The Republican journal., 1917-04-12
THE ART Of FLYING !
Easy to Master if Patience and
Common Sense Are Used.
THREE METHODS OF TEACHING
One Is the Pioneer French System, An
other the Dual Control System and
Combination of the Two Which 10
Used For Training War Pilots.

other the Dual Control System and
Combination Of the Two Which 10
Used For Training War Pilots.
Almost every one has seen an aero
plane in fight, but with the present
day layman the interest is centered
more on the airman than On the ma
chine with which he does the flying.
Naturally. writes J. G. Gilpatric in
Popular Mechanics, the first question
Is, How did he learn to fy?''
Flying is not hard to learn The es-
patience. Nothing else is required. If
a man has common sense he will real
lie how safe flying has become and he
will enjoy reasonable self confidence.
If he is patient he will not hurry
through his course. A slipshod knowl-
edge of flying is more dangerous than
none at all. By taking things easy a
month or six weeks spent at a good
aviation school will make q raw lay
man into a fairly we'll trained flier,
and it will give him the best sport of
his entire lifetime.
OF necessity the pioneers of aviation
taught themselves the then difficult
and dangerous art, and all airmen in
the world today owe their dying abil-
ity to the Wrights, Bleriot and others
Of the men who went before. There
are flying today number of airmen
who entered the game in the early
stages and who by luck and persever-
ance mastered the art with very little
outside assistance. These men were
without more than rudimentary idea
of the very principles of fight and
later realized the dangers they had un-
dergone. They knew that the average
person could scarcely survive self
administered course in airmanship.
Aviation had come to stay. and a num-
Der of firms started regular schools in
which the knowledge of the earlier ex-
periments could be disseminated among
the ever growing numbers of enthusi.
aStS
There are three basic methods of
teaching fying-the so called French
system, the dual control system and a
combination Of the two largely used to.
day for training war pilots.
The French system was the first in
general use and consisted in teaching
oneself to fly by the constant criticism,
advice and demonstration of a compe-
tent pilot instructor. The pupil was
given heavy, low powered and worm
out machine incapable Of fying-usuai.
ly called taxi" and was given prac-
tice in running the machine on the
ground, In this way he accustomed
himself to the speed Of an aeroplane,
the incessant roar of the motor and the
use of the controls. When the pupil
could run down the field in u perfectly
straight line and do it consistently he
was given hops"
Hops were made on machine but
slightly better than the taxi and con-
sisted in making short jumps across
the field at a height of four to five feet.
This was the most trying part of the
entire course, as at this point smashes
were most likely to happen. If the
pupil misjudged his height from the
ground or in his enthusiasm tried to
stretch his hop into sustained flight
the ending was usually disastrous. But
if he went about matters senSibly he
would soon be promoted to "straights"
or flights in a straight line. about half
a mile long. The usual height in this
work was twenty-five or thirty feet
from the ground.
The dual control system teaches
wholly by demonstration and practice
in actual air work. A high powered
machine fitted with duplicate controls
is used. and the pupil starts by riding
with the instructor and watching him
work, By simply resting his hands and
feet on the controls the novice can feel
the amount of motion necessary to
handle the machine Gradually the ma
chine is given over to the pupil the
pilot being ever on the alert to correct
his mistakes and to demonstrate new
points AS the pupil becomes more and
more skillfu] the pilot requires harder
evolutions.
The dual control system OF teaching
is somewhat hard on the instructor. as
1t often necessitates five and six hours
in the air every day for weeks at a
time. The average time in the air re-
quired to train pupil by this method
Is 400 minutes. which is divided into
flights Of twenty minutes each. 1t is
now used in this country by all the
government schools and the private
firms.
The combination or English system
consists of equal parts of ground work
alone and air work with the instructor.
As the pupil becomes more advanced
the ground work is gradually dispensed
with and air work still with the in
Btructor substituted. Finally the pupil
flies alone and after some practice Is
sent for his license.