New-York tribune., 1919-03-30
ashes"-When the Sky Huntsman "Comes a Cropper

to find the lucky Aier a greeting of "Wcll.
l guess week ON the ground will do you
good"
And, strangely enough, moments frnught
with possibilities Of Immediate extinction
find tho cadet or flying officer with the
deepest fear Of breaking q wire or atrain-
ing landing gear-and drawing a baw-
ing out.
The man in the street who sees plane
flying above his head has untold visions
of what would happen should the engine
stop. And yet engines stop constantly
for reasons which engonder acrimonious
debate between the engineering officer and
the pilot, usually to the utter rout Of the
latter. And not even the alignment Of tho
plano is disturbed.
At one field in France, one clear day
last August, there were some seventeen
forced landings, every one due TO what
was claimed by tho pilot to be engine
trouble. Several planes were broken, but
not a man was hurt. Forced landings be-
came 80 common at times that even the
observers refused to get excited about
them.
In one plane, at an observation school
in France, pilot was flying sketching
mission. He would fly his shipa Sopwith
of a type formerly used at the front by
the English but later sent back and used
here by the Americans for training pur-
poses-above a prescribed stretch of
ground, and his observer, an artillery Of
fcer who was being trained in aerial OBJ
servation work, would sketch on a drawing
hco vi foc Ii h. Ia. H.
of the ground which he considered Of mil
itary value. Something went wrong with
the engine-to use the customary phrase,
"it popped" The pilot hastily scanned the
ground for landing place, Job of no little
difficulty with a Sopwith, for it glides flat
ter and further than any other ship. In
stinctively, for that is the first principle
hammered in by an instructor, he had
pushed forward on the JOY stick, nosing his
plane down. He was fast losing altitude
His only choice lay between dropping her
in some trees or trying to stretch his glide
sufficiently to get by wheat field and into
a patch of ground with n fairly low stub
BILE. He chose the latter. With NUT
tered prayer, he pulled her up until he
could almost feel her quiver. Closely he
watched to keep her level, for a loss of
flying speed meant falling off on a wing
and crashing nose down.
With every sense and flying instinct
in play, he held her up, cleared the wheat,
levelled her out and pancaked into the
stubble beyond. A sigh of relief, and she
came to a stop. He pulled the stick from
the innermost recesses of his stomach,
where he'd been holding it to keep his tail
down and prevent the ship from nosng
over, and turned to see how his observer
had been taking it. That gentleman was
standing in the cockpit with his belt hang
ing unfastened, broadly grinnihg, and fold
ing pocket camera with which he'd been
taking pictures while coming down. He
had been blissfully ignorant Of the snap
decision that had landed him gently and
safely instead Of forebly dropping him
through forent Of fftyafoot oaks. And
ihhHmuef ms person standing IN the
rear Of the cockpit does not, by any
stretch OF the imaenation aasist In mnk-
ing an easy landing. the broadly grin
ming observer Immediately became the tar
get for a series of rapid, heated remarks Of
unpublishable tenor.
But, OF course, nl forced landingB do
not result so happily. A New York boy,
who was graduated from the Columbia Law