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Show JEWS OF FLIERS AND FLYING Editorial "Boys coming home from the air corps are whooping it up for an airport here at Polo. And well they might too, for it looks very much like the future is going to be in the air even though some of us old fogies will continue to insist on keeping at least one foot on the ground." Tri-County Press, Polo, IU. (Bet that editor will be flying his own some day!) Join a Flying Club Thousands of American flying enthusiasts are organizing into flying clubs in their communities, communi-ties, particularly returned veterans vet-erans and those who want to take up flying. In many cases these clubs are finding ways and means to establish airports and hangars as well as facilities facili-ties for servicing planes in their areas. Low flying violates the federal civil aeronautics law and most state codes. Most regulations provide that a flyer must maintain a height of at least 1,000 feet above congested congest-ed areas, crowds of people, or cities. The flyer must also maintain main-tain altitude enough to be able to glide away from cities or congested areas in case of engine trouble. 'Once a Paratrooper ' PORT CHESTER, N. Y. Tom Thomas, recently discharged as a paratrooper, leaped from the window of his second story bed room recently Into snow and ero weather. Clad In summer pajamas, Thomas awoke as soon as he hit the ground 30 feet below. He was unhurt. Later he explained lt this way: "1 could swear I heard the sergeant yell 'jump.' " NEED LESSONS TO FLY? Most new plane owners go into this flying business slowly. First, they spend hours of practice flying around the airport, perfecting their landing and taking off technique. The first flight is usually a short one, for a new pilot can get lost within a few miles of his own airport, air-port, so different does the familiar earth look from the unfamiliar position po-sition in the air above it. But below be-low is one for Ripley: The story Is being told of how a woman who had never been In an airplane before, took off and landed without accident. It happened when an Ercoupe purchaser pur-chaser flew his shiny new craft to a pasture near his home and persuaded his wife, who had never been in a plane before. She settled In the cabin while he showed her how to operate the throttle while he spun the propellor by hand. The engine caught; the wife pulled the throttle the wrong way, pulling out instead of pushing In. The husband managed to jump aside as the plane lurched forward and took off. For half an hour the woman circled the field, but finally got up nerve enough to land. While the apprehensive husband stood by, she made a perfect landing and stepped out of the plane a confirmed flying fly-ing enthusiast! The Skycar, now strictly experimental, experi-mental, may some day be used for both sky and road travel. It is a four-wheeler, with a movable wing doing the work of ailerons, rudders and elevators. The maker is Con-solidated-Vultee. Blazing the Trail Blanche Noyes, the CAA's air marking specialist, spends all of her time flying over the United States in an effort to get cities, civic groups and others to provide suitable markers for the pilots of civilian planes. Blanche admits she has been lost and has been grateful when she came to a town which had air markers on buildings, pavements, pave-ments, or in fields, to let her know what town she was flying over. She believes that 100.000 air markers are needed to make civilian flying Aviation gasoline, now often sold at a markup of about 10 cents a gallon, may be reduced considerably by competition when mass production puts more planes into the air. The Jefferson Republican, newspaper, news-paper, Ranson, W. Va.. is now offering offer-ing an "ex-army plane with an ex-army, ex-army, ex-navy flying instructor" to give free airplane rides or instructions. instruc-tions. Five one-year subscriptions entitle the person doing the selling to 15 minutes free ride. What Is Pilotage? Pilotage is the science of navigation naviga-tion by visual reference to the ground. Briefly, it is accomplished by drawing a line on a map especially espe-cially prepared for aerial navigation, navi-gation, from the starting point to the intended destination. This line is usually marked off in ten-mile intervals, the compass course is found, wind drift is computed, magnetic mag-netic deviation and variation of the compass is applied, and corrected compass course is determined. Sounds complicated, and it sure is- |