aerial stunts or of pretending to do anything which some one else cannot do. It is only meant to show that an airplane can be made to manoeuvre quickly in the air with great ease, and with profit and safety. No pilot should bp sent overseas who cannot do all these things and more. If lie cannot do them he will be shot down sooner or later."