Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1918-07-03
my FIRST AEROPLANE RIDE.
BY Lieut. James H. Fowler, M. r. G


A sergeant brought me a pair of
goggles, an aviator loaned me his he'll
met. 1 put them on and followed my
pilot to the ship. He climbed into the
front cock pit and l into the back
The time was when this little act
would have caused my heart to beat
rapidly and my nerves to tingle with
excitement but, during the past four
months I have witnessed so many
thousands Of flights and have seen so
little trouble as a result of them, that
/ climbed. in with no more apprehen-
sion than 1 would have experienced
in stepping into an automobile and
less than would have been the case
with some drivers [ have known at
the wheel. Why should I fear? Was
not Macready, my pilot, the most care
full as we'll as the most skillful and
calculatingly daring pilot on the field
when all the pilots are men picked
for their skill and daring? And now
before we start let me Describe brief
ly the cockpit in which find myself
that you may better understand my
story later on It is a little circular
pit about 21a feet in diameter and per-
haps three feet deep, it's rim deeply
padded all round with soft black
leather stuffed with hair In front is
a small crescent shaped wind shield
about eight inches high made of cell
uloid. | slide down into a soft leather
covered seat, buckle strap of web
bing about four inches wide across
my lap and size up the contents of the
pit In front of me, is an instrument
board much like that of an automobile,
containing throttle wheel, a switch,
a clock, an oil guage and barometer
so set as to register zero on the
ground, with a scale indicating by
hundreds the altitude in feet above the
ground. My feet rest naturally
against the rudder control yoke and,
standing vertically between my knees,
is the joy stick Of control lever. These
two control the flight of the machine
and each cockpit has it's own set so
that the ship may be steered from
either. Set the joy stick vertical and
you sail along on an even keel rising
a very little all the time; pull it to-
ward you and you rise; shove it for
ward and you descend, swing it to the
right and you tilt to the right, to the
left and you tilt to the left. Push for
ward the rudder control with your
right foot and you turn to the right,
with your left foot and you turn to the
left. That's all there is to it. Just
do the simplest, most natural thing.
Contact" calls the mechanic out
in front Of the machine Contact"
answers my pilot as he closes the
switch. The mechanic throws the
propeller over and the motor begins
to purr.
Cali set, Lieutenant? calls the pi-
lot Let her CO." | answer, and with
a deafening roar we are off humping
along the ground as we "taXy" across
the field on the take off. l feel the tail
rise in the air, we gain in speed and
the humping grows gentler and gent
Ter then ceases and, looking down 1
see the earth receding and racing
backward under me. We are in the
air and flying!
We circle the field climbing rapidly
and as we pass over the starting point
l look down on the hangers four hun
dred feet below. We continue to cir
Gle the field climbing higher and high
er and suddenly l realize that I am
still gripping the cowl with both
hands, and that this precaution is
quite useless. So I lean back and set
tie myself comfortably and, having
nothing else to do with my hands,
take the joy stick and follow it's mo-
lions to get the feel of flying without
the responsibility.
AS we get further and further from
the earth, the most astonishing SEN
sation to me is the entire absence of
any sense of speed. Though the wind
is whistling by at the rate of a mile
a minute we seem to be standing still
in the sky. I am reminded of the old
lady who, watching her sons COM
pany march by on parade, turned to
her neighbor and said proudly,
They're all out of step except John"
So with us, up here in this tiny ma
chine we seem the only fixed thing
while the earth like an immense
green patch work quilt rolls lazily
backward under us.
In the meantime we have continued
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