Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1918-06-28
Had Tail Spin, Nose Dive, Shadow
Shooting and Fighting in Form
ation-Expects Commission
MAY VISIT HOME FOLKS
Tells of Many Interesting Ex-
periences Up Among the
Clouds

1uru Cuo courtesy Oh II. II. Wells,
we are permitted to publish a letter
from Jay Berkin, who has completed
the course at the flying school, been
thru lots of interesting experiences
and expects soon to receive his COM
mission. He says
'T completed this course today
successfully and now I guess the
idea is to wait around until we get
our commissions. Some one said
they might send us down to Fort
Sill, OKLA, and put us through the
school there for artillery observers,
but I don't think they will, and I
really expect my commission within
the next two weeks. will try and
get leave-of-absence then and visit
Morris.
"This has been a fine course. 1t
is the real thing here while at
ground school it was all theory and
you had to learn so much in such a
short while that together with the
physical end of tit was hard
course. The last two weeks we have
shooting a1fd fighting in formation
and pairs with camera guns. These
guns take a picture of your aim and
a record is kept of your hits. In
the formation fighting, three planes
keep the formation and the fourth
attacks. Some battle. Diving, gun
ming, stalling, etc.-it certainly
throws you around in the gunner's
pit. There was a couple of days the
air was so bumpy it WAS hard to fly.
This last week they put us thru all
kinds of stunts to get us used to the
air and to see if we could stand 1t.
Tail spins, wing overs, s1de-sl1ps,
Emermans turns and nose dives. 1t
is sure exciting as you are not
strapped in and there is an element
of danger to it.
Had my first real tail spin last
Monday. We we're doing aerial COM
bat work with another plane and as
we went up first, we had little
time to go on a joyride. The sky
was cloudy so the pilot soon had us
up among a solid bank Of pure wh1te
ones. We stayed up among them SO
long 1 though we were lost. I can
see how easy it is to collide when
two planes are flying among clouds
You lose your sense of direction and
can't see anything except pure
white mist around you. 1t was
wonderful. Finally we came to an
opening and the ground below
seemed to just skip by. This is the
first time I have had an opportunity
to realize how fast we move in the
air. Usually when flying high you
seem to be standing still. When we
came out of the clouds the pilot mo-
toned to me to hang on as he In
tended to go in a spin. He shot the
plane straight up and then turned
it over on one wing into a nose dive
and commenced spinning. 1t is some
sensation and I had to struggle to
keep from getting seasick. He went
down a couple thousand feet and af-
ter I was thru with the combat with
the other plane 1 was glad to get to
the ground. Have been in three since
and now they do not bother me.
Friday we went on so mile re-
connaisance trip-cross country.
We started out at a. m. and it was
a very clear forenoon and you could
see a long ways. The ground looked
beautiful below and you could see
maybe four or five towns in your
range of vision. We had to draw
man of the route followed and make
observations and note time OF ar
rival over each town. Some OF the
ships had to make forced landings
but my ship acted fine.
Saturday morning I finished fly
ing by going UP and photographing
Mt. Clemans with an aerial camera.
Had six plates to expose and allowed
12 seconds between each exposure.
There was a square hole cut in the
bottom of the fusilage that you
looked thru and the camera was
mounted thru the bottom too. We
took these at 5000 feet and the
main thing was to have the pilot
drive straight. When we finished ]
gave him the signal and he told me
r. hang on and down he went. 1t
didn't take us long to get to the
ground. Went down In tail spin
part way part way tight spiral
and the balance a nose dive.
..Haye had some very good range
work here with machine guns, trap