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.