The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1917-07-07
FLYING VERY
DANGEROUS IN
HEAVY CLOUDS
Is Impossible to Keep Air
planes on Even Keel,
Says Aviator
MACHINE rs LOST
IN THE DARKNESS
Instrument That Would In
dicate Horizontal
Course Needed

London, July 7.-(Correspondenc
of the Associated Press. )- Dangers
of flying in heavy clouds when It is
impossible to keep the airplaffe on
even keel and the aviator has only
his compass to depend upon were
described by Captain B. C. Hucks of
the Royal Flying corps. in an ad-
which he recently delivered before
ing an experience of his own, he said
his airplane ''tumbled about" in the
cloud and that he emerged from it
flying nearly upside down. Captain
Hucks was emphasizing the need of
an intrument that-would show an
airrnan in the clouds whether he was
flying horizontally. He said:
Il set out on a very cloudy, windy
day to do a test climb to 10000 feet
on late type two-seater. On
reaching 1900 feet we got into dense
rain cloud, but carried on beyond
5000 feet, still in the cloud, when
the compass apparently began to
swing, not the compass. Efforts to
check the compass had the effect Of
causing 1t to swing more violently
in the other direction. The air speed
then rushed up far beyond normal
flying speed. All efforts to pull her
up checked her only slightly. Then
the rudder was tried. Back went
the speed to zero. There was an un-
usual feeling of being detached from
the machine, and / knew her to be
literally tumbling about in the
clouds. All efforts to settle down
again to straight flying seemed to be
unayailing. until we emerged from
the cloud very nearly upside down.
See Nothing In Clouds.
"a few days ago squadron COM
nlander told me that on one occasion
when in France everything loose in
his machine fell out while in cloud
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 what
ever but your machine. There is no
fixed point visible.
"The only means 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
move your machine has already
started to turn. You rudder the op-
QOEkL& way 10 CIlCCh IL, ONCN
it and turn sharper the other way on
q 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 IS degrees the elevator
becomes the rudder. All this occurs
without the pilot being in the least
aware of. f.the position his machine IL
taking relative to the ground"
Improvement Rapid.
Captain Hucks said the rate OF i'm
provement in aircraft was so alarm
ingly rapid that manufacturers could
scarcely keep pace. Comparing the
average performances of FIVE differ
ent types of machines used at the
beginning of the war with others
OF late patterns he said that maxi
mum speed for level flying had near
ly doubled. Horse power was mora
than doubled. .s...
AirYnanship had advanced moro
than It would have done in eight or
ten years of peace conditions and
the advance seemed to have been
along what might be called conven-
tional lines-that Is, improvement
on standard designs, and no good re-
suits had been obtained from any
departure from that standard. To
his mind improvements in engines
were responsible for present-day
performances to a far greater ex-
tent than Improvement in machines.
He said the most marked de-
velopment in the modern machine is
its capacity for climbing. At the
beginning Of the war. he said, the
average height flown on active serv-
ice was 1000 to 5000 feet. Today
height of 10000 feet is reached,
and If progress continues heights a
great deal beyond this figure will be
reached as a usual thing.