Show Minded Auto Americans Prove Good Aviators By DEVON FRANCIS FRANCI Wide W World Aviation Aviation E Editor ORANGEBURG S. S C. C Feb 25 25 Wherever Wherever airmen S gather you can always start an argument argument argument ment by ask- ask second ing ing what a man Of Th Three ree ought to have to make a good Articles pilot but there is general agreement on one point a trained accelerator foot is a help The mass production of automobiles automobiles automobiles auto auto- mobiles for many years in the United States has in a measure simplified the job of building up American air power for the war effort The coordination taught by automobile driving leaves its imprint on the scores of thousands of young men now learning to fly airplanes Jose Iturbi the pianist and pilot once told me that the coordinatIon coordination co co- co- co ordination on and ri muscular lar control control control con con- con con- he learned at a keyboard was of inestimable help when h he started taking flying lessons What automobile driving has done for American youth is no better than than at at the American air training centers where both British and United States students have been put into airplane cockpits In England automobile operation operation operation oper oper- is much less general than it is here As aviation students the British boys learn none the the less thoroughly than Americans but they learn more slowly Automobile driving has given Americans something else a contempt for distance An in in- in at one of the dozens of elementary flying schools now in operation such as the Hawthorne School of Aeronautics tics here at Orangeburg remarked remarked remarked re re- re- re marked to a British aviation cadet that he was going to take a flight of several hundred miles the next day Tomorrow exclaimed the British cousin incredulously Why back home we would plan for weeks if we were going going going go go- ing to take that long a trip Regardless of what it takes to tomake make a good flier dozens elementary schools engaged in training work can tell you readily readily readily read read- ily enough after a short indoctrination indoctrination indoctrination period that this man is isan isan isan an apt student and that one is not The quickness with which impossible students are busted out of training is accelerating the growth of the army air forces Work is concentrated on the students who show promise Program in Full Swing Suing It is a matter of some pride to the army that an efficient system of pilot training already was in full swing when the Japanese Japanese Japanese Jap Jap- anese struck at Pearl Harbor and the United States overnight was at war Civilian contract schools were giving primary instruction to candidates for flying officers' officers commissions In a nation which since its founding traditionally found itself in a war before it began preparing for one that was something of a non All that was needed was an expansion of the civilian schools' schools facilities coupled of course with added training centers centers centers cen cen- for the later phases of in in- in Establishments like the Hawthorne Haw Haw- thorne blossomed out of a wilderness of dead corn stalks I Children hunting for natures nature's free gum on the bark baric of sweetgum sweetgum sweetgum sweet- sweet gum trees suddenly found army- army marked training planes flying overhead The sudden transition was possible because not one but two types of instruction in flying flying flying fly fly- ing were in full swing in the war pre-war period The training of the army's aviation cadets was bulwarked by the training of civilians What happened here is a fair example of what happened happened happened hap hap- in other parts of the country Beverly H Howard ward of Charleston Charleston Charleston Charles Charles- ton S. S C. C who was doing exhibition exhibition exhibition tion parachute jumps when he was 17 and had since become one of the nations nation's crack pilots was called in to establish an elementary elementary elementary ele ele- ele- ele school Alfred B. B Bennett Bennett Bennett Ben Ben- nett of Hightstown N N. J. J was called in to become the schools school's director Both were pioneers in civilian pilot training work One by one they got into contact contact contact con con- tact with former students who had become efficient instructors Pres Presently as word got around other former students began telephoning for jobs Occasionally pilots who were big names in the air show business business business busi busi- ness would drop in wanting to know jf if they couldn't help out One of them was Jimmy Granere Granere Granere Gra- Gra nere the son of a Canadian ace in World War I. I Jimmy Granere used to put on son father acts with his dad Now he is helping aviation cadets win their wings Building air power for the war effort approximates In its complexity com corn the gradual accumulation accumulation tion of naval power On the personnel personnel personnel per per- side it poses even more difficult problems A greater proportion of the men in the army air forces actually engaged engaged engaged en en- enI I in combat consists of trained officers Flying Is more an art than a science and on the elementary flying schools falls the task of determining who has what it takes and who I group of of instructors whose work Is supervised by Captain William K i. Kincaid of the army air commanding officer of the training detachment what caused students to be busted out of the training school The principal reason they agreed was a lack of tion Feet and hands could not be taught to do the proper thing at the proper instant Sometimes temperament was wasa a cause A student would get sulky under an instructors instructor's cism A sulky r- r r t. t is hard to teach A high highs student student student stu stu- dent didn't last iong io He would be busted out in the first 10 or 12 hours of the scheduled 60 hours of air instruction Then I asked some of the students students stu stu- dents what they thought made a good flier Like their instructors they were sure what did not but they were not sure what did Eugene Cappleman 21 a graduate of the Citadel South Carolinas Carolina's famous military school and already a second lieutenant in the army but detailed detailed detailed de de- de- de tailed to the air corps for flying training was bothered by a maneuver called lazy eights In flying a lazy eight a pilot gets a roller coaster effect Itis It Itis Itis is purely a training maneuver to teach precision The air pressure changes on the controls he said and its it's hard to fly smoothly throughout through through- out the maneuver You think but youve you've got to feel the movements of the plane too In fact its it's mostly feel feet Casimer Krauser of Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadel Philadel- phia had another story but he failed to relate the best of it Its judging the approaches he said have to come in at just the right altitude for a given given- wind velocity to make your plane sit down just where you want it to A plane wont won't land until it stops flying you see and it wont won't stop flying until the wing stalls and the wing wont won't stall until you are out of speed and youve you've got to be out of speed at just the right place at the right time That's what makes flying an art What Krauser failed to say was that on his first solo flight his engine went dead and he got the plane down without a scratch in a field near the airport It was the neatest piece of emergency emergency emer erner- gency flying that had been done since the field was opened last fall They had to truck the plane back The clearing Krauser had squeezed into w was s much t too o small to fly it out Ill tell you what makes a good pilot said an i Instructor tapping his forehead Its judgment Krauser proved that Adv Advertisement ent |