Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1911-09-22

k1ppJEA6HNs 1914, ny IlenEy NJ Nteiy
Copyright in Great Britain and Canada.
All rights reserved.J
"a M AN has invented nothing
hA$E that looks so graceful, and
d v ~ so easy rs an aerOplanc in
flight Swimming overhead,
with broad. outstrctched wings and
with 40 effort apparent I'm any part.
so far as tho bcholdcrs can sec, the
aviator sitting calmly IN his seat SEEM
ingly doing nothing but enjoying him
self. this modern air craft looks TO be
the very acme of comfort. of ease, of
cXhilaration.
Yet II few hours in the air in an aero
plane Is the hardest days work that
any man can do.
What is there hard about It? What
r. there for nm aviator to do or to en-
dure that should make 1t comparable
TO labor? Tho man who races IN au-
tomoblc knows something of this
strain. But he has only one method
OF steering to engage his attention.
He sends his machine to right or left
and that is ull there is to It, The
aviator must constantly he I'm control
OF three sets of apparatus, ana II mo
mcntary neglect of any one of the
three means wreck. He must steer up
and down. to right or left. and must
keep his horizontal balance in the Dir.
Three Kinds of Strain In Flying.
Roughly. the strain OF flying Gun be
divided into three kinds-the physical,
the mental and the nervous. With tho
man who attempts to break any OF the
records established today these three
become in n great measure interde-
pendent ana inscparnblc. mean by
that that when a mans brain becomes
tired his body becomes tired with II,
and that when his nerves nre shatter-
ed his body and brain give way too.
During the trials in the Gordon
Bennett cup race ut tho Belmont park
meet. near New York. last October,
Ind Ind built for my Bleriot special
set of racing wings. They were tho
smallest surfaces II was possible to
fly with even mt the ma ximum speed.
and were made with Ms little span
from tip 10 tip as was absolutely nee
essnry. so that there should be the
smallest conceivable head resistance
when the machine was I'm motion.
On the day when the Gordon Bennett
trials took place l had had these little
wings put on. had never flown with
them. but 1 know that II would DO use
less with the regulation sized wings to
try TO compete against the two 100
horsepower engines TINT were entered
because mine was only u fifty horse
power. So bud to trust b. luck that
everything would 20 right.
The Greatest Danger In Flying.
In dying an ncropiane the greatest
danger comes from the constant tend
cncy of the machine To tip over to one
side or the other. A gust OF wind, q
movement Of the nvtatOr's body-any.
thing and everything tends TO throw II
off its balahce. and the minute It be-
gins 10 tip downward on one side It
must he riahtcd.
There are two ways Of doing this.
A mechanism Is provided by which
the rear edges OF the ends of the
planes can ba pulled down n few
inches. TINS offering on that sido where
this depressing or ''warping" Is done
n greater Impact against tho air ant
consequently developing greater lift
ing power. When the right wing IL
warped" or pulled down ut Its reai
edge II makes the machine rise on that
side. and the mechanism at the same
time pulls up the rear edgo of the left
plane. thus lessenng the impact on
that side and causing II to fall 1t ia
In this way thnt the aviator controls
his balance. warping his wings as he
dips one way or tho other and keeping
himself on an even keel. After no has
become thoroughly experienced he
learns TO balance without warping IN
! der ordinary conditions. for it has been
found that steering the machine toward
the high side brings 1t again to the
horizontal. Then he uses the varying
devices only in emergencies.
On this day at Belmont park tho
wind was nasty and gusty. and was
| In trouble at the very start. The eI-
! tremely small breadth of the planes, /
found, gave me practically no hori
zQptal support and, though kept
'ssering first to one side and then to
the other as the machine carcened
over dangerously. found that this
simple method OF righting my balance
would not suffice had to keep warp
ing my wings TO their utmost limit,
and not for one moment did this ne
cessity cease
In the seven laps of the course that
I nnde 1 cannot tell how many times
l felt that I was turning over in the
air. Almost momentarily felt as
though must go crashing to the
ground below. for try rs did could
not get an even balance on the little
planes for any length Of time.
1t wns totally new experience for
me, and regretted more than once
that had not got these new planes
In time to test them out and become
accustomed to their vagaries.
DemOra Iized hy fba Ck-,;,,