With the French Flying Corps

by Carroll Dana Winslow

A Penguin.

My first assignment was to a Penguin, so called because it is nothing more than a Blériot monoplane with its wings cut down so that it cannot fly. The Penguins, however, are just as difficult to manage as a full-fledged flying-machine, for on the ground your movements have to be more rough than when flying in the air. There are so many irregularities and air currents to affect your course that you have to be very quick with the controls. The Penguin, besides, does not answer the rudder as easily as the other types. I found that it was very difficult to keep a straight course when tearing across a field at the rate of about forty miles an hour. It was comical to see how the clumsy contraption behaved, turning circles, making "chevaux de bois," rolling over on its wing, and behaving in every way like a drunken sailor trying to walk on a chalk line. You have to keep your head all the time, because the slightest misjudgment may result in an accident. When engaging a "chevaux de bois," you must turn off your motor instantly, for neglect to do so will probably cause your machine to fall over sideways on its wing. When moving you must constantly keep the tail of the Penguin in the air in an imaginary line of flight, and if the tail is lifted too high you run the risk of sticking the nose of the machine into the ground and turning an unpleasant somersault. It was really interesting to discover how much skill it takes to manage a Penguin. It was several days before I could make the six straight lines required before you are allowed to pass into the next higher class.

In the second course a thirty-horse-power Blériot is used. I was made to fly in straight lines at very feeble altitudes, varying from twenty-five to fifty feet. The object of this instruction, it seems, is to teach the aviator how to take small, fast machines off the ground and bring them down properly. These smaller machines are able to climb much faster than the larger artillery types. This advantage is counterbalanced by the fact that they volplane much less, and are much more prone to slip off the wing. You have to handle them with the utmost care and gentleness. This point is very much emphasized in the instruction which you receive when flying in the 30-Blériots. Their motors are so small that you have to be very careful with them. You have to go about everything very gradually, except when making a landing. Then you must dive, and dive quickly, in order to retain your momentum.

As soon as I had been pronounced "apt" on the "ligne droite," I was assigned to the 50-Blériot. This, to my joy, included real flying. The difference between this machine and the ones I had flown in at the front was astonishing. There was practically no effort required of the pilot. The slightest move on the controls produced an instant response in the aeroplane. As in the case of the 30-Blériot, I found that the moment the motor was shut off, on account of the lack of volplaning qualities, to descend I had to point the machine straight at the ground. With the Farman I used to glide from unbelievable distances, but now I had to change my tactics completely and learn everything over again.

This course completed, I was granted leave of absence to return to America. Needless to say, I did not lose a moment in gathering my effects and engaging my passage. Next month, upon my return to Pau, however, I will have to take up my work where I left off. The first test required is a series of figure eights in a 50-Blériot and a number of difficult landings after this performance. Then follows a course in a Morane-Parasol. This machine, as I stated in an earlier chapter, is by far the most tricky machine in use to-day. After you have learned to handle a Parasol, everything else is child's play. That is the reason why every pilot of a fighting escadrille is made to master them. It is the best experience to give you a sense of balance yet discovered.

Before you are allowed to fly in a Nieuport and attend the School Aerial Acrobatics there is another requirement. This is a brief period of instruction at the Mitrailleuses School at Casso, where, on the shores of the long lake, the French army has established an ideal range for the training of its pointers. It is less than an hour by rail from Bordeaux and well within the reach of every military depot in the south-western part of France. Each branch of the service has its own course. For the Flying Corps the range consists of a number of captive balloons and of a series of moving targets on the lake. The pupil is taken up as a passenger in a double-seated aeroplane and operates the mitrailleuse. After two or three weeks of this practice he becomes quite used to shooting from an aeroplane and finds that he can score hits almost as easily as if he were on terra firma. In the beginning, however, one experiences great difficulty in adjusting himself to the changes of perspective found in the air.

After this the pilot is sent back to Pau, where he has to perfect himself sufficiently in his art to master the various stunts essential in combat-work. Until then he may not go to the front for service in an "appareil de chasse."

The first test is looping the loop. The machine is made to dive very fast for a short distance. Then the pilot gives a sharp pull on his controls, which makes it climb very abruptly, at the same time shutting off the motor. The little Nieuport climbs until it loses its speed, and then falls over backward. At the instant of reaching the line of diving the spark is then turned on again and the flight is resumed.

The next requirement involves cork-screw looping, or, as they say in French, "le renversement sur l'aile." This requires still greater skill than the previous test. It is not an easy manoeuvre to explain and, besides, I have not yet attempted it myself. The theory, however, is as follows: If you tip your machine enough to fly in a vertical position, your controls become reversed; in other words, the control for climbing and diving becomes the rudder and the rudder becomes the climbing control. To do the "renversement" the machine is put in a vertical position and the spark is shut off. The machine then loses its momentum and starts to fall. At that moment you must give a pull on your control and push the rudder "hard a-port," as a sailor would say. This forces the machine to complete the turn and dive from the normal horizontal position.