Evening star., 1942-09-13
FLYING Daredevils Learn Precision
By Fred Tan Devender,
Wide World.

CSptol puko kouAt slip, 0ifAlSs tWAobliiS
and turning in all the gyrations of
an aerial circus while the COM
manding officer, his staff and the
pilots watched him.
He was trying to find out why
one of the bases best pilots had
gone into a fiat spin.
When the plane swept back to the
field, the pilot, a tall, lean man in
dirty dungarees, beckoned to the
crowd of pilots and led them to
the bases lecture room. For Is min
utes he talked, quickly, surely, dra-
matically.
This plane couldn't 60 into a
spin unless it was forced into 1t or
there had been an accident.
This tall, lean man had gone up to
prove it, and in proving it he an
swered the question went to the
field to ask:
why are there so few accidents
at this Army air base?"
Unanimously, the officers had re-
piled:
Bob Mcintyre"
Lit. Bob McIntyre-the 26-year-
old who had done the acrobatics-is
the chief of the Transition School,
Sd Ferrying group Air Transport
Command, United States Army Air
Corps. The Detroit base is one of
six such bases engaged in trans
shipping Army planes from manu-
facturers to the fighting forces.
Accidents Are Few.
In the last four months Detroit
air base pilots have spent some
$4,000 hours in the air, delivering
bombers and fighters and learning
to fly them. In that time there have
been but two fatal accidents, neither
attributable to pilot error, only 81
accidents altogether, most of them
minor.
Those figures are far below the
average prior to April, 1912, when
the Transition School was estab-
Iished.
Literally thousands Of Army fly
ing craft-everything from training
ships to the giant r-motored
bombers-have been delivered by
these pilots.
They fly different ship almost
every time they go into the air
and they're bringing them down
safely.
OF course, 1t. Mcintyre says there,
is more to the flying safety of his
pilots than just his teaching.
Il have an excellent staff of in
structors," he said. But Just as
important, we know the airplane
is ready to fly before it takes off"
There is a very great tendency
for the young flyer to be what he
thinks the public expects him to
be-a daredevil-rather than what
he should be-a master precisionist.
But McIntyre's students are pre-
cisionists. If they are not they
don't fly.
Flying Specialists.
He has huge blackboards showing
the name of every pilot and beside
their names are checks to show
just what type of planes thay may
fly. Only 1t. Mcintyre may alter
those check marks. Every student
of the transition school must have
had 300 hours in the air before
even entering. These include ac-
complished civilian pilots, airline
pilots and pilots of puddle jumpers,
as well as graduates of Army Air
Force flying schools.
Mcintyre is no schoolmaster. He
leans against chair or sits down
as he talks. His classes are no
places for bookworms. Book in
struction is rather incidental.
If he can't explain with words
what he wants to say he grabs any
thing handy to illustrate his point.
He picked up the top of a box,
tore the corners and wiggled them
around to show how ailerons on
certain ship worked.
If he can't explain his point that
way, he leads the class to the ham
gar, groups the pilots around the
plane in question and shows them.
That was what prompted him to
test the P-39 above the field. The
pilots wanted to know what to do if
their craft should go into a spin.
| He showed them, and then while
the subject was still fresh in their
minds, he told them. They popped
| questions, and he answered them,
| quickly, precisely, and with gestures
What would you do if your plane
went into an uncomfortable spin" ;"
asked one of the pilots.
Don't quote me-" Mcintyre re-
piled, "but when such thing hap
Observation-Disclosures, mind YOU
| I'd start getting out of that plane
and quickly"
Stupid question?
Not to 1t Mcintyre.
My Office is open always for any
| pilot who wants to ask questions
no matter how stupid" he said.
and they do. If I can't answer
them, I can show them"
He speaks quickly, decisively. He
| occasionally breaks into a wide grin.
| But even his grin is intensive.
He looks, sometimes, like he might
be putting on an act-like in the
movies. But you know he isn't.
When he tells you he was a petro-
leum engineer before he went to an
Army aviation school three years
ago, you know he was a good one.
He looks, talks, acts like a movie
actor.
And his home-actually-is Hol-
lywood, Calf.