Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1919-12-19
From 'Civvies' to The Clouds.

When a young man enlists in The
aviation corps he is tested in many
different ways. One of these used
mainly by the French trainers con
sists of huge wheel with seat in
side. The applicant is strapped in
this seat and the wheel is turned in
such way that the occupant is
rolled head over heels. This gives
the soldier all the thrills of being in
a "ship'' while she is acting up
Another method is to place man in
steel box and to pump out some of
the air, thus testing his ability to
stand the rarified air in the high at
mosphere.
If a person passes these tests he is
sent to a ground school," Here he
makes his first acquaintance with a
biplane. The school looks like a
huge farm. There are bunk houses
and mess rooms, hangers for the
planes and repair sheds. The re-
cruit is taken to supply house and
is given suit for flying. 1t consists
of leather helmet, d large slip-over
suit of heavy wooden cloth and warm
shoes and gloves. These clothes
must be very warm SO the fier can
stand the cold air above the clouds.
A ilier may get gloves with watches
in the top of them. In extremely
cold climates the suits are heated by
electric wires. The gloves are also
heated this way.
He is then taken to the machine
shed. Here he learns the different
parts of the ship After he raS
learned about the operation of ma
chine he is taken for flight in a BIZ
plane by an instructor. The instruc-
tor turns the machine over to the
to steer. The first trial is
failure because the rotary engine pulls
the machine to the left. This is
called the twist or ''torque.
After few trials he succeeds. He
is sent to another school called the
second school which is generally in
France. This school is similar to the
first except here one learns the use
of machine gun. He learns to fly
a biplane alone. The first fight
alone is called the ''solo hop" be-
cause the lads are supposed to raise
their machine just off the ground and
land again. There are many laugha-
BILE mishaps in these chops" Some
land upside down, some on their sides
but others make the landing safely.
The feelings of these young men are
hard to imagine. Their nervousness
is largely responsible for their fail
ures.
When they have made their solo"
a success they are sent to the third
school. This school teaches the men
to do tricks in the air. Each man is
given separate plane. How differ
ent are the big biplane and the tiny
monoplane. The trick plane is so
small that it trembles all over when
the engine is started The instruc-
tor has dummy plane to show the
lad how to use his controls and do the
tricks. The first trick is the barrel
trick or ''vrille." In this dive the
machine planges nose down, the nose
spinning in large circles and the tail
in smaller ones. To go into this spin
one tips his left wing and this sends
him into the side slip. He then
kicks his controls neutral thus send
ing himself into the "grille." To
get out of this dive he tips to the
left again and goes into nose dive.
He places his controls neutral again
which in short time send the nose
of the plane up again. Many stu
dents fly up TO try their luck but
come down without trying the dive.
Others go up with a rush and do this
feat The first time After this stunt
the rest come easy The birdmen
learn to f1ysin V formation and all
the rest of the maneuvers of the air.
They are given planes with ma
chine guns mounted on them. This
gun is really a camera which, takes
pictures in rapid succession. The
fiiers have mock battles with these
guns and each picture of the other
machine scores a hiJ. The camera
is replaced by gun which shoots
smoke balls called tracers. With
these student can see how close he
is shooting and correct his aim. At
ter the commander says the fiiers are
ready they are sent to the real fight
ing front. Some are given bombing
planes, some are photographers
while others are sent out as scouts.
After birdman has shot down nine
enemy planes he is considered an ace.
Louis REIeHTLEY.
A. T-xo~a.& II