Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-07-08

propeller until the engine gets to work
To men who fly for the first time
the noise of an engine is bewildering.
/ No silencer is fitted. The result is
that the engine, when accelerated
ready for flight, makes quite stu
rendous roar. The method. just be.
fore starting, is for the pilot to &C.
celerate his engine and for a number
of men to hold back the aeroplane.
This holding back movement is
necessary because when the engine is
going "all out" the machine has a very
strong tendency to move swiftly for
ward across the ground.
i After he has accelerated, the pilot
sits in his seat for a moment or so,
listening to his engine. If it is run
ming without miss. and everything
seems all right, he lifts up his hand
as a signal to the men to release their
hold of the machine.
AS they do so, it moves forward
across the ground. At first it's prog
ress is slow, but it soon gathers speed,
and when a pace of about thirty miles
an hour is gained the pilot knows that
1 tAC AtOAAC4I A0o COlAC ~ I'LL
elevator and take the air.
Nothing is more graceful than the
way in which an aeroplane leaves the
ground. It does so without any sug-
gestion of effort All one sees. in
watching it.. is that the wheels, which
a moment before we're on the ground,
are now passing along a foot in the
, air.
On this point it is curious to re.
J member the experience of passengers,
when starting upon flight. SD i'm
perceptible is the change from moving
along the ground to rising in the air
, that very few of them ever know
when they have actually begun
flight. What happens is that they
suddenly look down and discover that
; the ground has begun to fall away be-
low them.
When you want to rise, you know
perfectly we'll what to do. You tilt
your elevator to little more acute
angle and the machine responds at
once. Afterwards-well, as one flyer
put it, you must fly" AS you pass
along through the air you verr soon
begin to lose the feeling that your en-.
CINE is making very great noise.
You find yourself glancing below.
When you are flying fairly close to the
ground the fields and country appear
to be sliE,ing away very fast. But
as you ascend higher you lose this
sense of speed. AS matter of fact,
at good height, you seem to be NOV
ing quite slowly.
AS to the fascination of fight. what
Is it? have studied it carefully, and
have compared my own sensations
with those of others. One of the best
definitions you can find of the general
feeling a man has when he is flying
Is that it is a great. curious sense of
power.
This may not seem very salts
factory explanation to the reader. but
it is one of the best can give. l think
that in the back of ones mind, when
one Is flying, is the realization that
one Is doing something that man has
striven in vain to do for many Gen.
turtles.
1t is partly feeling of conquest. And
now you can imagine yourself climb
ing steadily upwards, with the ground
fading away below. There is no finer
sensation than this, imagine. One
of the most striking things in connec-
ton with flying is the responsiveness
OF ones machine to every controlling
movement. While one is flying, it is
necessary to be making minor adjust
ments all the time. With ones rudder
bar, for instance, one is always more
or less occupied. The movements are,
to some extent. instructive. They are
not the sort of movements that a BIZ
cyclist makes to preserve the balance
of his machine. All the time, while
you are flying. your machine is being
struck by little inequalities of air, and
Is showing a tendency either to move
up or down or from side to side.
Therefore. the movements one makes
are very small ones to correct this
tendency. Ones feet move just a lit
tie to and fro upon the ,rudder bar.
This little Jogging" of the rudder is
sufficient to keep the machine on
straight course. AS regards the ele-
vator, one Is moving the rod in ones
hand a matter of an inch or so only,
and the same applies to the move
ments one makes in manipulating the
ailerons.
A good deal of misconception exists
as to the fatigue involved in making
an aeroplane flight. Personally, II
have found that fatigue is a negligible
quantity. save when one is flying in
gusty winds. Then, of course, the
constant corrective movements that
one is bound to make. and the strain
of keeping so incessant a control of
ones machine. is apt to have a very
fatiguing effect.
But one is flying under favorable