Читать книгу The Way of the Air: A Description of Modern Aviation - Edgar Charles Middleton - Страница 7

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For the first few trips up aloft the beginner is always accompanied by an instructor. First he is taken up as a passenger, and his only duty is to sit in the observer’s seat and do nothing. Then gradually he is allowed to fly the machine himself. This he does in a double-control—that is to say, an aeroplane with two sets of controls, one of which the instructor makes use of and the other is in his own hands.

He is taught that every movement of the control must be slow and gentle, otherwise the machine is sure to lose its stability—balance—and go crashing to the ground below; that an inch too much with the rudder-bar will invariably mean a “spin,” or a too jerky movement on the control-bar a “pancake” or a “nose-dive.”

Getting off from the ground is a comparatively simple matter; but the moment of first entering the air is the most dangerous and trying of all. Should the engine fail, the chances are a hundred to one that the machine will crash into a hedge, or a tree, or land in a valley. The “bumps” are most frequent over houses and buildings, and particularly so on a dull morning, when the sun is breaking through the clouds, which send the craft plunging and tossing in all directions. This is the test that will show if a man is a good pilot or no.

Once clear of the “bumps,” the first thing to be done is to get “height.” With a ship at sea the safest sailing is in mid-ocean, far from the land. In a similar manner, the greater the altitude the safer is the flying.

When near the ground, the air-pilot has very little choice in landing-places and very little time to prepare for a landing. The higher up he is, the greater range of country he has to choose from, and the more time he has to regain control of his machine.

At a rough estimate, one may say that at a height of 500 feet he has only an area of a square half-mile to land in; at 1000 a mile; 2000 two miles; 5000 five miles; 10,000 ten miles, and so forth. Some few months ago a pilot at Brooklands flew up to a height of about 15,000 feet, shut his engine dead off, and glided down into Hendon aerodrome a distance of just over twenty miles.

Having got clear of the “bumps,” the next danger is the clouds, which have a very strange effect on the stability of the craft. They should always be avoided when possible. Fog is a very terrible element to encounter in mid-air, and the sensation of being fog-bound is the worst that the human brain can conceive. Nothing in sight, with the blinding fog on either side, and not knowing any moment that he will not be colliding with some high points of the earth, the air-pilot positively dreads the fog.

The writer remembers well the case of an airman fog-bound last winter at an aerodrome near London. For two hours he was flying up and down, up and down, over the aerodrome, without being able to find it. The spectators on the ground could hear the hum of his engine distinctly, but could not see him, and neither could he see them. Eventually, with the aid of landing-flares and Verey’s lights, he was able to land; but for weeks afterwards was a nervous wreck, and could not fly again for nearly a month.

After several trips with the instructor, and having satisfied that individual that he has gained sufficient knowledge of flying, the “quirk” is allowed to take up a machine by himself.

At first he flies it up and down, over the aerodrome, then gradually gets on to left and right hand turns, and then to landing the machine.

Now, landing is the most difficult feat of all in flying; it requires both good judgment and good nerves. Before landing the pilot must discover the direction of the prevailing wind. This he can do by watching the smoke of a high chimney, or of the locomotive of a railway train. Having discovered the direction of the wind, he must land dead against it, otherwise the machine will be caught in a sudden gust and toppled over.

For a day or two he will be kept on “landing” practice, and then he will be allowed to try for the Royal Aero Club aeroplane certificate. The tests and conditions for this are as follows: The candidate must be over eighteen years of age, and of British nationality; he must accomplish the three following tests, each being a separate flight—

A and B.—Two distance flights, consisting of at least five kilometres (three miles, 185 yards) each in a closed circuit.

C.—One altitude flight, during which a height of at least 100 metres (328 feet) above the point of departure must be attained, the descent to be made from that height with the motor cut off. The landing must be made in view of the observers, without re-starting the motor. The candidate must be alone in the aircraft during the three tests.

Starting from and alighting on the water is only permitted in one of the tests, A and B. The course on which the aviator accomplishes tests A and B must be marked out by two posts or buoys, situated not more than 500 metres (547 yards) apart. The turns round the posts or buoys must be made alternately to the right and to the left, so that the flight will consist of an uninterrupted series of figures of 8.

The distance flown shall be reckoned as if in a straight line between the two posts or buoys. The alighting after the two distance flights in tests A and B shall be made (a) by stopping the motor at or before the moment of touching the ground or water; (b) by bringing the aircraft to rest not more than 50 metres (164 feet) from a point indicated previously by the candidate.

The decision of the committee of the Royal Aero Club in all matters connected with the test is final, and without appeal.

The certificate itself, which is a handsome, leather-bound affair, in the shape of a pocket-book, can be obtained by sending along the certificate of the flights accomplished, together with £1 1s., a photograph of the applicant, particulars as to birth, etc., to the Secretary, Royal Aero Club, 166 Piccadilly, London, W.

His “ticket” having been obtained, the “quirk”—who, incidentally, is now a “quirk” no longer—is given a little more practice in flying slow machines, in order to gain confidence, and is then sent on to his first war station to learn to fly the faster battle-planes and war machines, and at the same time is confirmed in his rank.

Even now his flying education is by no means finished. After learning to fly the faster machines, he will be put through a course of bomb-dropping. After that a spell of cross-country work will occupy his time; learning to fly from above by the position of landmarks, roads, rivers, railways, etc.

After this he learns to steer a course by compass, gets practice in machine-gun firing and dissembling while in mid-air, and then he is ready at last for the great adventure across the water. One fine morning he will set out on a brand-new war-machine for somewhere in the north of France.