White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1919-02-16
LIEUT.. FROST TELLS
MORE ABOUT FLYING
TRAINING PURSUIT PILOTS.

After a student aviator has con-
pleted his ground and elementar,
flying training and is duly permitted
TO pin on all the shiny hardware
Of an air service lieutenant, he Ii
classified in one of three advanced
divisions for his finished training
The work of the air service under
actual battle conditions Is divided
among three separate and distinct
types Of pilots, namely: Bosmbers
Corps D'Armee of Reconnaissance
pilots. and Pursuit Pilots. Each has
a special duty to perform over the
front lines'
Pursuit Duty.
The pursuit pilots have given to
the air service the well-merited
name which 1t has won as the most
dangerous and useful branch Of all
military service. The pursuit man
makes 1t possible for the bomber to
reach his objective, drop his deadly
torpedoes on a moving troop train
from a height OF $1,000 feet, and
then return safely. The observation
planes depend upon the pursuit
sQuadrons to give them protection
from fighting Boche planes while out
on photography missions or doing
some artillery %spotting." They are
az helpless without the pursuit men
above them as the infantry would
be without artillery protection. The
duties of pursuit fighters are there
fore to accompany bombing and pho
Biography flights. to patrol certain
areas or zones over No Mans Land
and sweep the skies clear OF the
hated Hun black crosses, TO bust up
enemy bombers, and often to swoop
down low over the trenches in an
attempt to rake the Boche lines with
machine gun fire with morale-lower-
ing effect.
Pursuit Dreams.
The great aviation base known as
Rockwell Field at San Diego, Cal.
las beer used for several months to
train Americas pursuit pilots for
their future battles in the clouds
above Picardy and Lorraine. Almost
every aviator pilot holds a smacking
desire down around the diaphragm
TO become a fighting pilot. He nat
uraIly wishes to crack up the dream
OF Weltmacht and worldwide Kultui
by knocking Fokkers out OF the sky
Too bad II cannot be so--only the
youngest and lightest aviators arc
naturally chosen TO pilot those small
~singie-seater scout planes. And II
really seems unfair, too. that the
pursuit pilot should get all the
glory while the bomber plugs away
energeticaily taking the brunt OF the
hard assignmentst It Is the recon
n~aissance flyer and the bomber who
does the effective work-he gets re
suits and all the credit goes TO the
fghting pursuit aviator.
Advanced Formation.
Realism is the keynote of the pur'
suit school at San Diego. The all
service has succeeded In duplicating
as humanely al possible. actual from
line work at Rockwell Field. so the
pursuit pilots training behind th'
lines In France may be as brief az
possible. II Is a sort of aerial John
Hopkins for the student officer In
pursuit training. The life OF a fight
ing pilot Is Just crammed full Of &C.
ton even during his training.
Advanced formation flying is the
first stage OF pursuit training. The
Huns were the first to take advant'
age of this plane grouping. They
sought protection In the air as on the
ground by gathering themselves into
compact bodies moving In solid heavy
units. But the allied flyers beai
them at their W game by learning
the mysterious technique OF forma'
ton flying more thoroughly and skill
fully. This spelled the death warn
ing to the much famed ''chivalry oil
the air The English and the French
no longer sent out their men on lone
patrols when such crushing steam
rollers of the sky were out looking
FOR easy meat.
The most common formation is In
the shape of the letter V. Members
of the fcathered kingdom instructive
ly snake use of II. The reason is OBJ
vious when we look into the theory
of a~eronautics. The air currents I'M
mediately in the wake of an airplane
- -.r