New-York tribune., 1917-12-02

fight and brought here for prsetie.
repair work. Some men we're workin,
on the wooden frames, some on the
cable rigging, and others repairing N.
plane covering, which is made Of heavy
Belfast linen.
Perhaps 'he most interesting wor.
OF all was being done at the miniature
range in the class Of artillery observa.
tion. Here the cadet receives prelim.
mary instruction in artillery spot.
ting" On huge table is an .mmeass
picture map OF a section OF Belgium
II shows the town Of Dickebusch sns
all the surrounding country. including
every farmhouse, barn, country road
open field, river and pond. In a gsI'
lery, about ten feet above this man
the future aviators are seated. They
nre supposed to be in airplanes, 81,
thousand feet in the air.
Miniature War Field
The scale Of the map is 50 graduated
that as they look down upon il the ter.
rain appears exactly as IL would look
were these men actually flying at thar
height. Their business is 20 locate eY.
ploding shells and wireless back 70
their own batteries the accuracies az
inaccuracies OF the aim. And shells
are actually exploding all the time On
this miniature sketch OF Belgian ter.
ritOry below them; not real shells.
but representations that convey CON.
plctc illusion. Under the map, which
is Of paper and therefore Transparent
20 light, arc located hundreds OF littls
electric light bulbs The Instructor. BIZ
touching the appropriate button, esa
light his selected bulb, the fash sp.
pearing on the map, giving a complete
representation Of an exploding she'll
The cadet in the gallery selects the
German battery which his own men are
attempting TO destroy. The instruct.
ing officer touches of his imitation
shells in close proximity 10 this bat.
tery-thesc are supposed 10 represen.
their attempts TO reach the mark. A,
soon az the she'll explodes a tapping
is heard up in the little gallery. Ths
student is wirclcssing TO his batter.
telling them how far they have com,
from hitting their object. The wireless
message may take the cryptic form ot
"Nine o'clock and 200 yards"
This may puzzle most people. but Il
is the "clock code" used 70 locate pre.
ciscly the spot where the she'll has
fallen. For the purposes Of signalling.
the German battery is taken as the
centre of clock. with y o'clock point
/ ed perhaps due north. When the air
man signals "9 O'Clock" this means
that the she'll has exploded on an mag.
mary line, which would represent the
clock pointer in this direction. The
"200 yards" gives the distance between
the exploding shell and the German
battery.
Every Foot Is Mapped
In this same work my "oificer IN
charge" showed me a map-coo rdinste
He said every foot of the lighting area
in France and Belgium had been car.
fully photographed and mapped in this
way; a section Of country Is taken and
divided into squares Of 6,000x6,09e
yards. denoted by large letters; these
squares are subdiyided into numeri.
cally marked squares of l,0OOxl0os
yards; these. in turn. are divided into
squares of 500x500 yards, denoted By
[ small letters. By the use o. this map.
/ coordinate and his code the aviator caa
wireless TO headquarters the exact To-
cation Of any activity he may observe
The next day ! advanced from
ground work" to flying and visited the
camps near Toronto at Armour Heights
and Leasidc.
The airplanc used for practice pur.
poses in Canada is the Curtis machine
with stick control. Until recently
these planes were imported from the
Curtis establishment at Hammonds'
port, y. Y, but now the Canadian
Acroplanes, Limited, is supplying the
entire needs of all Royal Flying Corps
camps in this country. The propellors
engines and flexible cable come from
the United States and the linen, which
when in the planes, must stand Q
strain Of 100 pounds 20 the square
inch. is brought from Belfast, but AL
tho rest of the manufacturing WORK
and the assembling is done IN the
Toronto factory.
Practising Flight Formation
After visiting several Of the hsngsn
we were just in time to see hignt .,
five machines. A captain OF the hoyn
Flying Corps was in command: In
fiiers climbed in, adjusted their helms
cans. the mechanics wheeled the M
chimes around and started the propeF
lers, and of they went, one after an.
other; slowly, rather laboriously, "
first. picking their way across tns
ground. until, with a joyful bound, W
they went. They were practising :
lying formation, and the captain was
watching their work very carefuiil'
When ono machine got out OF line ne
made n note Of il. They were up aoo.'
twenty minutes. Making good lsno.
ing is n difficult matter for more OF
less inexperienced aviator, and rs wv
FIVE machines came down the captain
oomplimented or criticised each man
according 20 his performance. !,
At Lcaside the cadet" gets aetuil
artillery range pactice from the sa, 81.
/ We have seen at the ground seho01
how the preliminary "spotting prss'
tice is given. Here the cadet goes W
/ in his machine fitted with sendlhS
wireless apparatus. From wirele"
station on the ground the supposed osv.
/ tie wires run out 70 the target bat'sy
and various points near by, where o,
explosive is set OFT making puhs ~ ~
smoke. As at the school, the "cade.
sends his clock code wireless report I"
/ TO the accuracy OF the fire. i,
There arc not many idle moments =.
( the Leaside camp. On the avefss
more than one hundred hours dsy
actual flying is done, which is as mIsl
as the. civilian schools used 70 90 ~.
/ fore the war in an entire year. 10.
American British aviation arrange men.
is not only reciprocal as regards ,.' %.
Governments. The men, WORKING "
gether for a common cause, have oe'
: veloped a deep feeling OF mutual unse''
standing and good fellowship.