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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 1279.PDF
NOVEMBER 29, 1913. l/O^HT] ARMCHAIR REFLECTIONS. By THE Air Serpent Discovered. I SHOULD like you to clearly understand, right from the start, that this is not my story, I gleaned it from Every body's Paper, who in turn admit that they got it from the New York American, who no doubt got it from some body who had a friend who knew a man that heard about it. There used to be a line in a certain song that said " When things are far fetched, they get a bit stretched," which coupled with the fact that the country of origin of this serpent incident is America, may account for its picturesque details to some extent. " Frank Goodale, who flies his own airship nightly over Palisades Park, opposite 125th Street, N.Y. City, may go down into history as the discoverer of the air serpent. He came down recen ly wi'.h his hair on end and seated speechless. "When he recovered he said that at a height of 2,000 ft. he was attacked by a long green thing that had two great wings and seemed to come out of a cloud. He was saved by the search light that was trained on him, for the creature seemed 10 fear the light and retreated at once to his lair wherever that was.— JV. V. American." I do not take Everybody's Paper myself, and so did not see this till it was sent along to me by a doubtful friend. I wish at once to emphatically state that I am no judge of green serpents in any shape or form, real or imaginary ! Whether it is a question of position or condition, the want of the one or the lack of the other, the fact remains that I have never seen one; but if Mr. Frank Goodale should tell me that what has been said is true, I am quite ready to believe him, and can see in it a new and un dreamed of danger to aviators. I have not heard of the Great Sea Serpent for some time now, and it may be that that gentleman (if I may use the expression) resents the oblivion to which he has been consigned, and has made up his mind to obtain, or rather to con tinue his publicity, by seeking another element for the scene of his operations. In any case, it must be dis tinctly unnerving to have a monstrous serpent fly at one from out the clouds, no matter what his colour may be, and Mr. Goodale must have been very pleased when he, the serpent, "retreated at once to his lair." I rather like the description that it was a " long green thing, with two great wings," because it at once does away with any idea that it might have been a brother aviator flying one of those new and mysterious machines so prevalent on " the other side." It is a long time since I read " Stories from the Greek Mythology," but I remember the story of Venus, the Goddess of Beauty, who sent Cupid, her son, to spirit away Psyche, and deliver her to a monster, and it turned out after that the monster was none other than Cupid himself, and they were happy ever after, or something of that kind; so no doubt it will all come right in the end, which I sincerely hope, for the sake of all concerned. Upsidedownitis. I hardly like to admit it, but I am old enough to remember influenza becoming fashionable and ousting the old-fashioned cold; I thought it would be rather nice to be fashionable, and have it. After I had had it a few times I got tired, but the influenza didn't, and still plays the game as sprightly as ever when in the mood. When appendicitis became the fashion I found out the cause of it, and have striven—with success up to now—to stave it off. Upsidedownitis came over with Pegoud, which is rather novel, because I have always understood DREAMER. that most of the "itis" things came over in orange boxes, or in timber, or in jute, or in something else—at any rate, they always "comeover,"and are not, according to official reports, born here. This one came over with Pegoud, and is spreading with the rapidity of bad news, and I am afraid of my life that I shall catch it in some some form or other. I have alwa>s been great at catching things, ever since I put up my one and only record, by catching the measles three times, when once is the proper dose, and twice some thing to be proud of. For myself, I believe this upside-down business is only an old complaint mas querading under an assumed name, and is not new at all; something like influenza. I have read of men who have told judges time and again that they could do it on their head, so in all probability it is only a question of practice, though I believe there is such a thing as practising till one is over-trained, and that then the results are not good, which goes to show that sometimes a little is a " plentiful sufficiency." Just at the moment we have a plentiful sufficiency of upside-down flyers, and it is not at all necessary that all should go in for this most enter taining form of contemplative suicide. I believe the time has come when a line will have to be drawn between circus flying and instructive and progressive flying. 1 quite agree with most, that the flying of Pegoud was of real service to the scientific side of aviation, and that he has taught much that will be of inestimable value to all concerned ; but if this mania, that no pilot who cannot fly upside-down will be of any use, continues, aviation will be taking a turn that, in my humble opinion, will not be altogether to its benefit. Apropos of upsidedownitis, Maggie Watson, who is the nine-year-old daughter of a ploughman near Dumfries, should have the germs in her of a fine exponent of this new mania. She is puzzling everybody by the fact that she can only write upside-down. I do not mean by this that she has to stand on her head, but that she writes the reverse way to most of us, though when reading she holds the book in the ordinary way. This cannot be from any defect in her vision, or she would have to hold the book upside-down also, and the doctors cannot find anything wrong with her eyes. It is just some peculiar derangement of the nerves, in all probability, and I do not see that it would be beneficial to others to try and do the same, even if they are aviators. By way of a variation on the upside-down performances, Mr. Beachey, the American aviator, I see, has added the letter Z to his repertoire of fancy flying, having, I suppose, got a bit tired of S dives and loop-loopings, so I suppose it will not be very long now before some of our most skilled pilots will sail on high and go through the whole alphabet, forwards and backwards. I will even go so far as to imagine the time as not far off, when, on seeing an airman climb skywards, we shall watch to see whether he is going to tell us in aerial evolutions to "Give him Bovril" or that "Beecham's pills are worth more than their face value." " Good-night" cut out of chunks of air might also be nice to finish a flying entertainment with, but if this sort of thing is to continue some of the entertainments will, I am sure, finish in a way we have no desire to see. If any of our pilots should value the opinion of the unknown, " The Dreamer " will think just as well of them right-way-up as any other way. 1305
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