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Show - W k " ff I )' " " A fdO&f i r;;;:Al akjD r J NV x ' . ' ' ' , y7Z S - s- V ' fA ! " .r;:"" -J Acrobatics 5 ' - y v .x itr Hi v - ' v x ai-i"c s - ' "i -. r "s 1 , r ps.it. I ' : ' ' i t i 3 j - s t : . , ( I ' V v " X J'TW"k 6 - -"aNH'V' j I V ' V - ' " s C - ., Pr By GEORGE BECK :?i C , 1 'v V i Aa HE young man with a stronR urge ' f 1 . C '" ? for a traimaI j j to become an aviator and who has , ? . ,T V " "', fl-irtVt !j the time to learn the science of fly- ' , ' ' J W l ;1 lng In a thorough manner, can do & ,'' , 1fj' A ." t11' d no better than to apply to Uncle 'f ; v l Siff A'' H a Sam who operates the finest avla- '" 1 ! V N - V,! V ' s I ' W I"'" schools In the country. ' jl W A f t , s V V At fifteen army fields throughout W ' the United States, Uncle Sam has T 'if v wt v5 S5U, j W enrolled at present over 5,000 re- i j s f's'v 0 1 ' serve fliers whose training expenses I i - g fs! V' A ' far exceed, per man, the cost in any other t in' X t i V. -M-; k'O'' branch of service. For the privileges extended i F ''tf M,4i i VVt fev t 1 the reserve flier, the value of the training he " if . i, V i V) 7 i gets, the good times he has, all that Uncle Sam f" , , . Ah ' - ' 41, if I Wf requires In return Is an intelligent, Industrious r?MSji ' 'f A? $ j tit t A T ' young man between the ages of twenty and U 2Vf J lA M A K 1 1 I I I twenty-seven who has had at least two year's T ! V ? Y - fS ii? " 1 1 1 1 college education and who has the makings of a 'l H I 111 1 4 f ifv" I "I 1?! S 1111 fllerlnh,m- !i:rfiln kI- l1 Av v 11 If In an exclusive interview the writer had for S Ht Jv" 1 V "filvW f 11 II this article with Captain Frank M. Hawks, just ll4r . I If returned from a spectacular tour of Europe KS k'fvAr Q&H XT II 11 In his speedy Lockheed-Vega, the Texaco 13, ' ki V" -- " 1 Hawks declared there was an urgent need for 1V. VT!; " 1;" ---W F more and better trained pilots in this country. lalking it Over at ter the Flight '5 By GEORGE BECK A-tkiIE young man with a strong urge ' i to become an aviator and who has 1 j the time to learn the science of fly-; fly-; l ing In a thorough manner, can do t"' d no better than to apply to Uncle tk J fi Sam who operates the finest avla- I tion schools In the country. J I At fifteen army fields throughout the United Slates, Uncle Sam has J enrolled at present over 5,000 re serve fliers whose training expenses far exceed, per man, the cost in any other branch of service. For the privileges extended the reserve flier, the value of the training he gets, the good times he has, all that Uncle Sam requires in return Is an intelligent, Industrious young man between the ages of twenty and twenty-seven who has had at least two year's college education and who has the makings of a flier In him. In an exclusive interview the writer had for this article with Captain Frank M. Hawks, just returned from a spectacular tour of Europe In his speedy Lockheed-Vega, the Texaco 13, Hawks declared there was an urgent need for more and better trained pilots in this country. The finer designing of planes, he said, and the necessary continued study of aeronautical ecience generally, particularly with respect to training of airmen, holds the future of aviation avia-tion In this country. Hawks firmly believes in the coming of highspeed high-speed planes for commercial use, for passenger transportation over the airways. In speed, he says, is the future of flying. In fact he believes In It for all future transportation, land, water and air. "The day is coming," he said, "when we shall ride in planes that travel 200 miles an hour, trains that move at 100 m. p. h. and we will drive our automobiles over express highways nt 60 and 70 miles an hour. Does that sound Impossible? Then excuse it as the idle dream of a speed demon who likes to sit back in an easy chair and visualize through the smoke rings of his cigar, new speed pictures of tomorrow." to-morrow." The glider, Captain Hawks recommends as one of the best means of training for the brotherhood broth-erhood of aeroplane pilots. "Primarily," says Captain Hawks, "the glider has sound fundamental values. Unquestionably, it offers a very safe and inexpensive means to student aviators for instruction. The novice in flying gets a keener technique and a better knowledge knowl-edge of aerodynamics. In the first few tender hours of flying he can learn a great deal more with a glider than with a powerdriven plane. He is not depending upon the motor but is learning learn-ing currents of air, the action of the controls; he is depending more upon real flying as it is taught to us than by sheer horsepower. Every landing that he makes is a forced landing because be-cause he has no motor, so his judgment in approaching ap-proaching fields, and landing on marks is keener. "The novice receives the thrill of his life on his first glider flight, though its duration may be only half a minute; he gains a decided feeling of power later when aloft for fifteen minutes, alone. I have observed many skeptics make their first glider flight and have seen them change in a snap of the fingers from doubting Thomases to boosters. I have seen many contemporaries con-temporaries who thought they had enjoyed all the thrills and sport of aviation through power-driven power-driven airplanes turn to gliders like children to a new toy. There's just as much skill required re-quired and just as much thrill and fun enjoyed in gliding as in speeding through the air at double express train paces." The object of the flight of the Texaco Eaglet, In which Captain Hawks was towed from San Diego to New York last year by J. D. ("Duke") Jernigin, Jr., who flew the Waco Texaco 7, was to stimulate interest in gliding, which in brief, Is a cheap and safe stepping stone to powered machines, provided, of course, that proper instruction in-struction is first given the student. Obviously, no Btudent will move immediately from completion comple-tion of a course in gliding to flying a ship such as the Hawks speed plane wth its engine of more than 400 horsepower and a demonstrated speed of 270 miles an hour. But here again, Captain Hawks has Ideas: If a "kicker" motor of two cylinders is developed to drive gliders efficiently and safely, a new intermediate in-termediate and valuable step in aviation will have been accomplished. Says Hawks further: "I have made a few observations which have convinced me that the so-called primary glider with its skeleton fuselage, inefficient wings and controls, has no place in the picture of American Amer-ican gliding activities. I would rather see young men start their glider work with the secondary or utility type of glider. "I am opposed to the automatic launching device which spring tension snaps the glider Into the air with such violence that it is not only unnatural but extremely dangerous to even an experienced pilot. I believe that gliders and soarers must be taken seriously by either those experienced in flying or by students. It is a real art, not as simple to accomplish as it seems, and cannot be taken lightly. Gliding, in my opinion, is safe if properly supervised and instruction is thorough." If gliders remain only gliders they will still impart the fundamentals of flying, and from them the student may step to a fledgling airplane air-plane and meet the "horses" that drive it. Here again, progress is obviously .gradual, but sure. Out of such a mill it is easy to visualize the emergence of a new crop of aviators who might well provide considerable slipstream to veteran fliers of today. At Mitchell field, Long Island! one of the army flying fields where reserve training is carried on there are planes reserved every week-end throughout the year for the use of reserve corps officers. This is the case at nearly all the army flying fields. It is the privilege of the officer and at the same time an Air Reserve corps requirement require-ment to fly an army plane a certain number of hours every month. Once a year the reserve corp officers train for two week periods at the army fields through-- through-- out the country. At New York the observation squadrons composed of officers of the Second corps area camp at the Long Island field during dur-ing the summer. At fields in the south and southwest south-west reserve corps training is carried on throughout through-out the year. Lectures by regular army aviation officials cover such subjects as radio communication and equipment, navigation, cross country flying and aerial photography. Then with parachutes strapped to their backs, a strict army regulation, regula-tion, the fliers put these lecture subjects to actual ac-tual practice in the air in addition to formatios and observation flying. There are two primary aviation schools in Texas and California and one advanced school at Kelly field, San Antonio, Texas. The graduate grad-uate of the reserve school goes in the regular army for two years as a commissioned officer . and licensed pilot. Out of some several thousand applicants to' the army flying schools every year, a few hundred hun-dred are enrolled for the primary training. Less than half of these succeed in obtaining their diploma, commission and license as a reserve army flyer. This past June 9S cadets received their "wings" at Kelly field and were . assigned to army fields throughout the country. A few days before 245 applicants were selected to begin be-gin training. Courses in both the primary and advanced schools give the cadet 225 hours in the air with the necessary auxiliary studies in meteorology, airplane-engines, navigation, radio, aerial gunnery gun-nery and other academic and field subjects for military pilots. Besides strict physical examinations to determine de-termine whether or not the cadet is going to make a flier, he is put through tests which are described as psychological by the instructors. He needs, they maintain, a re-education to give him "air confidence" and "air sense." One of the cadet's first experiences which is almost as frightening as his first solo flight, is a tryout in an "orientator," a mechanical device de-vice which whirls and revolves bim through every revolution and movement a plane will make in the air. It resembles the cockpit of a plane and in that the cadet sits. The mechanism is dual-controlled, dual-controlled, that is. the cadet operates controls similar to those of an airplane and the instructor in-structor sitting outside of the device operates a control which puts the cockpit through its motions. mo-tions. The instructor, who gets a certain enjoyment en-joyment out of the business, no doubt, tries to upset the equilibrium of the cadet while the cadet tries to maintain it. Soon after he enrolls the cadet starts actual dual flying. After a few days of infantry drill and other ordinary military duties to put in the mind of the cadet that he is one of Uncle Sam's soldiers, within the first week he finds himself with his instructor ready for his initial in-itial flight. The .cadet is getting his first lesson les-son to have full confidence in his instructor. In order to put this over the instructor goes through, a few spins and rolls until, in some cases, a, cadet is about ready to crawl in his teacher's pocket. Another purpose of this flight is to have the cadet "feel out the situation" of flying for he is told nothing before he starts except to hop in the plane. The flying is done in the morning and the ground schooling in the afternoon of a day that lasts from 6:30 until 4:30. His next venture aloft, the cadet is told, is for "air work." It consists of straight flying, spins, banks, forced landings and the course lasts ten flying hours. In the forced landing instruction, the instructor kills the engine while the plane is in some precarious position or locality lo-cality and the cadet must glide to the ground safely. A careless accident on his part will promptly eliminate him from the cadet ranks. His next trial is a solo hop around the field watched closely by his instructor on the ground. And when the cadet returns safely to the field, even though he has shown, possibly, great skill in handling his first flight, he is greeted with, "Well, did ja bring that plane back without smashing it up," by his instructor. The purpose pur-pose of this is to keep the embryo pilot from getting a "swelled head." For eight months the cadet continues his lessons les-sons in his own plane. Those lessons include , night-flying, acrobatics, cross-country and formation forma-tion flying, navigation, gunnery, bombing, radio and military tactics of all sorts. His training in acrobatics begins after be has had about twenty hours in the air. Keeping always a level head and a keen eye, he must "put his plane through spins, nose dives, loops, rolls, slow rolls, half rolls, and snap rolls. Flying Fly-ing over an "air course" he must always come out of a roll aiming his plane at a certain designation. There is no fluttering about in the air. A unique feature of gunnery practice is the use of a camera gun with which the cadet trains a lens on the target and "shoots" a picture pic-ture instead of a bullet. The instrument resembles re-sembles a gun in every way and the operation of it is almost exactly similar. The films are developed at the end of the attack and if a photograph shows the target, a hit is scored. Navigation and cross-country flying are two of the most important branches of the flying course. It covers the study of compass and instrument reading, the use of the sextant and course spotting. An interesting subject, too, is the study of artificial horizons. Horizons are created in the sky for the guidance of the navigator navi-gator just as a ship's captain uses the actual horizon of the sea to determine his position. In the advanced school to which the cadet goes for about four months after he completes the primary school course, he gets classification training in ail types of planes. There it is determined de-termined just what kind of flyer he is. In the army there are four kinds, observation group, attack, bombardment and pursuit. The overly-cautious and apprehensive flyers are quickly detected and eliminated. It is the pilot who can smilingly pull himself out of a barrel roll, drop to the ground on a neat three-point three-point landing, hop out and nonchalantly light a cigar, who is given the coveted gold wings. () by Western Newspaper Union.) |