Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-03-05
: MY AEROPLANE ADVENTURES y :.
D-TFE PHYSICAL STRAIN OF FLIGHT J. ARMSTRONG DREx

a speciality know the terrors of physical
fatigue which is purely muscular but
which has the mental and nervous ele-
ment added TO Ii.
/ have never been attracted toward
flying for endurance records. There has
always seemed 10 me TO be such am UNI
Interesting grind in going about and
about u given course until either the
motor or the man gives out completely:
but l have seen men do this and / can
state 1t as a positive fact that the hard
est physical labor in the world is not
more wearing than this | have seen
men crawl down from their aeroplanes
after long flight and have seen their
friends rush up TO them to shake hands
in congratulation for noteworthy feat
And ! have seen the hand dropped at
once. for it could not respond TO the
grasp that was given it, there was no
life in It, 1t hung limp. inert, power!ess
ard feelingless from the fatigue Of grip
ping a lever with little or no change of
position for so long a time.
Yet endurance fights such as those
made for the Michelin trophy and prize
are flown over good courses. clearly
marked by pylons posts. and almost
invariably over good grounds that pro-
vide safe landing places at any time. In
this way there is as little as possible
such flights as that of Henri Farman,
who stayed up over eight hours. would be
impossible.
When these long flights are made
across country the nerve and mind enter
into the equation against the man. I,e
faces uneven and probably broken land
untitled for a quick descent if anything
goes wrong, and he frequently flies across
country that is unfamiliar to him aud
that keeps him in a mental uncertainty
that ADDS great deal to the physical
fatigue he has to suffer.
Those of us who are foolish enough to
climb for height have all of these tor
ments infinitely multiplied and. added to
them. we face conditions that are not
met with in the ordinary work closer to
the ground
To most people, the strain Of altitude
climbing appears to be only n matter OF
enduring the rarefied air met with a
couple of miles above the earth. They
seem to think that this is the only thing
we have to endure, when. as a matter
of fact. it enters very little into the
calculation. Balloonists think lightly OF
going two miles high and staying there
for some length of time, but we who
climb in aeroplanes do not remain at
that altitude for more than ten or fifteen
minutes at stretch. We meet the rare
fed air at the top of the climb; the
struggle there is short and sharp and is
soon over and we descend. That the
difference in atmospheric pressure does
impose strain / do not deny, but 1T Is
not great The big torture comes with
the sudden descent-with the rapid
change of presSureS as we drop thou
sand feet a minute or more-and this is,
indeed, torture long to be remembered.
In the early days of my altitude climb
ing, before I set the worlds record at
I.anark, Scotland, l had several times
been above this height at my grounds at
Beauleu. But in my private practice
had climbed easily and had come down
gradually before I had worn myself Out
with the struggle Consequently, l die
not suffer much from this quick change
The Ianark climb was a different
proposition There I kept fighting fol
each extra inch as long as there wa
any strength or endurance left in me
struggled at the top until it was use
less to struggle any longer and then
with all my strength gone. there wa:
nothing for it but to fall back to eartf