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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0006.PDF
JANUARY 5, 1928 however, the blood is forced to the head. Owing to thesudden reversal of blood pressure, a feeling of giddiness is experienced, often combined with loss of sight (" everythinggoing black "), which is usually of short duration. On one occasion only did it refuse to " get light again," a fact whichwould have entailed no particular danger had not at the same time my sense of balance^ left me. It is, however, wellknown that a pilot does not retain for more than a very short time his sense of balance if he closes his eyes, or is flying in athick cloud or in fog. When that happens he no longer knows how to handle his machine. Pupils and young pilotshave paid for their inexperience with their lives through this cause. In commercial aeroplanes there are, of course,instruments which indicate to the pilot the attitude of his machine, although a commercial pilot does not usually fly inclouds or thick fog, but only through small clouds, or with a thorough knowledge of how to fly his machine by instruments.The " everything going black " phenomenon was thus in my case a " dark occasion " in the full sense of the word, asituation which might have ended in disaster if I had not already beforehand included it among the contingencies thatmight arise. Following a plan I had determined upon before- hand, I tore helmet and goggles off, and rested my head on thecockpit coaming, in the slipstream, and opened my mouth wide. The dodge succeeded in a comparatively short time.Nowadays the loss of sight occurs but seldom, and then only for a quite short period, in doing a vertical figure-of-eight. In an inverted vertical figure-of-eight, however, the troubles do continue to arise, even now. There must, there-fore, be a peculiar difference according to whether the blood is first forced to the head and then drained from the head or vice versa.Here it should be pointed out that during the first few weeks, when I carried out these " stunts " almost daily, I used tosuffer from peculiar headaches. On consulting a physician I was told, after an examination that gave only negativeresults, that the dull headaches were to be attributed to my inverted flying, and he could prescribe nothing better for methan that in future I should fly in a normal attitude ! In spite of this well-meant advice, I continued to practise my new" stunts," and today I no longer suffer from this somewhat painful pressure in my head. I feel fit and cheerful as before.Certainly, as I have said before, I still frequently suffer from loss of sight in doing the inverted vertical figure-of-eight,but this is of short duration and perfectly painless. All the senses continue to work; only the sight is completely losttemporarily. Lately I have discovered a remedy for even this, which consists in not running the upper loop of thevertical figure-of-eight straight into the lower, but to fly straight for quite a short distance between the two loops.By doing this, the reversal of blood pressure is somewhat spread out, and loss of sight does not then occur. I have always carried out my experiments at a safe height,and even today I do my " aerobatics " at a considerable altitude. I even go so far as to write down before eachdemonstration the programme which I intend to carry out. In this programme I write down the height at which each" stunt " is to begin. Before the start I attach the programme to my knee, immediately below the altimeter, so as not to betempted into doing " aerobatics " at too low a height. The greatest danger in " aerobatics " arises through doing the" stunts " too close to the ground. Circumstances can arise, no matter how certain the pilot is, which lead to disasterbecause the machine is too close to the ground. On the other hand, with adequate height, the pilot will, in 90 out of 100cases, be able either to get his machine under control again or to remove the cause of the trouble. I will confine myselfto giving two such instances. It was during the time when I was practising the secondhalf of the inverted loop. In one attempt (at 2,000 ft.) to get the machine to climb from the inverted position, the petrolsupply to the engine failed suddenly, and the propeller stopped instantly. The machine was in that critical attitude when ithad practically no speed, and consequently the controls were ineffective. I therefore slipped down backwards,inverted, stalled until the nose dropped, and went into a spin. After about two turns I got the machine under control.A glance at the altimeter told me that I still had another 500 ft. I was thus just in time to reach the aerodrome andland without the engine. The second instance, which might have had serious conse-quences if I had not had sufficient height, happened as follows : At 1,300 ft. I put the machine into the inverted position. Nosooner did the shoulder straps begin to take the weight of my body than I heard a dull sort of thud. While wonderingwhat could have caused it, I discovered that the rudder, which is, of course, operated by the feet, was immovable. Iwas therefore unable to use the controls in such a way as to right the machine. And, anyway, I would have to makeanother turn. I first attempted to bring the machine upright with the ailerons only. In doing this I sideslipped and lostabout 800 ft. in height. In this case, my attempt to right the machine with a half-roll was a wrong manceuvre. I feelsure it would have been better to have got out by doing a half-loop downwards, although even by this manoeuvreI should have lost about 500 ft. A half-loop upwards was scarcely to be considered in such a ticklish situation since, incase of it being unsuccessful without the rudder, I should scarcely have had time to right the machine. 1 might hereadd, parenthetically, that this was a mishap which I had not foreseen and taken into account. I will now relate the causeof the incident. In the front cockpit was a tommy bar, used for taking off the propeller, about 20 in. long and weighingabout 9 lbs. In spite of a careful inspection I had failed to notice this bar in the cockpit, and when the machine wasinverted the bar became wedged between foot bar and cockpit floor in such a manner that the rudder could not be moved.Once the bar had been discovered I was able to kick it away with my foot. When, in the foregoing, I have pleaded for " aerobatics "to be carried out at a considerable height on account of the risk, I was referring mainly to evolutions, the success of whichcannot be guaranteed on account of their difficulty. Thus I would not claim that a normal loop close to the ground is afoolhardy business provided the machine is suitable for looping and the pilot has accustomed himself by long training tothe proximity of the ground, and has a sure hand. Un- doubtedly, a loop or roll close to the ground is impressive, thepublic is enthusiastic, and the object for which a flying meeting is really arranged is attained. I therefore consider it wrongwhen the authorities prohibit " stunting " near the ground (as distinct from close to the public, which is quite anothermatter). The pilot who, in a normal loop, touches the grass with his wheels, or in a vertical bank sends up a spurt of sandwith his wing tip, unquestionably shows that he has absolute mastery of his machine.This subject has, however, a drawback inasmuch as pilots who are not yet entirely certain in crazy-flying will attempt thisclose to the ground. The officer in charge of the aerodrome is powerless because the pilot in question can plead that, forinstance, Udet does " stunting " close to the ground. (In this country we should substitute for Udet, Noakes and Fogarty—ED.) Therefore, pilots who have proved by year-long experience in " stunting," and by their present-day qualitiesas pilots that they are qualified, should be permitted to do certain specified " stunts " at low heights, but not over ornear the public. Pilots not holding a license for these evolu- tions should, undoubtedly, be prohibited from carrying themout below 700 ft. The layman will probably think that each pilot must be the best judge of what he and his machineare capable of doing, and may argue that in other forms of sports there are no restrictions such as, for instance, themaximum speed at which a racing car driver may travel or the height to which a ski jumper may rise. While that istrue, flying is rather a different matter. For example, nobody would dream of ceasing to use the motor-car becausethe newspapers bring accounts of accidents. But in the case of an air crash, quite considerable harm is done to commercialaviation and to flying in general. Flying is still too young, and the layman does not yet understand it sufficiently. Thegreat public must be given confidence in our most modern form of transport, and to that end flying mishaps of every kind mustbe avoided. Hence the restrictions mentioned above. Experience has shown that not only young pilots are foolhardy.Even experienced pilots are often carried away by a sort of feeling of over-confidence. This seems to be part of the verynature of " stunt " flying. It might be thought, and I thought so myself for a time,that no more new " stunts " are now possible. That is not so, however, and I have further " stunts " in stock and very prettyones at that. But these are very difficult to carry out. I have attempted them, but in vain ; my machine refuses. Thesmall power reserve is not sufficient for these new " stunts," nor is the wing section suitable, and there are other difficulties.I am now living in the hope that someone will make me a present of a new machine. With the best will in the worldI am unable to earn enough by " stunt " flying to be able to buy one ! I should be particularly happy to have an opportunity ofmeeting English pilots, of whose outstanding abilities I was able to convince myself during the war. Perhaps an oppor-tunity to visit England may occur before long.
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