Learning to fly in the U.S. Army

by E. N. Fales

The beginner will have special difficulty in training his mind to pick out available landing places; first of all because the earth looks so different from the sky that it is only with practice a beginner learns the shades and hues of color which mean certain kinds of ground, or learns to spot the different features of flat and hilly country. Even for an accomplished pilot it is hard to tell whether a field is good or bad from a height of over 1000 ft.; and as it is dangerous to fly this low over unknown territory, you can at once see what is meant by the worry of scanning the countryside for available fields.

Choose the best field that you can get, having a smooth surface and being easy to get out of in all directions. The following considerations are intended as a guide to what constitute the best field, in case you have a choice between several possibilities.

1. Choose a field near a town if possible, or failing that, near a main road or at least a good road. Remember that a field which appears to be near a town from the air may actually turn out to be a long walk after you have landed there and find that there are various trips to be made to and fro between your chosen landing spot and the town for the purpose of securing ropes, gasoline, supplies, etc. If you land near a main road there will probably be telegraph wires along it, which are undesirable in the case of a small field and wind direction such that you have to rise off the field over the telegraph wires. It is often hard to distinguish between main roads and minor roads, and it will be wise to look for the number of vehicles on any road in determining whether or not it is the main road.

2. The best field is a stubble field, and is most numerous of course in the fall when the crops are in. It will have a lightish brown color when seen from a height, and is pretty sure to be smooth, without ditches or mounds. Grass land is next best, but is often full of mounds. Plowed, furrow fields are to be avoided. It might be said that stubble fields will be hard to get out of after a wet night. Vegetable and corn fields have a dark green appearance which the pilot must learn to distinguish from grass pastures, etc. If you choose pasture land, remember that in summer evenings the farm animals will generally be lying down near the hedges.

3. Avoid river valleys for landing over night, as there is liable to be a fog in the morning.

4. Any field which has been previously used for landing with success by an army officer can be wisely chosen.

The final determination of landing field characteristics can be made when your airplane has descended to a height of 1000 ft. off the ground, and in case you are not making a forced landing and your engine is still going, you can check up your estimate by descending to this level.

Proper Dimensions of Fields and Airdromes.—There are three kinds of flying fields. One is the airdrome which is used exclusively for flying, and may be as large as a mile square; very few of these will be found in cross-country flights in the United States. Second, there is what is called the “one-way” field, a long, narrow, open space which is usable when the wind blows parallel to its length. Third, there is the “two-way” field, which has two sufficiently long runways at right angles to each other. A two-way field is very much better than a one-way field, inasmuch as you can always head within 45° of the wind, whereas in a one-way field an extreme case would be 90°. Moreover, two-way fields, such as the crescent-shaped field at Dayton, Ohio, sometimes permit of almost universal direction of flight. The two-way field may be crescent-shaped, T-shaped, or L-shaped. An L-shaped field should have each arm 200 by 300 yd. Under certain conditions there may be buildings located inside or outside the angle which do no harm aside from creating eddies in case of strong wind. A T-shaped field should also have its arms 300 by 200 yd. in size.

Regarding the size of fields it can be said that, while the JN-4 machine will rise off the ground after a run of 100 yd. or so, a field of this length is of course not big enough for frequent use, especially if bordered by trees, telegraph lines, fences, and so forth. A field for temporary use should be at least 200 by 200 yd., about 9 acres. If obstructions at the edges are more than 5 ft. high add to this 200 yd. a distance equal to twelve times the height of the obstruction. For a permanent field 300 yd. is the minimum dimension necessary for clearing obstacles and must be increased if the trees exceed 50 ft. in height. This minimum dimension assumes hard ground and the possibility of starting in any direction. Training fields are ½ mile square or more.

Whatever field is used either temporarily or permanently by the pilot should be absolutely familiar to him over every inch of its surface. The adjacent country should also be absolutely familiar to him from the standpoint of possible forced landings which he may have to make during his flight; he should make a habit of informing himself as to all the woods and hills, etc., which can affect air currents in the neighborhood of the field from which he is going to start.