The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1917-11-15
AIRMEN NOT SUPERSTITIOCS.
\ War Pilot Says the Men Have NO
MaSCOtS.

PliOtS nave no udSCOlS duu lio
superstitions. Flying does not en-
courage them, more especially in war
time. Hard facts are the pilots diet
and hard faces their marks.
There is no room for superstitious
uncertainty. Causes are simple and
clear-and effects are large. Some
thing went" or "My engine 'konked
out" There is no room for terrifying
doubt. The thing has happened and
the result is there.
Those who stand the storms of shot
and shell and poison down there on
earth may wonder at the inexplicable
luck which leaves them and takes
their friends.
For the pilot the escaping of shot
or shell is a question of skill and
lodging. If you are not sklllful
another pilots greater skill will bring
you down. If you do not dodge you
will be brought down by "Archie -
anti-aircraft gunfire. And you do
dodge. For whatever mistake you
make up there, where the balance is
delicate, YOU pay at once. Almost
all may be seen, and almost all may
be combated. 1t is a question OF
individual skill, question of know
ledge and care, a question of fact.
Consequently few pilots are either
pessimists or optimists. They just ac-
cept things as they are-and in some
ways grow harder and harder.
A popular hymn speaks of "Un-
known dangers of the air." 1t is
wrong. 1t ought to be "Well-known
dangers"
The machines, too, are question
of fact. They are the offspring of
high mathematics, of patient research
and of unwearying care. In practice
if only one wire is screwed up one
eighth of an inch wrong no
long-haired goats or ideas about
Friday are going to influence the
machines misbehavior. And mis-
behave it will!
Other men may look on their guns
and horses as friends personal and
lasting. Not so the pilot; his romance
does not lie there.
Guns have varying tempers, and
you get fond of them. A horse-well,
who can speak of horse?
But an airplane is a machine you
smash and replace-and a machine,
withal, through which every nerve in
your body will in time become strain
ed. It's engine may be good-"1t has
never let me down"-or it may be
bad and brute. But even, your
good engine will get out of date or
be smashed through a bad landing or
a mishap. Such mistakes are common.
Then it will go back to the works
duu IGlulu OluO1 oi PSA "epS
never return at all.
The romance of the air is a diff
ferent thing from mascots and
superstitions. 1t is not bound up in
the machines. 1t is something deep
down in it's own grim and callous
self. Those who know it best acknow-
ledge it least.
And the pilots themselves-do
they speak of a lucky or an "un-
lucky pilot? Never. They speak
only of good" pilot or bad one.
The only time man is told he is
lucky is when he has failed to break
his neck despite his bad plotting.
But flying is also a cruel mistress.
Only pilot knows what she does to
a pilots heart. Where are the young
pilots? At the aerodromes learning to
fly. They are nowhere else.
But bound up in the romance there
is a pride that only pilot can know.
1t is the pride of, the self-dependent.
On the other hand, pilots have pre-
monitions s. =. and they are gen.
orally fulfilled.-Philadelphia Ledger.