Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-14
By mE
].

enormous number of young men reject
ed when they were drafted in the
world war or attempted to enlist. Yet
only about one in seven of the men
acceptable for other duty in the army
and navy are regarded as physically fit
to fly.
Once the physical qualification is
met, there lies ahead years of training
before the accepted man can be ,Gassed
as a first class flyer, as they are now
rated. Brig. Gen. Mitchell, Of the air
service of the army, has pointed out
that the present flyers Of the army are
enormously ahead of the flyers of war
times. In many cases, OF course, they
are the same men. but in most cases
their training had been hurried by the
war emergency. and today they know
a great deal more about their voca-
ton of flying then they did when they
were flying and fighting in France and
at home during the war. General
| Mitchell thinks that q year of flying,
gfter thorough knowledge of the ma
chimes is attained, is necessary in
order to make a man a real pilot.
Trained Pilots Needed
1t would seem that a sufficiency of
good pilots, as has been pointed out in
q former Haskin letter, is a prime
need of the nation. and one that cannot
be quickly supplied. The wal depart
ment and the navy department are
anxious to keep up this supply, as aside
| from the post office department, there
Is little or no training of flyers in
! America, while abroad commercial
| aviation is encouraged by government
| subsidies to keep up the quota of avi-
! ators for prospective var duty.
| II green flyers were permitted to
| handle machines in the air, except with
an instructor in machines with dual
control, doubtless there would be many
| more accidents. Because of the care
| exercised in the training of pilots and
in keeping the physical requirements
| high. the weather is first as the cause
of flying accidents. There are elements
of the weather situation which have
not yet been conquered, and some of
them have no solution in sight. 1t is
| estimated that quarters of the
flying accidents are caused by weather
conditions.
Winds blow in all directions-up and
down as well as parallel to the earth.
This is caused by the contour of the
ground, by the fact that there is a
wide difference in the temperature OF
patches of the earth's surface. Over
an area which will be heated because
of the coloring, the air will DO ascend
ing. Patches of the ground where ii
is cooler than elsewhere nearby cause
the air to descend. These movements
of the air are a menace to flying. par
ticularly when the machine is flying
low.
Storms are a more important menace
to safety in flight, however. Electrical
storms encountered over forests or
! mountains. where a landing is impos-
sible, are responsible for many fatali-
ties. Not only may the aviator be-
come lost in the clouds, unable to judge
whether his machine is on an even
keel. if that expression may be used,
but the eddies and whirls of wind tend
to whip his ship around so that it
sideslips toward the ground, noses
down. or noses up into a STALL so
that flying speed is lost. Any of these
things happening is more than likely
to bring a crash in a storm before the
flyer can extricate his machine from
it's predicament.
A highly organized service to keep
flyers constantly advised of storm and
wind conditions in all localities is put
forward as the best means of combat
ting this obstacle to safe flying. Then
flyers could be informed up to the last
moment before taking off just what
they might expect to encounter in fly
ing in any direction for any length of
time. Storms could be avoided in
nearly all cases.
Flyers Fear Fire
There are many other perils, anon
which may be mentioned the danger of
fire. II does not matter whether the
machine itself is inflammable or not,
so long as gasoline must be used as
fuel. There have been cases of flyers
| horribly burned to death in AL metal
planes. The gas in the tank becomes
ignited. As a remedy for this. q tank
which could be dropped from the ma
chine. much as bombs are detached.
has been suggested. Then the flyer
could take his chance on gliding down
and making some sort of a landing
| rather than face the certainty of burn
ing TO death.
Another peril which has been re-
sponsible for lots of trouble is the
difficulty of landing anywhere except
on regularly prepared fields. Landings
must be accomplished at a considerable
types of airplanes. Flyers and scien.
fists have long been at work on this
problem, but without any noteworthy
success as yet.
Fogs cause lots of trouble. and have
been responsible for many deaths. The
same conditions as in fog obtain on 8
lightless night, particularly when fly
ing over water. The perfection of in
struments is working to lessen this
danger. but much remains to be done in
this line.
Engine troubles cause difficulty
Careful inspection keeps trouble from
this source down to a minimum, but
still it crops up now and again. A
clogged gasoline feed line, poor igni'
ton, and many other troubles Of a sim
liar measure MAJ cause forced land
ings, which always are accompanied b,
| danger.
Recently the country was Mortified
by an accident to a big new dirigible
in which many lives were lost. This
is because it has been necessary to ust
highly inflammable gas to initiate the
bags by which the dirigibles were made
buoyant. Non-inflammable gas is, o.
course. the means of overcoming this
difficulty, and in helium this gas ha:
been found. However, the production
of helium gas has been so expensive
that it has been practically out Of thu
question. Now, however, progress il
being made toward making this safe
buOyant gas at q very much cheaper