FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1912
1912 - 1210.PDF
SUPPLEMENT TO 9th.—Nothing doing. 10th. Cleared up. Hamel flying. Will show him a few stunts when 1 get my brevet. (Brevet is the thing you get from the Aero Club for a guinea and two photo graphs when you can fly eights and things.) Lots of nice 'Spent quiet d»y at home tSiiltig ill dbCUt Why an ittt plane files." girls at the aerodrome —they seem rather drawn towards anyone who wears overalls. Felt unusually bucked. Wanted to wire to all my relations, but reckon mechanics ought to wear different colour overalls. nth.—Nice day. More explanations as to what all the gadgets were for. Got in 'bus—that's the proper thing to call it. They started engine, I pulled back a lever, and was frightfully taken back to find they'd all left go. Didn't want them to do that. Haven't the faintest idea what happened, except that the sheds seemed to have taken it into their heads to play hide and seek with me. Fiddled violently amongst gadgets—suddenly a bang—engine roared louder than Fve ever heard it roar before. Then silence, and I came to a dead stop. People were running towards me from all directions. Felt rather proud, for I hadn't hurt myself in the least, so got pencil ready for signing autographs. Found out ] m >peller was smashed—wire had snapped and caught in it. No one seemed to take much notice of me, and eventually they wheeled the machine back to the shed. Wondered why no one had asked me to write my name in some album or other. Flying must be getting rather cheap if they've stopped doing that sort of thing. Wrote home and told my people all about it. Have at last made decided progress. Went down town and stood pals dinner at the Troc. in honour of myself. 12th.—Spent quiet day at home reading all about why an aeroplane flies—seems simpler than ever. Can't really be much more to learn now I'm getting to know what x means. 13th.—Got presented with a bill for 18 guineas for breaking a propeller. Rather a lot of money for a chunk of wood I thought. Refused to pay—argued—paid. (Always said 13 was unlucky). 14th.—Don't feel much like flying to-day. Even our bes» airmen get a bit nervous sometimes, so I watched the living from behind a hedge in Colin Deep Lane. It started raining later, and as it didn't look like clearing up DECEMBER 21, 1912. thought perhaps after all I'd better go to the aerodrome. Very dangerous walking about on wet grass. Casually mentioned to other fellows that my feet were rather cold. Silly asses, they only laughed and said they thought so. Not the faintest idea as to what they mean. At any rate I must get some goloshes. 15th.—Fellow named Biff did a hop across the ground on monoplane 21B. (I wonder why they call it 21B, when it's the only machine they've got in the school ? In one corner of the hangar there's an awful lot of little bits of wood and things. 20B I suppose.) Well, when Biff was coming back towards shed he didn't come down early enough, so smashed into fence. Thought of a good joke, so said to him as he crawled out from underneath one wing, " I say, old chap, you've 1 Biffed ' that machine well in !" D'you know, he couldn't even see that joke, although to me it's plain enough. Simply scowled. Instructor said he might have saved that smash if he'd— (1) Retarded the lever. (2) Pushed rudder-bar with left foot. (3) Pushed the cloche down. (4) Switched off. Asked Biffin a kindly spirit why he didn't do all these things. What he said I'd better not stick down here as my people might see it. Thought I'd take a tip from his smash and memorise those four directions in case I ever look like running into a fence or a church or anything. 16th.—Too windy for flying. Learned an awful lot of French words. It sounds much more impressive to hear a chap talking about the "fuselage " and the " empentiage " than about the body and the tail of a 'bus. Learnt that the "cloche" is the thing that you control the gauchisse- "I say, old chap, you've biffed that machine well in!" ment and the gouvernail de profondeur with. So simple when you know ! My people will be pleased. 17th.—Strolled about enclosures. Some silly ass asked me if I'd ever had a " pancake "—told him I'd had dozens, and casually mentioned I'd broken a propeller the other day. Undoubtedly very impressed. Took my photo—must buy Daily Mirror to-morrow. Hamel and Grahame-White doing passable " stunts." Nothing new though. Want new blood—glad I'm getting on so well. 18th.—Another accident to-day. Started off in customary shower-bath of oil. Intended going up about 50 feet to see what the weather conditions were like. Anemometer was registering zero but the thing's all wrong. You've got to add on 75 per cent, of whatever it says if you want to know what the wind's really blowing. Lets see—75 per cent, of o is , well, I reckon it was blowing about 25 miles an hour at the time. But before I'd even got my tail up the engine petered
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
