FIRST TRIALS IN QUIET ATMOSPHERE.—All this would be avoided if the first trials were made in a quiet atmosphere. Furthermore, you will be told that in making a turn the machine should be pointed downwardly, as though about to make a glide. This can be done with safety, in a still air, although you may be flying low, but it would be exceedingly dangerous with a wind blowing.
MAKING TURNS.—When making a turn, under no circumstances try to make a landing. This should never be done except when flying straight, and then safety demands that the landing should be made against the wind and not with it. There are two reasons for this: First, when flying with the wind the speed must be greater than when flying against it.
By greater speed is meant relative to the earth. If the machine has a speed of thirty miles an hour, in still air, the speed would be forty miles an hour going with the wind, but only twenty miles against the wind. Second, the banking of the planes against the air is more effective when going into the wind than when traveling with it, and, therefore, the speed at which you contact with the earth is lessened to such an extent that a comparatively easy landing is effected.
THE FOURTH STAGE.—After sufficient time has been devoted to the long turns shorter turns may be made, and these also require the same care, and will give an opportunity to use the lateral controls to a greater extent. Begin the turns, not by an abrupt throw of the turning rudder, but bring it around gently, correcting the turning movement to a straight course, if you find the machine inclined to tilt too much, until you get used to the sensation of keeling over. Constant practice at this will soon give confidence, and assure you that you have full control of the machine.
THE FIGURE 8.—You are now to increase the height of flying, and this involves also the ability to turn in the opposite direction, so that you may be able to experience the sensation of using the stabilizers in the opposite direction. You will find in this practice that the senses must take in the course of the wind from two quarters now, as you attempt to describe the figure 8.
This is a test which is required in order to obtain a pilot's license. It means that you shall be able to show the ability to turn in either direction with equal facility. To keep an even flying altitude while describing this figure in a wind, is the severest test that can be exacted.
THE VOLPLANE.—This is the technical term for a glide. Many accidents have been recorded owing to the stopping of the motor, which in the past might have been avoided if the character of the glide had been understood. The only thing that now troubles the pilot when the engine "goes dead," is to select a landing place.
The proper course in such a case is to urge the machine to descend as rapidly as possible, in order to get a headway, for the time being. As there is now no propelling force the glide is depended upon to act as a substitute. The experienced pilot will not make a straight-away glide, but like the vulture, or the condor, and birds of that class, soar in a circle, and thus, by passing over and over the same surfaces of the earth, enable him to select a proper landing place.
THE LANDING.—The pilot who can make a good landing is generally a good flyer. It requires nicety of judgment to come down properly. One thing which will appear novel after the first altitude flights are attempted is the peculiar sensation of the apparently increased speed as the earth comes close up to the machine.
At a height of one hundred feet, flying thirty miles an hour, does not seem fast, because the surface of the earth is such a distance away that particular objects remain in view for some moments; but when within ten feet of the surface the same object is in the eye for an instant only.