The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-05-21
NOW SOLO Filler
At SAN ANTONIO
H. Verne Adams of Brattle-
boro Writes Of Art
Of Flying
MOST ACCIDENTS
DUE TO STUNTS
Landing Diflcult Thing to Master Be-
cause Of Difficulty in Judging Dis
tance-Has First Experience with
Texas Sandstone.

cause OF Otfhculty IN judging Dis
tance-Has First Experience with
Texas Sandstone.
II. Verne Adams, son of Mr.. and Mrs
| Wales T. Adams of this town, writes at
length about the art of flying, in very
interesting letter dated at San Antonio
Texas, May r. Mr. Adams was a mem
Der Of the class of 1918 at the Univer-
sity of Vermont and went to the Off
GERS training camp at Plattsburg, n. Y
Last January he was sent to Ithaca
n. Y, going thence to Dallas, Texas, in
the aviation service. He is now a cadet
in the flying squadron at Kelley Field
No 2, San Antonio, where he was sent
from Dallas about three weeks ago
He writes:
Dear Ma, Pa and Atom
Will write letter this afternoon
intended to write before, but have been
very busy. This sure is busy place
and we put in some long day. We get ur
at 5.45 a. m. and are not through until
$50 at night. We don't have supper
until after s at night because they fly
! til dark. We have about six and q
half hours of classes a day and the res,
of the time we put In on the flying field
We fly the morning of one day and the
afternoon of the next day.
As | said in my last letter mad,
my first flight as expected last Monday
afternoon. My instructor took me uI
for 10 minutes and then came dowr
and landed. We then went up again
and this time ne told me to take the con
trolls and run it, Well, | tried to ant
managed to keep up in the air but die
some bounding around, but of course HI
corrected all my mistakes. You see al
instructor s machine has two seats, ont
behind the other. and there are control
in each seat. The instructor sits il
front and his controls are stronger. W,
flew around about an hour that day
and have flown an hour every day sine,
except today.
Yesterday | was cutting figure eight
IL iA aS An n minutes Is II ifqI 5 Il
and during that time / made five land
ings and got along all right so he soloet
me. That is, | am through the dua
or instructor s stage, and from now OF
fly alone. Of course for while | d,
just plain and simple flying. | con
slider that am getting along fine be
cause only about 10 others have beer
soloed from my squadron. They usual,
keep them with instructors a couple o
1 rlrO 4 L.
| | suppose YOU wonder what it is lik,
and if l like it,. Well, it surely is diff
ferent from anything else l ever raj
across. The first time when you fee
yourself leaving the ground the eartl
seems to be fading away from you ant
it is funny feeling. to be sure, ant
when ] got up 1000 feet in the air i
sure did look long way back to tn
earth, and it is usually very windy u
there and you are tossing about lik
a cork in the ocean. 1t keeps you think
ing most of the time and you have T.
use your controls most of the time i
order to keep your wings level and nos
up little or down little. When yo
turn you are banked up at an angle an
it is a funny sensation at first to loo
down across your wings and see tn
ground. If you turn real sharp cor
ner it is necessary to tilt your plan
up at an angle. perpendicular to tn
ground and that sure gets you littl
right in the pit of your stomach fo
you are sitting in position parable
to the ground Also when you &c
ready to land you cut off your powe
and nose the plane down at the GROUND
and that got me little at first as yo
drop very rapidly and land at prett
good speed.
If Landing is one of the most Difficult
things to master as it is hard to judg
your distance to the ground and to tie
just when to straighten your plane vi
that is, having its nose up and Ia
down so you won t go head-on into TIL
ground and get smashed up. You ais
have to be sure your wings are lev,
so as to strike on both wheels of til
landing gear and not crumple a win,
1t is also necessary to keep your plai
headed into the wind when landing {
you are apt to land on one wheel an
smash a wing.
On still day it is quite easy to fl
straight and you can even let go of yo,
icontrols for minute and the ship wi
still fly, but there are few days whe
I 1T can be done here as the wind ge
a clean sweep over. the level countr
around and the higher up you 60 Il
more windy it is. On hot day Il
air is very lumpy. That is, the win
is gusty and you are raising and dro
ping 10 or 20 feet constantly.
There is nothing to be afraid of viii
flying and any one who is afraid wou