Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-26

everything that Grahame-W White had told
me about how to manage the machine.
Il
My one thought was to get back 10 my
starting point, for by this time l had
gone beyond the smooth fields and was
flying over rough and dangerous ground
that would have meant instant disaster
had I landed upon it. So, in order to
turn, 1 thrust my left foot gently for
ward, and 1 shall never forget my thrill
of triumph as I found the Bleriot grad
ually sweeping about in wide and easy
circle to the left that soon brought me
again back to the smooth fields and fac
ing toward the direction from which L
had come.
AS approached my starting place |
showed my wheel gently forward. as /
had been instructed to do to come down.
and a few moments thereafter l landed
as lightly as bird, feeling that my first
flight had indeed been a triumph I'M
marred in any way and entirely disproV-
ing the discouraginS things l had nearo
about the difficulties of learning to fly.
But my feeling of triumph had come
entirely too soon and was destined TO
receive severe setback. True, j did
land beautifully-as beautifully as any
expert could have done-but L had nor
taken into consideration the TACT ina.
after touching the ground had 10 ron
along on the easy running wheels OF tue
machine until 7 lost my momentum.
I landed with the wind, and. going at
a speed we'll up between fifty and SlAty
miles an hour, and not twenty rect from
where ] touched the ground was a hish
fence Into this ] crashed at full speed.
I felt a sudden jar and heard the iouo
noises of splintering wood all about me
80 loud, indeed, that felt that the heaN-
ems were tumbling about my ears. 1neI'
I felt another jar as fell 10 the ear.l,'
and when had recovered my senses SUI
fc;antIv TO examine the wreck [ found
that there was not much left except the
seat and me- For the seat had no very
high regard, but / was mighty gao ana
grateful to find that L was aole TO get up
and walk about with only score or SO
of sore spots distributed over my body
mnst have been an awful sight to
beho,d. From the very beginning of my
a;yht unaccustomed as I was to hur-
fling at such a rate through the air. the
wind had dashed my eyes as though with
whip cords and my eyeballs had become
in that few moments sore and inflamed'
The oil from the engine had been dashed
back on to my face, ana there IL nau
mingled in grmy brotherhood with the
water that StreaIeQ iToiI my S'
the flashing OF the wind
IT took me a long while to get USED &c
this pain caused in the eyes by the rush
ing air, and during the next few weeks
when I began flying with the Gnome
engine I got a double dose of lubricatint
oil in my hair, all over my face, ane
down my neck, SO that my early days
of flying while full of the exhliaratiof
of a new experience, were not by an.
means beautifying, nor did l feel cleal
for a long time afterward, Tor IL was
practically impossible TO SCRUB TINS ourn
ed oil out of the pores of the skin:
It may be we'll to explain to those
who are not familiar with aviation mo
tors that the Anzani is three-cyllndel
engine developing about twenty-five
horsepower and with the cylinders Sc
two in a shape and the third perpen
dicular between them. The Gnome ]!
a seyen-cylinder, star-shaped engine, anc
the whole thing revolves around tht
crank In other words. the AnZani ha:
it's cylinders stationary and revolves the
crank shaft. whereas in the Gnome the
entire star-shaped engine goes whlrllnt
around at the rate of 200 to 1,oOO revolu
tons a minute, carrying the propeller
around with 1t. 1t can easily be inn
agined how this revolving engine vii
throw oil around by the tremendous cen
trifugal force it develops. Nowadays
they have fitted a metal hood aroune
the engine and this prevents the oil
scattering back upon the aviator ant