Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1915-03-25
"LOOping the Loop" By Accident
LOST IN A CLOUD.

(From a Medical Corespondent)
What our airmen have done every
one knows In a more or less genera
way. What they have felt while
accomplishing their work belongs to
themselves alone. But occasionally it
is permitted to learn something OF
these feelings and sensations, and as
the psychology of aerial warfare is of
surprising interest any light which
can be thrown upon it has a value.
have listened to a description of
what l shall call psychology of a
war flight" by one of our young air
men.
The airman received orders to go to
particular place and there drop
bombs. His route lay along the sea
coast over a portion of country occu-
pied by the enemy and strongly forti-
fed against hostile aeroplanes. Short
ly after setting out the zone of fire
was entered, and in order to avoid
mishap it became necessary to take
advantage of such cloud cover as
could be ATTAINED. 81 saw" my in
formant said, "a heavy cloud IN front
of me, hanging over the sea. 1t was a
grey cloud or l should not have en-
tered it, black clouds are we'll known
to be exceedingly dangerous"
81 was flying at height of about T.
500 it. when entered the cloud. For
a few minutes all went well and the
cover was very welcome. The cloud
was Of the feecy order, and could
see my compass and barometer quite
clearly. After a while, however, the
mist became thicker and l felt that I
was losing my bearings. l was flying
quickly, but I did not know in what
direction. My compass began to swing
round in the most erratic way and
saw the barometer begin to fall"
Tossed By the Wind.
These manifestations did not, how
ever occasion alarm. But what fol-
lowed was unpleasant. Owing to the
effect of the strong and contrary cur
rents which are met with in every
cloud the machine began to sway
about violently. The airman felt him
self knocked" from side to side and
had very difficult task to manipulate
his elevator and rudder. The wind
shrilled about him and The density Of
the cloud increased from moment to
moment. Nevertheless, it was still
possible to distinguish the indicators
and thus to form some idea Of the po-
sition Of the machine in space. Then,
suddenly, everything became quite
dark, so that he could not as much as
see his hands in front of him.
II was not frightened, at least, l do
not think So But l began to think
that to have been shot by the enemy
, would have been the lesser of the two
evils. However, thinking was difficult
required all my wits for the work in
hand. I was completely lost. did
0ot even know at what angle the ma
inc was flying. Then the though.
| ccurred to me that l might have a
sido-slip or that the machine might
turn over, and l made up my mind to
ry to rise up out of the cloud I
pulled the elevator for this purpose
md next moment everything became
perfectly silent round about me. !
knew then that l had overdone the
pull and forced the machine up almost
vertically and in consequence had
stopped her And knew that now
she would probably slip back or fall
over sideways"
"One or other of these things hap
pened. | don't know which. In any
case, felt my holding-in strap tighten
and knew that ! was upside down. 1t
Growing Children