Evening star., 1941-07-13
First Blind Flyer Reaches Goal
COL Ocker, Breaker of Traditions, Carries On
L.StOk

comerS, OF Whatever nationality. To
his side flocked air observers from Eng
land, Germany, Russia, Italy, Japan,
China, Sweden and Mexico.
Orville Wright is on record as stating
that he has known Col. Ocker since 1914,
and that early in their acquaintance the
latter expressed conviction that air
security would depend on flying by in
Struments rather than instinct This was
q challenge to overwhelming tradition.
Early pilots piqued themselves on being
able to steer "by feel of the ship" At
their school in Dayton, the Wright
brothers found it dificult to induce
students to use instruments. Army avia-
tors would shame them, it was explained,
by demanding: do you have to have
instruments to show you how to fy?"
The prejudice against instruments was
so strong that he felt compelled to con-
ceal his equipment in satchelsnd clamp
1t on strut after he was alone in the
air He was not long in making some
startling and fertile discoveries One
was that the physical sensations chiefly
depended on by pilotS-reaction of the
balancing mechanism of the inner ear
and pressure OF the body against the air.
plane seat-were subject to the most dam
gerous errors. Again and again, when
the muscular impression was overpower-
ing that he was banking leftward, the
instruments showed the actual direction
to be precisely opposite.
mir Ia
were multiplied during flight through
haze and clouds, when the horizon be-
came invisible. He concluded that the
eye and not the ear, as scientists then
taught, is the controlling organ of direc-
ton.
Proved Instruments Value.
In vogue for medical entrance exam
nations to the infant air arm was
revolving chair, in which candidates were
seated, with eyes closed, and whirled
about. Flight surgeons had discovered
that even experienced pilots could fail
to name correctly the direction OF
rotation.
Col. Ocker attached Sperry twin indi-
Gator to the chair, 50 the student could
be shown that his other senses were
perilously fallible as to direction without
the aid OF the eye, and that illusions in
this respect could be corrected with GER
tainty through employment of instru-
ments. He patented the device in the
United States and England Some years
later Congress rewarded him with a spe-
cial appropriation of $1,000.
In the belief that he had detected the
cause of innumerable plane fatalities re-
garded as inexplicable. and that he held
in his hands the salvation of many lives,
Col Ooker began spreading his new
evangel in and out of season. At first he
stealth. When he finally wangled per-
mission to install his instruments openly
on a machine, disapproving flight ofi-
eer covered the dial with opaque card
board, on which was printed the legend:
do Not Remove
Invented Training Plane.
For training purposes there had been
developed tandem cockpit. with dupli-
cate equipment. so that an instructor in
one could correct the pupils errors in the
other Also, in those days, each plane
had canvas cover TO protect its interior
against rain. BY uniting the two, Col.
Ocker invented in 1926 the first hooded
cockpit for teaching blind flight under
actual air conditions. In the front
cockpit, covered with canvas to simulate
fog or night, the student was placed. The
rear one, left open, was occupied by the
teacher. Both were supplied with instru-
ments The revolving chair had coped
with illusions on horizontal plane only.
The new contrivance could deal with
"mirages' in all three dimensions through
which plane moves-namely, horizontal,
lateral and vertical.
The earliest course in blind flying was
started in 1929 by Allan Hancock, Cali
fornia banker who established the Han
cock Foundation College of Aeronautics
at Santa Maria. He had financed the
Southern Cross flight Of Charles
Kingsford- Smith in 1928 from California
to Australia. In preparation for his Pa
cific jaunt of 1925 miles in 81 flying
hours. Mr. KingsfordSmith spent sew
eral months under Col. Ocker's tuition,
and made numerous rehearsal cruises
far into the ocean and back.
The Army's pioneer course in blind
flying was instituted at Kelly Field in
1890, but the conservatives were not
completely routed till 1884, when dis
astrous attempt to fly the mails with
military pilots betrayed to all the world
their deficiency in instrumental navi-
CATION.