Learning to fly in the U.S. Army

by E. N. Fales

The instruments needed on a cross-country trip are: a compass, which should be properly adjusted before starting and the variation angle noted. A wrist watch is necessary; ordinary dashboard clocks go wrong on account of the vibration. Take an aneroid barometer with adjustable height reading. Of course you will depend upon a revolution indicator, for no matter how experienced a pilot may be in “listening out” faulty engine operation, after a long flight his ear loses its acuteness, and he will fall back on the revolution indicator for assistance. The air-speed meter, whether of the Pitot type or pressure-plate type, will prove invaluable in flying through clouds or mist when the ground is obscured. Also the inclinometer is able to give the angle of flight when the earth is not visible, although the speed indicator usually is sufficient to give the angle of flight, for an increase of speed means downward motion and decrease of speed means upward motion. Additional instruments may be used.

Map.—The map is essential for cross-country work. It should be tacked on to the map board if the flight is short, but made to run on rollers if the flight is long. In the latter case the map is in the form of a single long strip, while your flight may be full of angles; therefore you will have to practice using this sort of map, in which the corners of your flight are all drawn as straight lines. The scale of maps may be 2 or 4 miles to the inch for long flights. This scale is sometimes spoken of as a fractional figure; that is, 2 miles to the inch is the same as ¹/_127,000 scale. The map should be studied most carefully before the start of the trip. The course which you propose to fly should be marked out on it; all available landmarks which could be of service as guides should be distinctly noticed and marked on the map where necessary. These landmarks will in case there is no wind enable you to make your trip without using the compass at all, and in case of wind, are essential as a check on the compass. Mark off the distance in miles between consecutive points of your course. Mark the compass bearing of each leg of this course.

As landmarks towns are the best guides, and they should be underscored on the map, or enclosed in circles. It is customary not to fly actually over towns. Railways are very good assistance to finding your way, and these should be marked on the map in black wherever they approach within 10 miles of the course. Mark water courses with blue color, and roads with red.

Landmarks.—Only practice can make a pilot good at observing the various features of the ground beneath him. The various features which can be used as guides are those which are most visible. After towns, railways come next in importance. Their bridges, tunnels, etc., make good landmarks. On windy days when relying on the compass, it will be well to keep in sight of a railway even if this be the longer way around, because the railway gives a constant check upon the compass bearing. In this case you will have noted on your map a general magnetic bearing of the railway, which bearing you can readily compare with your compass reading. Moreover, the railway is good in case you become involved in a fog or mist for a time. It should be remembered, however, that on most of the maps no distinction is made between one and two-track roads; also that it is easy to make mistakes where branch lines are not shown on the map because they are dead ends leading to private quarries, etc., and may be taken for junctions. Railways sometimes seem to end abruptly, which means that you are looking at a tunnel.

Water is visible from a great distance. Cautions to be observed are that after a heavy rain small flooded streams may take on the appearance of larger bodies of water or lakes, which you will have difficulty in reconciling with the map. Small rivers are often overhung with foliage, and to follow them in all their curves will waste a lot of time.

The use of roads as guides may be governed by the fact that paved roads are usually main roads, and telegraph wires may be expected along them. In the newer parts of the United States the system of laying out roads provides a very useful means of gaging distances; I refer to the section system which is in use, for instance, in Illinois, where there is a road every mile running north and south, so that the entire country is cut up into squares 1 mile on each side, with occasional roads of course at ½-mile and ¼-mile points.

Navigation by Landmarks.—In all cases of cross-country flying the pilot will have two independent systems of maintaining his proper directions: first, the computed compass bearing; second, the use of landmarks whose position is known. In comparing his computed course with the course actually indicated by passing over these landmarks the rule should be made that, in case of doubt when a landmark is not distinctly recognized, take the compass course; there are many chances that a landmark may be altered or even removed without being so recorded on the pilot’s map, whereas the errors of the compass of course are presumably understood by the pilot who has secured every opportunity to check it when passing previous landmarks.

It is important to note the time of completing successive stages of the flight, that is when passing over predetermined landmarks. Time is a very uncertain condition to ascertain in airplane flying for it seems to pass quickly on calm days but slowly when the journey is rough. If the pilot does not check the time interval between successive objects he is quite likely to expect the next before it is really due.

Landing Fields.—Next to the ever-present worry which the pilot has regarding the perfect operation of his engine, the most important thing about cross-country flying is that wherever he may be he must have available a landing field within gliding distance in case his engine defaults. The question is of course immediately raised, “What if there is no landing field within gliding range?” The answer to this is that the pilot will instinctively learn to keep his eyes open for landing possibilities every minute of his progress whether he expects to use them or not; in cross-country flying the lookout for fields is first and foremost in his mind; if there are no fields, it is up to him to pick out a spot of ground which is the least objectionable for a landing. In the State of Illinois the question of landing fields is almost non-existent, because there are large, flat fields and pastures in almost every square mile of the farming district, and a cross-country flight from Rantoul to Chicago could have no terrors for the beginner as regards the choice of a landing ground.

When it comes to a cross-country flight like Ruth Law’s, from Chicago to New York, these favorable conditions begin to disappear after the middle of the journey, that is, east of Buffalo. The most ideal condition for cross-country flying would be one like that on the London-Edinburgh route, where landing grounds are so frequent that by flying at a height of a couple of miles the pilot can free his mind completely of the worry of suitable landing places; but in the United States we have very few established airdromes, and the only approach to the London-Edinburgh route is the St. Louis-New York route, where the jumps are approximately 150 miles; namely, St. Louis, Champaign, Indianapolis, Dayton, Sandusky, Erie, Hammondsport, Philadelphia, and New York. That is why long cross-country trips are such an adventure in this country and such an ordinary affair in England.