Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1918-07-13

danger that the wings VIII double up,
causing the machine to break apart.
Although spins are made with the
motor on, you are dropping like ball
being dropped out of the sky and the
velocity increases with the power Of
the motor.
This spinning nose dive has been
frequently used in stunt flying in
recent years, but is now put to prac-
tical use by pilots in getting away
/ from hostile machines, for when a
man Is spinning it is almost impos-
sible to hit him, and the man making
the attack invariably thinks his en-
envy is going down to certain death
in the spin.
This Is all right when a man is
over his own territory, because he
can right his machine and come out
of it; but if it happens over German
territory, the Huns would only follow
him down, and when he came out of
the spin they would be above him,
having all the advantage, and would
shoot him down with ease. It Is q
good way Of getting down into a
cloud, and is used very often by both
sides, but 1t requires skill and cour-
age by the pilot making it if he ever
expects to come out alive. A spin
being made by pilot Intentionally
looks exactly like spin that is made
by machine actually being shot
down, so one never knows whether 1t
is forced or intentional until the pilot
either rights his machine and comes
out of it, or crashes to the ground.
Another dive similar to this one is
known as just the plain dive. AS
sumo, for instance, that pilot flying
at height of several thousand feet
is shot, loses control of his machine,
and the nose of the plane starts down
with the motor full on. He is going
at a tremendous speed and in many
instances is going so straight and
swiftly that the speed is too great for
the machine, because it was never
constructed to withstand the enor-
nous pressure forced against the
wings, and they consequently crumple
up.
If, too, in an attempt to straighten
the machine, the elevators should be-
come affected, as often happens in
trying to bring machine out Of a
dive, the strain is again too great on
the wings, and there is the same dis
astrous result. Oftentimes, when the
patrol tank is punctured by a tracer
bullet from another machine in the
air, the plane that is hit catches on
fire and either gets into q spin or a
straight dive and heads for the earth.
hundreds Of miles an hour, q mass of
flame, looking like brilliant comet
In the sky.
The spinning nose dive is used to
greater advantage by the Germans
than by our own pilots for the reason
that when fight gets too hot for the
German, he will put his machine in
a spin, and as the chances are nine
out of ten that we are fighting over
German territory, he simply spins
DOWN out of our range, straightens
out before he reaches the ground, and
gets on home to his airdrome. It Is
Useless to follow him down inside the
terman lines, for you would in all
be shot down before you
IAN attain sufficient altitude to cross
he line again.
1t often happens that a pilot will
'e chasing another machine when
he sees it start to spin. Per-
laps. they are fifteen or eighteen thou
'and feet in the air, and the hostile
machine spins down for thousands of
eet. He thinks he has hit the other
machine and goes home happy that
lie has brought down another Hun.
lie reports the occurrence to the
squadron, telling how he shot down
lis enemy; but when the rest Of the
come in with their report.
II some artillery observation balloon
ENDS in a report it develops that
When few hundred feet from the
round the supposed dead man In the
pin has come out of the spin and
one merrily on his way for his air.
rome.
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