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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0058.PDF
JOGHTJ SOME EXPERIENCES OF FLYING IN By G. M CENTRAL DYOTT. JANUARY 18, 1913. AMERICA. [ROUGHLY a year ago it will be remembered that Mr. G. M. Dyott and the late Capt. Patrick Hamilton bought two Deperdussin monoplanes, a 60-h.p. two-seater and a complete a tour of exhibition flying. After a period of successful flying at dromes, they went down South to fill an engagement in Mexico. Below Mr flying in that district]. Taking it on the whole, I did not find flying down in Central America anywhere nearly so comfortable as flying in the North. In all the hot countries in which I have flown, the calmest and most inspiring mornings, I soon learned were the most treacherous, and, in fact, almost dangerous. There might not be a breath of air stirring, yet the air would be riddled with heat eddies and down trends in every direction. Add to this a very 28-h.p. single, and took them over to the United States to the Nassau Boulevard and other aero- Dyott relates some of his impressions of hand a partly clouded afternoon was always bad, and the effect of passing from sunshine to shadow, or vice versa, was always accompanied'by a sudden rise or fall of the machine. Another observation I made was that, while heat eddies would rise vertically in an absolute calm, a wind would incline them over at an angle, and under these conditions, flying with the wind, the disturbances would be more noticeable than flying 'And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save wherJ the beetle wheels his droning flight." Flying by moonlight in the tropics on a gentle wind, and you have the only condition that could be worse, as this caused whirlwinds' of a local character, which would swing even a moderately fast machine 30 or 40 degrees out of its course. Being caught in one of these whirlwinds I found the best way out was to dive the machine with motor stopped, at the same time turning head on to wind, if that were possible. A very curious condition of things existed in the Valley of Mexico. The valley is circular and surrounded on all sides by high mountains. At certain times during the day I found that I could make a complete circle one mile in diameter, having a following wind the whole way round. Up to 1,000 ft. the air would be steady, above that impossible. Towards 4 p.m. on a cloudless day the heat eddies became less local in character, with the result that the entire atmosphere seemed to be rising. On the other 58 60-h.p. Deperdussin. against it. It seemed that the small local whirlwinds, dust devils as they were called, would originate about one of these air chimneys. One day I was flying near Puebla, 8,000 ft. above sea-level, with my 60-h.p. passenger-carrying Deperdussin. For several days -I had been flying there, carrying passengers with success, when, about seven days after my arrival, I had an extraordinary experience. I had taken up a passenger, and after flying with him some 20 minutes, started to return to the aerodrome. Somehow the machine seemed to lose power, in spite of the fact that the speed indicator of my motor gave the proper number of revolutions per minute. A row of tall trees was between me and the aerodrome, and I was surprised to find myself almost, as I thought, on top of them. Naturally I elevated, but with no effect except the lowering of the tail. I cleared the trees by about 70 ft. or 80 ft., but at
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