The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-27

'At flying school, writes Wahle,
| you take thirty-six hours work in en-
| CINE tearing down and building and
| trouble shooting, seventy-two hours
machine guns and traps (once week.,
| on the range wireless once a week,
sixty-five hours erection and repair of
| airplanes, twenty-four hours of aerial
observation. 1 am thru with nearly all
of this.
Some of Flying Stunts.
I'VE are supposed to have from
! eight to ten hours flying with an in
structor (dual) then the same alone on
another part of the island (first solo),
| then about the same number of hours
| in second solo. Then three days of
stunt flying, including loops, half
loops, tail spins. Immelmann turn and
| side slips. then three or four cross
country trips. one of which is a little
| over 800 miles long, then we are COM
missioned.
I'm dual you fly with an instructor
L-go up about 500 feet and fly. half
way around the island and land. Land
ing is the hardest part of flying. After
you get that they will probably turn
! you loose into first solo. 1 was turned
! loose in six hours and a little over. In
| first solo we land and fly at 1000 feet
or make figure SIS. In second solo we
fly at 2, 500 feet and land, make 8's on
shorter courses so you must bank
sleeper and use more rudder and
make spirals. I have been in second
solo for a week or a little over, and
! if they keep on like they went today
in four more days I will be doing
stunt flying. I have done some simple
cnes already. These are simple enough
| all of them, but they do make you
feel rather sick. You have plenty of
altitude and you can do most ANYTHING
with your ship.
The weather has been rotten all
week and we have all been flying in
day 1 was glad to get down alive.
The wind was blowing so hard we
could hardly successfully fight it and
it was raining pitchforks and the rain
stings like the deuce. My ship near
ly got away from me once but 1
flying gets tiresome after so long a
time in the air. I got caught in the
clouds today and was scared to death
that someone would dive down on top
in cloud and everyone dives to get
down under them. This is a very
lucky field as we very seldom have
any serious accidents.
FLYING Great Sport
Flying is great sport, especially
in the new Canadian stock ships we
second solo) have now. You have
lots of room and run it with your
left hand altogether and your right
: | hand on the cowl. Why you sit there
and ride like a gentleman, just as nice
and easy. At first one over-controls,
! but you soon get used to all the
/ bumps of the air and sit easy and
free in your seat and let your ship
, ride the bumps without trying to fight
them 1 had never thought of the
air being rough and bumpy as it is.
! Always thought Of riding on air as
5 pretty soft stuff. Why you can ride
: along so nice and easy then in one
r seconds time drop a hundred feet
/ then in a minute puff of air will
lift you straight up like an elevator
or will get under a wing and try to
turn you over. Then it gets interest
5 tention to the drops or lifts or small
comes out all right
when you are up 1000 to 1000
5 feet this island here looks like dime
and one wonders how he can ever
land it. For week here they
/ were trying to set a record in flying
and everyone could take a ship that
wasn't in use and JOY ride. We had
to be careful and not go out of Gid
; ing distance from the island so if our
motor should fail We could always
land. You see we are on an island
and fly around and over it and over
the ocean and by the way, get numer-
= Gus and sundry kinds of air currents
, Well. to keep within gliding distance
we can go 10000 feet and kill our
: motors and glide for 10 miles. 00O
5 feet and glide for miles, see. We
: could go a little better with the wind
The ocean or San Diego bay doesn't