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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0039.PDF
JANUARY 13, 1916. 1/lioHT) • ; • MR REFLECTIONS By THE lit v I SUPPOSE the week-ending habit which had taken such a hold on the people of England before the war, has received somewhat of a set-back now, for reasons which will be many and various. But I have a week-ending habit which I can enjoy now, as ever ; which does me a world of good, which does not cost me a penny-piece to indulge, and which I can highly recommend. I simply go to bed on Saturday night, and there remain until Monday morning. Of course I don't mean that I have my meals in bed, that would be unthinkable. The modus operandi is this :—Sunday morning, lie in bed till nine. Get up, Muller's exercises, cold bath uuugh !), dressing gown, slippers, and descend to breakfast. After the meal, gather up all the papers and magazines (one must be selfish in this matter), together with smoking tackle and writing pad, and go back to bed. Read, write, smoke and sleep until lunch time. Afternoon, dose repeated till tea time. Evening, ditto, missing dinner, which miss is in itself a splendid thing on occasion, and helps not a little towards health. Monday morning, arise fresh as a lark at an hour which will cause consternation to the household, who will pass rude remarks with regard to one's compos mentis, but withal, that feeling that one wants to go out and pull up trees, or push a 'bus over. Should Sunday be one of those dark, wet, miserable days we wot of, I draw the ^window curtains, switch on the light, and deceive myself that it is night. Those days produce a large slice of the hump in the most optimistic of us, and are better shut out. This is one of the finest tonics I know of, and will not only revive your drooping spirits, if you try it, but also those of all the rest of the household, who will arise in arms, and resent it with all their might, and so cause a quickening of their pulses so likely to become flaccid with hum-drum household life, with a corresponding rise in energy, and consequently in health. This Sunday morning, I was lying in bed busily en gaged in trying to hang a smoke ring over the electric globe descending from the centre of the canopy, and, incidentally, watching the morning sun melt the white frost from the roof opposite, when I heard the familiar roar of an engine overhead. I live within gunshot of one of our aerodromes, and am used to these visits. On any other 4ay, I should have rushed out to glimpse at it, just to satisfy myself whether it was an Avro or a B.E. or what not, and to speculate in my mind whether it was some familiar up there, or an advanced pupil, or both, or somebody else. This being Sunday morning, however, and one of my week endings, I contented myself with just watching below the top of the window frame until it should appear, which it eventually did, sailing majestically away at some six or eight hundred feet. Then I fell to thinking of aeroplanes, and pilots, and the war, and what aviation was doing for us, and of the great things pilots were doing " out there." I thought of the ability and pluck shown on every occasion by our service pilots. Of the battles in the air. Of machines 'DREAMER." of the enemy shot down. Of risks taken and honours won. Of crosses and medals and D.S.Os. Of D.S.Ms, and " mentioned in despatches," and of the limelight waiting to be turned on to any one of these, our fighting aviators. And my thoughts veered round to the pilot- instructor, the man who teaches these young Britons to go out and do things, the man who takes the raw material, and turns it into one of the grandest fighting units ever known, because a pilot has to use his own initiative and methods. He has no commander up there with him to govern and order, to advise and instruct. He is his own CO., Head-quarters Staff, Officer, Non-com, battery and rank and file, all rolled into one. He must plan his own attack, and carry it out himself. He must manoeuvre and dive and climb and bank to avoid hurt, and get into position to hurt others. And here in England there are men who are teaching him to do all this. Men who never come out into the limelight. Men with no chance of distinguishing themselves; no chances of winning medals and crosses : one of them was flying over my house this morning in the biting north-east wind, whilst I lay idly on my back blowing smoke rings. Out there, pilots take risks. They do not get their honours thrust upon them j they have to be earned. But here, at home, the pilot-instructor works hard and takes risks. He does not mind the hard work, he does not mind the risk he takes in going up with inexperi enced pilots who have control for the first time. It is his duty to take those inexperienced men and teach them to become first-class pilots, and it cannot be done without a great deal of hard work and personal risk. In every aerodrome in this country there are pilot-instructors in every way fitted to go out into the war area and win laurels for themselves, but their duty is at home, where they can be of far greater use than bringing down enemy aeroplanes, but where, it has occurred to me, they are likely to be overlooked when the presents are handed round off the Christmas tree. Would it be too much, I wonder, and should I be thought impudent, were I to suggest that most—if not each and every one—of the pilot-instructors in the service, teaching service flyers, should receive some token of recognition ? The medal and order is bestowed for distinguished service, and, although the pilot-instructors do not operate at the seat of war, surely they are perform ing services at home which are not only distinguished, but absolutely incalculable in the value and greatness of results indirectly achieved. Great Britain is mightily proud of her sons to-day, in whom she has every right and title to be, and she has shown herself not backward in according honour where honour is due. Therefore it is possible, and I humbly beg to suggest it to the consideration of those in authority, that the Service Pilot-instructor is doing great things i n turning out those magnificent Service Flyers, that his services ARE distinguished, and that if he were presented with some outward and visible sign to that effect it would be a reward well placed and faithfully earned. 39
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