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Show B(f Gadaln fiemaui Qnojoh&L BASIC FLIGHT INSTRUCTION pperating a plane. When the time comes for his practical flight training train-ing he should be able to take to the air like a duck to a puddle. Anybody can learn to fly 11 he wants to earnestly enough and gets the right start. We hope this book will give the student the right start t -v i ; ' ' ; r C J1, ; i i v ' ' ' right, but I'll be a long time getting to know these instruments and what they re fori So many of them and I've got to learn them all! .Robinson (Laughs) Wait until you see a real instrument board, my lad. On that board in front of you are only the simplest ones: those absolutely essential to safety. Hank W ell, it looks tike an awful lot of instruments to me and have to learn every one of 'emf what each is for, and how it works! Robinson You sure have, son and you will. It'll come easy enough in time and, above all, don't be afraid of them. None of them have teeth, so they won't bite. HankWell, I'm glad of that! Robinson We'll begin with the stick. Hank The stick? Robinson Yeah. It's right between your legs we call it the joy stick or just the stick. That's used only for control of the ailerons and the elevator. But we're not quite ready fcr that yet. See that rudder bar in front of you? Hank Rudder bar? You mean that thing attached to the floor and cross-wise cross-wise of the plane? Robinson Yes that's the rudder pedals. They are on a center pivol so that you can push either rudder pedal forward or backward with ! your feet. Hank What does it do? Robinson It works like the cross bar on a bobsled. When you push , the rudder bar forward with your 1 right foot, the plane turns to the right, and when you push it with your left foot, the plane makes a left turn. Understand that? Hank Yeah sounds easy enough. Robinson It is and of course when you want to bank the plane to the left or right you use rudder pedals ped-als to obtain the proper radius of turn. But that comes later in your instructions. Put your feet on the i- t , ' i f ' '" , f -vl 1 INTRODUCTION Widespread interest in private flying throughout the country is an indication of great increase in flying expected after the war. Because of the interest in this sub-ject sub-ject this newspaper has arranged to JF M bring its readers a series of 15 arti- cles which comprise the book "How to Fly an Airplane." by Captain Bernard Ber-nard Brookes, one of the pioneers in the development of aviation. This series gives the formulas for techniques of flying and strips aviation avia-tion of the lement of mystery. Written Writ-ten in conversational style, "How to Fly an 4irplane" will prove of great interest to the most casual reader but holds special value for anyone considering con-sidering learning to fly. THE FUTURE PILOT The world is air minded. The world is air dominated. The United States Government is committed to a program of nearly 100,000 airplanes a year. That program pro-gram is so far on its way that we may accept it as achieved. More-1 More-1 f over, if need be, that program will be expanded. It is certain that never again will America, birthplace of the airplane, be rated second to any nation na-tion in command of the air. These thousands of airplanes cannot can-not fly themselves. To keep this giant fleet flying, thousands of pilots must be prepared and ready for the job ahead. Students in high school even those still In grade school are the ones who must keep 'em flying. If these young men can know before be-fore starting their actual training, just what is required for the making of a pilot, if they can absorb into the very fiber of their consciousness the fundamental facts which will keep 'em flying, their training will be very much easier for them and j?or their instructors. Flying, in this way, will be stripped of that element of mystery which begets subconscious fear. Fear is " one thing a pilot must never know. A pilot must know his job, he , must know his plane, and he must know how to think clearly and quickly. quick-ly. A pilot must have confidence in himself and in his plane, but he must never be overconfident. At all times he must be ready for emergency, emer-gency, always prepared to meet the unexpected. It must be remembered that an airplane in perfect condition at takeoff, take-off, as common sense and safety demand de-mand it must be, is an extremely dependable invention. Everything about an airplane has been tried and tested and proved in the experimental experi-mental building stages. When a model is adopted for manufacture, every possibility of chance has been eliminated. Any plane that goes into use can be depended on to be as nearly perfect a piece of mechanism mechan-ism as it is possible to create. ' Ninety-nine per cent of air acci dents are chargeable to the human element. Somebody was careless or somebody some-body forgot. A pilot must never be careless and he must never forget. A trained pilot with a properly conditioned plane at take-off, seldom will encounter en-counter critical emergencies, but when such arise he must have the cool head and the clear judgment necessary to meet the situation. In such case a pilot must be possessed of the capacity for instant decision and unerring judgment as to what course is least hazardous. He must always keep his head. There are those who may be called 6 natural pilots, born to the air, being naturally gifted with the alert, clear mental process necessary to flight. But such qualities, if not inherent, can be acquired by training. And it may be said that, beyond any question or doubt, the training necessary nec-essary for successful flying is the finest any young man can have as a preparation for any emergency life may present. All these things the prospective pilot pi-lot will come to know for himself as his actual training progresses. That training will be much simplified simpli-fied if, in advance, he knows the fundamentals fun-damentals of the flying game. It is with the hope of fixing these things in the minds of our air-minded air-minded youth that this volume has been prepared. Government agencies have prepared pre-pared a very comprehensive aviation avia-tion course which is used at all civil- Oian training fields. Our volume is simply titled, "How to Fly an Airplane." Air-plane." Our book, it must be emphasized, is not offered in lieu of, in competition competi-tion with, or as an auxiliary to, such course of training. The purpose of this book is simply to give a basic understanding of flying to those who will ultimately enroll for a student flying course. Anyone who is in earnest can memorize the instructions given in this beginner's manual of primary flight instruction. Chapter by chapter, with the aid of the drawings which accompany them, any pupil can use his imagination imagi-nation to visualize himsnlf at-jnlly GEN. HENRY H. ARNOLD Commander U. S. Army Air Force. such a good start that no hopeful fledgling will flop back a dodo, but instead will "soar with wings as the eagle." Prepared step by step, and outlining outlin-ing everything that a student flier must know, it is the hope that this manual will serve also as an aid to flying instructors. And that's all the author aims to accomplish to be of some help to those who are interested in-terested in flying. To make the subject as simple and readily understandable as possible, the lessons have been written in conversational con-versational style as between the training instructor whom we have called. William Robinson, sometimes referred to asN"Bill," and the student stu-dent out to earn his wings, who has been named Henry Brown but who likes to be called "Hank." LESSON NUMBER ONE It's a beautiful morning in early summer. A small plane, a two-seater job with dual controls, has been wheeled out on the field. Robinson, flight instructor, stands beside the plane as Hank, a new student, comes from the office. Robinson So you're Henry Brown. And you want to learn to fly- Hank Yes sir. Robinson Well, Henry, you wouldn't be here to take instruction if you hadn't passed all the mental and physical tests necessary. JIank Yes sir. I passed everything with an A-I rating. Robinson That's fine. So I guess the next thing is to get going on your training. Let's get into the plane. Hank Yes sir. Robinson Nervous? Hank No, sir, I don't think I'm exactly ex-actly nervous. Excited maybe is the right word. Robinson Don't blame you flying's fly-ing's the most exciting experience this old world has to offer. And by the way while I'm older and know a little more about flying than these fellows I'm breaking into the game, we don't stand on much formality 'round here. Everybody calls me Bill and you'd just as well start off that way. H ank Oh, yes sir thank you M r. Robinson mean Bill. And Vd like it if yoitd call me Hunk. Robinson Hank? Okay. Hank's a nice he-man sounding name. All right I think we'll climb into this plane if she's set to go. Hey, Casey (calling to a mechanic), is this crate ready for a take-off? Casey Sure, Bill. Just checked her over. Fit as a fiddle and rarin' to go. ' Robinson All right. Hop in. Hank. Hank Hop in? How can I hop in? Robinson You can climb, can't you? Hank Sure I can climb. Is that the way to get in? Robinson In this plane it is. In some training planes you get into the cockpit through a door. In other oth-er trainers you have to get aboard by climbing from the ground up to the inner edge of the wing, or on to a step on the fuselage. Then you climb over the edge of the cockpit and into the seat. Ready? Hank Ready! Robinson Then start climbing. No NO! Not that way darn near put your foot through the wing. Have to be careful see here these are the places provided just for your feet when you climb into the plane. Hunk Oh, I'm sorry stupid of me. Robinson No not exactly. You're just in a hurry to get going, and don't quite know the ropes. Try it again. There that's fine. Now sit down and make yourself comfortable. First thing to do is to get the "feel" of the plane the easy, natural, "at home" feeling. Hunk 'I.nuhs a little ruefully) 'Fmid it'll takr a little time to do that. Robinson--Oh. no. You'll get il and you'll be surprised how quicklv Hunk ' f1,- "''TKfie to trtife into thv svnt and get t'.ie "fcrT of thinas' Ceo - I think 1 ii l wt the fori ol il nil CAPTAIN BERNARD BROOKES rudder bar. Okay. Move the rudder rud-der bar back and forth a little. Now, as you move it back and forth, look over your shoulder and you'll see that your movement of the rudder bar moves the rudder of the plane. Hank see! Robinson That's very simple, isn't it? Hank Sure is! If it's all as easy as this Robinson Not so fast, my lad not so fast. It's all simple enough when you, take it step by step. And that's the point it must be taken tak-en sten, by step. Get one thing fixed in your , noodle before you go on. Hank I'll try. Bill and I know I'm going to have, a wonderful lime even just learning. Robinson Every fellow does flying's fly-ing's a great experience and you're going to catch on fast. Best thing is that you don't seem to be afraid. Hank Afraid? Robinson Yeah that's what licks so many fellows. They think they are not afraid, and they don't know exactly what scares them. It's something some-thing deep inside. I figure that it's just because flying isn't natural to the human animal not natural to any creature except birds. Swimming? Swim-ming? Any animal can swim and man does that easily. But he has no natural capacity, equipment or knowledge for flight. Flying is one of the mechanical miracles which the human animal has created for himself, and because it's not natural something inside of him makes him afraid of It You've got to forget all about that. You've got to remember that by Invention man has made flying not only possible, but safe. You've got to keep in mind that there's no mystery about it that every device and gadget has been created and perfected to make flying safe. Hank think I get what you mean. And I don't believe I'm really afraid think I'm just terribly excited. If I'm afraid, it's not of the plane it's just being afraid that I won't learn to fly. Robinson You'll learn all right or you'll never have a chance to fly. A pilot instructor has to know that the fellow he's training knows what it's all about before he ever lets him solo. And if the student just can't get the hang of the thing, he'll be grounded. He may try another instructor, in-structor, and be grounded again. If that happens three times for the same fellow, he's just out of luck-no luck-no pilot's license for him any time", any place. H'p 'nHo for keeps |
