Show A A aloft M flu man actor in al alrh aft n wei s cadets cabets sau fliers not ax 0 k for most falls HE officers and cabets cadets of tile the hying flying fields elds that are scattered thickly over texas donot do not share the belief of senator overman and a good WI many man y others that agents agent s in 4 air airplane pInne plants are responsible for any of the deaths by accident k s ja NI j among them they say they do not know anything about conditions 4 Z in airplane factories and therefore do not know whether or no not t his assertions about the num 4 of germans employed therein are true but they tire skeptical about the ahe senators fears and allegations they think they know i ow a good deal about the causes of the many accidents both bath fatal and unimportant that have occurred during the last six months says a writer in id the new york times magazine section and they declare very positively that not one of these accidents has been due to faulty construction or to enemy tampering with the machinery they say that in t lahl every case thus far the cause for the accident was to be found in the A roan man himself and not in the machine he was driving among the flyers the a za conviction Is strong that even if the machinery of an a airplane were to be weakened by the method 0 indicated b by y senator overman it would probably be discovered in the course of the rigorous examination K and tests to dwir V zava 4 0 CA SW TO 70 7 0 7 Y GROZ ayo which it Is subjected be fore it is sent from the factory still they admit tant a machine so damaged inight possibly slip blip through without discovery taut they do not believe that up to the present time any such damaged machine has been sent io to an american lying flying field and as for the possibility of a german agent doing any monkey bu business iness with tin an airplane after it Is received by a flying field they scoff without mercy nt at the mere suggestion they do not deny the possibility of spies being present on tiny any or all the flying fields but they do not believe that the most astute and malignant german agent could put anything over in the lian hangars gars which house their steeds of the air in charge of each hangar Is an officer whose duty it is to know till all about each machine la in it what happens liap pens to each one where it is at any moment and what its condition Is whenever it Is in the hangar three mechanics are detailed to each machine to keep it in order and groomed for nse iise whenever it may be needed the flying men are confident that no sabotage could be successfully cess fully attempted under these conditions except by means of tin an organization so large and so eo unlikely in flying field forces that its possibility is not worth considering in addition no man ever takes a plane up from a flying field without himself first carefully inspecting its machinery the aviators are so confident that the fault does not lie in the planes that when they are discussing the cause of accidents they do rot pot even mention the planes or their mathi machinery nery unless they are questioned by an outsider they confine their discussions to the human factor involved and speculate upon why his nerves or his muscle his heart or his brain failed him film at some crucial moment the percentage of losses among student aviators Is much larger at canadian than tit at the american training schools while the number of fatal accidents at the canadian field at fort worth tex Is appalling that field has suffered more casault les than all the other fields together in ili texas the aviators of the american fields are all of the opinion that the fatalities there are mainly due to haste and carelessness in training at the alie Kin american erlean fields a man must have had from four to nine hours of training in the air with an all instructor the time depending on his quickness in learning controls control before lie he Is allowed to take up a machine by himself A tall spin one of the causes of accidents most commonly cited is an acrobatic which an aviator must know how bow to execute with SL skill and rare ease in it he noses his machine downward with its tall whirling in a circle above him while its nose whirls in a similar but smaller carcle beneath him and he in the pilots seat Is the pivot of the two gyrations to the landsman it I 1 sounds a heady sort of a combination arid and it Is likely to prove so BO to the airman unless he has bab the knowledge and mhd skill with which to manage it to throw his machine in and out of tall spins spin Is a part of bf his daily practice after he begins the acrobatic training and in a very little while lie he acquires sufficient fent knowledge of what to do and instinctive control of the machinery to execute tall spins as easily and safely as ll 11 he could twirl on his toes or turn on his heel beet if his feet were pit on solid ground but he may get into a tall spin accidentally in its his early flights alone and although he may know what Is the right thing to do to tag take the ma machine chille out of it he may lose hl head tit at the me crucial moment and fall to do what he ought every man woman or child wile who has learned to ride a bicycle or drive an automobile Is faill familiar lur with thai hat unconscious influent 9 of the mind over er the muscles which causes one who has not yet acquired complete command of a machine to drive straight at the object which he wishes and Is doing his best to avoid the aviator has a brief it time me in its his training when hen lid he suffers from fro m that same difficulty and tit at important moments js Is prone to give the ithe wrong pressure upon his control stick or his elevator if he does this when his machine goes into a tall spin an and d his mind does not work quickly enough to T recognize his difficulty and dothe do the right thing a fatal accident is very likely to result sudden panic failure to think quickly unconscious movement ignorance of what to do may cause a fatal accident when a learner gets into anto a tall seln in accidentally or lie he may intentionally take his machine macli lne ojito into one before lie he has had the usual instruction out of the spirit of adventure or even the desire to convince himself of his daring or exhibit it to his fellow students but whatever the cause it is the opinion of flying field avla aviators tors that getting into a tall tail spin purposely or accidentally without being able to manage it properly Is the cause of a large proportion of fatal accidents at the flying fields the same perverse un unconscious ons clous influence of the mind over the muscles which forces the bicycle learner straight toward the object he Is trying to avoid Is responsible for many of the fatal accidents due to collisions even tile the roost most expert of flyers may be unable to avert a serious accident when lie he sees approaching him hill a plane driven by a cadet who Is doing his level best to keep his machine out of the others way how serious and ever present Is this dan danger dangerio gerlo in flying fields Is proved by capt vernon castles death in flying there are certain blind angles in which collisions are possible through no fault of the driver of either plane the sections of space covered by the wings of lits his ship nie are invisible to the pilot and if such a section coincides with the space concealed from the eyes of another pilot approaching from below or at one side a sudden crash Is likely to be the first that either knows of the other plane this blind angle may be the cause of an occasional serious accident but avla aviators tots do not think that such collisions are of frequent occurrence engine trouble causes many unimportant accidents but aviators say should never offer tiny any serious difficulty to a man N who has learned how to manage his plane if he is in a region where it Is possible for him to come down safety safely and for engine trouble there are as many possible and legitimate causes as there are reasons for an automobile to balk in a i few cases a broken propeller has caused a pilot to make a forced landing with injury to his plane but up to the present time never with serious result to himself the accompanying picture shows what happened to K a pilot when his propeller weakened cracked and broke over the grounds of a high school in the environs of houston tex he brought his ship down some damage to it but none to himself and ana greatly to the delight of the inhabitants of the region various causes may result in the breaking of the propeller it may have been injured in some previous nose dive to the ground or a bird may have got entangled in ili its blades cadets cabets are forbidden to chase birds because of the possibility of such a result and the sure smashing of the propeller nevertheless they do it Bonie sometimes times when the instinct of the chase Is strong in their blood and it would be quite possible for a bird to fly against hta his propeller to the undying of both bird and propeller and the pilot to bi be ignorant of what had happened the men who by hard work and steady practice have earned the right to the title of bird men believe that with both students and skilled aviators one cause of fatal accidents 4 1 the fall allure of the nervous system to respond immediately and algid accurately to the command of the brain anything which causes nervous fatigue may bring about that physical state dissipation nerve strain physical wee weariness lack of sleep the flyer must be so alert his grasp upon every situation which may y confront opt him so instant and his flig inwon notion to td meet and nd iiga so pro prompt ampt that the fraction of f nse n second cond tit in the flie ni movement ovum nt of his hand upon the controls cont fols of its alu machine may rhean mean the differ difference ened zef between N ten life and death and anything by ever so little the action of the brain in V an ahe emergency marg ency or the flashing of bf its ce commands along the nerves orthe or the instant obedience of the motor nerves may send him crashing lo 10 to the earth the cadets cabets before they have become what they call instinctive flyers are especially liable to this danger although even those who are arc skilled in the air are not free from its menace birdeen birdmen who are skilled in one or another or several forms of athletics say that in nothing else have they felt so BO nuch the necessity of this ansta instant i nt and complete response of the nerves to the demand upon them the cadets cabets quickly discover so lie they my ey that lack of plenty of sleep soon eoon i a physical kz X aez 0 70 7 0 condition which alt although heugh they the would not even notice it in any other occupation they regard as dangerous in flying in one of the texas fields recently a lieutenant with a reputation as a skilled and careful aviator fell from a consid considerable erable height arld was killed instantly his nearest friends were unanimous I in the belief that lils fall W was as due to the tact fact that he had not been g getting etting ellou enough gir sleep for it week he had been giving I 1 instruction true in night hying flying working all n night ight and alid had bad not noi been able to sleep well during the day car careful eaul training and plenty of practice soon eoon bring the student it aviator to the point where flying becomes as instinctive st with him in the movement of hand a and nd toof foot poli the controls of his machine ell ida as aa the jhb action of his b body oay in walking for him lying flying becomes as safe as aa running tin an automobile Is for the skilled motorist and his control of it and so faras far tile dm machine tile me medium daum allro through h which or upon which he rut put the unreliability of moves no es are concerned the human mechanism must still be reckoned with antl that unreliability seems to be greater in the I 1 air than it Is upon the ground it lolae sometimes results in it strange and unexpected happenings once in a while a mail man in tile best of health and add tile tho pink of condition who has pass passed ed with high success every one of the severe tests to which aviation candidates are subjected who hap lia never fainted before in his life will faint while lie Is in the adir a r one recent fatal accident at a texas field is supposed to have been due to that cause one pilot fainted and the plane fell to tile the earth but neither beliber lie he nor the student with him wash was hurt except for a few scratches r and cuts ile he said that lie he did not know why he fainted all that he be knew was that lie he suddenly lost consciousness ness and did abt regain it until he wa was being hauled out of the wrecked airplane lie ile had never fainted before in his life neither keither had another young fellow to whom everything suddenly became a blank as his machine was sailing away through the blue it was still stilling sailing along easily when presently he came to himself again with the feeling that something had happened to him looking down lie he could see that lie he had covered a considerable distance since the moment when belind he had lost consciousness he does docs not know why lie he fainted any aay more than he knows why he did not spin downward to probable death during those blank blank moments A british surgeon attached to the relay naval air service lir dr 11 graeme anderson andersen who has had extensive experience at british flying stations has recently written some interesting conclusions concerning these somewhat obscure causes of airplane accidents at training choals ch in the opinion of doctor anderson based upon study autly and comparison of the statements tunde made to him la in such cases by a hundred student flyers dyers there Is a brain fatigue not due to previous mental or physical wain strain that may yet cause serious accidents he thinks it Is induced by the impart rf ef overwhelming sensations upon the mind rif of the pupil after he Is 19 in the air the flying yuell who Is overcome by this form of fatigue says doctor anderson reaches the stage where he has the power neither to reason decide nor net act A state of mental inertia Inert liI supervenes supervened super venes this Is due to repeated stimuli received by his brain lu in rapid succession in his flight he feels clone alone a succession of erroa error s occurs in the air he feels h lie cannot manage to control the airplane fear doea not seize him but the enormity of the ishol thing appalls tip palls bani him he feels hel helpless pleas and a to tate te oi of brain fatigue occurs occurs in which he in a stupor awaits events and takes little part la in the airplanes control this form of brain fatigue would seem to be largely a result of personal temperament doctor anderson thinks it responsible for a fair proportion of accidents among students in the early stages of flying and he adds that 9 student aviators corp who have suffered from it I 1 if they escape injury are likely bilkei to give up flying there sie anre many many of the unimportant accidents ci of which nobody takes heed but of fatal accidents notwithstanding iab the concern over thern them manifest in some parts of the country the he percentage inge isk ls no greater than should be expected e Is less les than in the th e flying schools of some other oilier countries and i Is not higher than it Is in almost almos any extra exir hazardous haza adous occupation and when it la is remembered that thai this latter C comparison brings together figures representing men in the training stage with those of skilled workers worker it if is evident both that flying Is ii a safer game a e than it has the credit of being and that it pi be a good plan for the country to guard against hysteria over the fatalities that thai do bacur occur i |