The evening leader., 1918-10-24
AIRPLANE AF|RE,
HE CARRIES ON
British Pilot Tells of Thrilling Ex.
perience Spotting for Ar
tiIlery.
DEsCENDs JUST IN TIME
Engine Stops Just as Mission is Com.
pIeted-Puts Machine Into Side
SIip-Tank ExpIodes Just as
He Reaches Safety.


London.-"The fighting pilots don't
get all the fun of the war in the air"
writes a young bird who had a thrill
ing experience recently, returning tc
his base in flaming plane.
"We were flying over No Mans
Land" he says, "spotting for the artil.
lery, and by constantly changing direc,
tion and height we had pretty well es.
capped the attention of the ubiquitous
Archie. The shoot was progressing
satisfactorily, and our battery would
soon be all ranged. Our engine had
been running very badly, and had the
shoot been less important we shoul6
have returned home; but the target
was special Hun bridge, and the bat.
terry was shooting excellently.
Airpiane on Fire.
Suddenly smell of burning wood
reached my nostrils. Looking down,
[ saw the framework near my feet
blackened and smoldering. The en-.
gine's back-firing must have made q
torch of the exhaust. l switched off
the petrol supply and opened out the
throttle. One steep, swift dive and the
fire was out.
"Then hesitated. Should we hurry
for home and safety, or continue the
Shoot in which very little more OBJ.
serving would bring complete SUGGEST
/ turned to the observer. He leaned
over and inspected the damage. II
was not very bad, really. He shouted
into my ear:
Lets carry on"
81 climbed again and we continued
to shoot Our battery was very soon
firing as battery-all guns-our last
message having completed the regis.
tration; and now shells were dropping
about the target. Our part was done
pretty well, too-and in a few min
utes the bridge was entirely destroyed.
In our excitement the faulty engine
had been forgotten until, with one last
splutter, it gave out completely. II
stopped.
The machine was really on fire this
time and / was too late. The wood.
work was burning independently of pc
troll and exhaust, and to dive now
would only fan the flames about my
feet. Yet we had to get to the ground,
and very quickly, too.
Quite a Wild Affair.
II put the machine into violent
side-slip away from the line. The
flames were thus famed toward the op.
posite wing. The observer, leaning
over my shoulder, squirted the fire ex.
tinguisher about my feet, which en-
abled me to keep control of the rud.
der bar. We were down to 1,500 feet,
but the heat was intense.
'The fire had reached the right wing.
Things were getting more and more ex.
citing. Would the fabric continue to
support US? l pushed down the nose
to hasten our descent, keeping the ma
chine also in side-slip. The rush of
air slightly changed the direction of
the flames. Now we were nearly down.
There were few shell holes and hard.
ly any hedges. Unless we were un-
lucky we should not meet any serious
obstacle.
"The ground rushed toward US.
took off the bank and 'fiattened out
One landing wheel touched with a
bump, broke away and continued it's
course Independently. The machine
pirouetted on the remaining wheel and
finally crashed on it's nose and left
wing. 1t was quite a wild affair, but
we were unhurt.
"Springing to the ground, we hurried
away from the burning wreck just in
time, for a second later the petrol
tank exploded. We just looked at each
other and never said a word, but
neither of us regretted having CHANGED
it and finished our job"