Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1917-07-07
AIRMAN HAS,
THRILLING TIME
in The CLOUDS
Capt. B. G. Hucks Tells Of
Danger Of Attempting to
Fly in a Cloud Bank.

London, July 6.--(Correspondence)
Dangers Of flying In heavy clouds
when It is impossible to keep the air
plane on even keel and the aviator
has only his compass TO depend upon
were described by Captain B. G..
an address on Modern Airmanship"
which he recently delivered before the
society. Describing an
experience Of his own he said his air.
plane "tur1bled about in the cloud
and that he emerged from it flying
nearly upside down. Captain Hucks
vas emphasizing the need Of an in
strument that would show an airman
in the clouds whether he was flying
horizontally. He said:
II set out on a very cloudy, windy
day to do a test climb to 10000 feet
on a late type tw%o-seater. On reach
ing 1900 feet we got into a, dense rain
cloud, but carried on beyond 5000
feet, still in the cloud, when the COM
pass apparently began to swing al
though actually 1t Is the machine that
begins to swing, not the compass. Eff
forts to check the compass had the
effect of causing it to swing more vio-
lently in the other direction. The air
speed then rushed up far beyond nor
NAL flying speed. All efforts to pull her
NY A4S4 l. l. IllCll
the rudder was tried. Back went the
air speed to zero. There was an I'M
usual uncanny feeling Of being de-
tached from the machine and 1 knew
her to be literally tumbling about in
the cloud. All efforts to settle down
again to straight flying seemed to be
unavailing, until we emerged from the
cloud very nearly upside down.
"a few days"ago a squadron com
mander told me that on one occasion
when in France everything loose in
A week or SO ago. on the south coast,
a machine ~,disintegrated itself in a
cloud and the main planes landed
half a mile from the fuselage. In a
cloud you can see nothing whatever
but your machine. There is no fixed
point visible.
1.-THE only mean by which you can
tell If you are flying in a straight
course is by your compass and your
air speed. The compass should give
you your direction horizontally, your
air speed your direction vertically.
Before your compass starts to
ed to turn. You rudder the opposite
way to check 1t, ~over-correct it, and
turn sharper the other way on a bank
turn; then the nose drops and speed
goes up. Pulling back, your elevator
lever has little or no effect, for if you
are banked above an angle Of 45 de-
grees the elevator becomes the rud.
der. All this occurs without the pilo,
being in the least aware of the posi-.
ton his machine is taking relative tc
the ground"
Captain Hucks said the rate OF i'm.
provernent in aircraft was so alarm.
ingly rapid that manufacturers coult
scarcely keep pace. Comparing the
average performances of five differen'
types Of machines used at the begin
ming of the war with others Of lat,
patterns he said that maximum speed
for level flying had nearly doubled
Horse power was more than doubled
Airmanship had advanced NOR,
than it would have done in eight O.
ten years of peace conditions and III,
advance seemed to have been alont
what might be called conventional
lines-that is, improvement on stand
ard designs, and no good results hat
been obtained from any departur,
from that standard. To his mind i'm