The Meeker herald., 1917-07-07
THE ART OF FLYING
Easy to Master II Patience and
Common Sense Are Used.
THREE METHODS OF TEACHING

other the Dual Control S/stsm and
ussd For Training War Pilots.
Almost every one has seen an aero
plane in flight, but with the present
day layman the interest IL centered
more on the airnan than ON the ma
chine with which he does the flying.
Naturally, writes j. G. Gllpatric In
Popular Mechanics, the first question
il, How did he learn. to hy?"
Flying Is not hurd to learn. The es-
sential assets are common sense and
patience. Nothing else il required. II
4 man has common sense he will real
lie how safe flying has become and he
will enjoy q reasonable self confidence.
II 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 u
month or six weeks spent at Il good
aviation school will make u raw lay
man into fairly well trained Hier,
and 1t will give him the best sport of
his entire lifetime.
or necessity the pioneers of aviation
taught themselves the then difficult
and dangerous art, and NIL nirmen In
the world today owe thee flying abil-
ity to the Wrights, Bleriot and others
Of the men who went before. There
are flying today a 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 flight and
later realized the dangers they had I'M
dergone. They knew that the average
person could scarcely survive self
administered course In airmanship
Aviation had come to stay. and 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 enthusl-
asts.
There are three bnsic methods Of
teaching fying-the so called French
system. the dual control system and
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 compe-
tent pilot instructor. The pupil was
given heavy. low powered and worn
out machine incapable Of fying-usual.
ly called falkland 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 a perfectly
straight line and do 1t consistently he
was given "hops."
Hops" were made on a machine but
slightly better than the taxi and con-
sisted in making short jumps across
the field at 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
II he went about matters sensibly he
would soon be promoted to "straights."
or flights in . straight line. about half
a mile long. The usual height in this
work was twenty-five or thirty fec
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 IL 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 skillful 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 mir work-still with the in
Observation-Disclosures. Finally the pupil
flies alone and after some practice is
sent for his license.