Aviation school

“ I have been flying for over four years and I feel that I don't know much about it yet.
The would-be aviator should go to a good school where the best facilities can be had and where there is a good large place to fly, without obstructions. The machine should be thoroughly mastered and every part understood. Training a man to fly does not, as I regard it, consist in putting him in an aeroplane and letting him go up before he knows how to get down again. Anybody may be able to go up in an aeroplane, but it requires skill and practice to come down without damage to man or machine. ”

“ Naval and military airmen predominate at the schools; but there are many civilians, also, who come to learn to fly. Some of them, after they are skilled, become professional pilots, being employed by an aeroplane company to demonstrate its machines: others, having money to invest, will buy one or two craft and start a flying school of their own; others again, after purchasing a machine, will take it abroad with them and give exhibition flights, visiting places if possible where aviation has not been seen before. ”

“ To sum up, I think that we won't have real aviation until we have a large field, of square leagues, or even a small one, of a few kilometers, surrounded, however, by large plains that, although they don't belong to the school, offer good ground for the descent of the aircraft in case of need. We also need teachers experienced in the art of teaching aviation and that live, with the students, near the school. ”

“ When a flyer has lived long enough with aviation to be considered a veteran, he usually knows by instinct what to do in a spin, doesn’t have to stop and think ‘What button shall I push?’
“Aviation school has caught the idea now that it’s a pretty good thing to send a pupil up with an old-timer who can put a bus into spins and take it out of spins. If the pupil watches close enough, he automatically learns the movements. It’s the latest aviation insurance against a crash!”
A plane had been rolled out and warmed up. ”

“ With six weeks’ of wireless at the Cadet Wing, the pupil proceeded to the School of Aeronautics for further instruction, and heard lectures on picture target work and artillery coöperation from experienced observers. Requirements now demanded eight words per minute. After examination, his next step was to the elementary training wing at either Deseronto or Borden, where he not only carried on ground work, but also put into actual practice in the air the instruction already received. ”

“ The Bristol School at Brooklands, the Grahame-White School at Hendon, and the Eastbourne Aviation School were pressed into the service; in addition to these the naval air station at Calshot undertook to make seaplane pilots of some of those who had taken their flying certificates elsewhere. As was to be expected, training under these conditions proved difficult. All efficient machines were wanted for the war, so that machines which had been condemned for use on active service were sometimes employed in training new pilots. ”

“ The Turkish government has decided to establish schools for the "fourth arm" immediately, while Russia will also increase its aviation programme. The latest government to take up aviation is that of Australia, where an aviation school is about to open for the instruction of army officers. ”

“ The first result of this introduction was that it became necessary to comb out instructors, some of whom had been too long on the job and were “stale,” others too old, others too young to be entirely steady, and others who, though excellent pilots, could not adopt the principles and psychology evolved. Still others needed instruction themselves. To this end the School of Special Flying was established at Armour Heights under a brilliant pilot. A steady supply of well-trained men was assured by the operations of this unit. ”

“ An important duty performed by the School, was the calling in of most of the instructors then in the brigade, in order to thoroughly acquaint them with the new methods involved in tuition as given in the Armour Heights course. This proved entirely justified.
It was found, also, that even in the case of most experienced pilots, who had been flying fast machines overseas, great advantage was secured by taking the course, since it was required that they depend to a much greater extent upon correct flying, far more skill being required to do higher manoeuvres on a low-powered machine. ”

“ All recruits training as pilots, whether for the Naval Wing or the Military Wing, were to graduate at the Central Flying School, and thence were to be detailed to join either the Naval Flying School at Eastchurch, for a special course of naval aviation, or one of the military aeroplane squadrons, for a special course of military aviation. ”

“ There is no chance to pull it out of a spin unless the pilot is alert and realizes that he has lost speed, and noses down before he spins. Often he spins, and a fall with an airplane from a hundred feet is just as nasty as it can be.
For his own safety in the air the civilian who is about to take up instruction in flying should insist at his flying-school that he be taught thoroughly, to his own satisfaction, the control of his machine with the engine [51] shut off for the moment. There is a certain feel, a sing in the wires, he must know. ”

“ The first step in instruction was at one of the new “ground” schools opened on May 21 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell and Ohio State Universities and the Universities of Illinois, Texas, and California, with Princeton and the Georgia School of Technology added on July 5. Here, in eight weeks, under military discipline, the cadets were grounded in all the elements of aviation at a cost to the Government at first of $65 per pupil, and later $10 each for the first four weeks, and $5 weekly thereafter. ”

“ School records prove, as a rule, that the pilots who learn to fly abnormally quickly are apt to experience an abnormal number of accidents at a later date, due principally to a lack of real sound knowledge, which they should have gained during the period of their tuition. One must learn to walk before one can run, and this takes time; and the remark applies aptly to aviation. It is very necessary for the pupil to spend as much time as he can on the aerodrome. Much is to be learned, by an observant man, apart from the actual time during which he is engaged with his instructor. ”

“ I was told by the C.O. These flying men—or boys—who have, of course, already been broken in in America, do an additional course in France, and when they leave the aviation camp I saw they are absolutely ready for air fighting at the front. This is the finishing school. The aviators go through eight distinct courses in this school. They are perfected in flying, in observation, in bombing, in machine-gun firing. On even a cloudy and windy day the air overhead buzzes with these young American fliers, all getting into the pink of condition to do their stunts at the front. ”

“ Any one with a reasonable amount of intelligence can be made a good pilot. He need not hold a college degree, or even a high-school diploma, tucked away in some forgotten place. If he has the sense of touch of the normal man, the sense of balance of a normal man, can skate, or ride a bicycle, he should be in the air, flying. There is a difference between the war or army pilot and the peace-time flier yet to be developed. ”

“ Initial pre-military training for those aspiring to become pilot and navigator candidates is available to aviation clubs in many cities throughout the country and conforms to the Aviation Pre-Military Training Program. This program has two states, first gliders and then powered aircraft. Training is available for those 16 to 18 years old and is conducted during the summer vacation months. After pre-military aviation training, officer candidates enter one of the new 4-year officer aviation schools. ”

“ At the aerodromes, too, there are openings which present themselves; as, for example, in the management of a flying school.
It has been shown that the public will go in thousands to see sporting contests with aeroplanes, and here is another field for organisation and effort; while there is a constant demand for men of ability in the executive departments of firms which are established already in the industry, and are expanding steadily, or in those which are now being formed, or are joining aviation from day to day. ”

“ Instead I gave each one of an army of small boys the privilege of sitting in the pilot's seat, and showed them how to manage the controls.
The astonishing thing to me was, that while this village was not twenty kilometres off the much-frequented air route between C—— and R——, mine was the first aeroplane which most of them had seen. During long months at various aviation schools pilots grow accustomed to thinking that aircraft are as familiar a sight to others as to them. But here was a village, not far distant from several aviation schools, where an aviator was looked upon with wonder. ”

“ So important is this knowledge of aviation considered that the principles and the practical construction of model aeroplanes are taught in many of the public schools. Instead of spending all their school hours in the study of books, the boys now spend a part of their time in the carpenter shop making the model aeroplanes which they enter in the tournaments. ”

“ That was all he said, then turned away to give his attention to others among his pupils, for there were a number practicing daily at the new school of aviation. Indeed, the desire to learn to fly was rapidly becoming a fever in the veins of a multitude of daring young Americans ”

“ At aviation schools the pupils went thoroughly into all those things and supplemented their knowledge by continually mounting and dismounting engines and examining their most intricate parts. The schools also kept on hand large aeroplane models, which the students took apart and put together again. In the classroom the prospective aviators studied the mathematics and the theory of aerodynamics. All this work was very important, for an aeroplane is such a nicely balanced machine that if it is not perfectly constructed mathematically it will not fly safely. ”

“ Aeroplane schools were established and aviation passed from the stage of experimenting into the stage of record making and breaking.
The European governments, particularly France and Germany, were carefully watching progress, and dozens of the pupils in the aviation schools were young officers detailed to learn the art of flying and report on its usefulness in warfare. Also the building of aeroplanes became a great industry and in France thousands of scientists, designers, mechanics, motor 64 experts, and wood-working experts were engaged in turning out machines as fast as they could. ”

“ There is going to be a strong demand for the best flying instruction that can be given. It should be noted that only the most perfect system of flying instruction should be used, for the best is safest, and the safest, no matter how expensive, is comparatively cheap.
There is no reason why there should be an extended period of ground instruction for the non-military pilot of the future. He should be taught the elementary principles of the theory of flight, should know something about the engine with which he is going to fly, and understand some things about the rigging of his airplane. ”

“ Machines are brought out and tested; pilots arrive from other flying grounds; there is a hum of activity in the workshops; and in regular batches, with this instructor and that, are pupils taught to handle a craft in flight. It is, to those who have only a vague knowledge of aviation, a surprise indeed to spend a day at an aerodrome. They imagine that the industry is no more than haphazard; that a few machines are built—mostly in small workshops, and that there is neither method nor organisation in their making. ”

“ The art of cross-country flying is still a closed book to him; and to this, as a rule, he next turns his attention, first making short trips near the aerodrome, and then increasing gradually the length and boldness of his flights. Then he must learn to combat a wind, and to steer by his maps and compass; he must, in fact, teach himself to be an all-round man. And none of these stages must be gone through hurriedly. In aviation, more than in any other art in the world, the whole of a man’s knowledge must be dependable and sound. ”

“ It was nearly two months before I was allowed to make my first flight. The French idea is that before a pupil commences his apprenticeship as a pilot he must understand thoroughly the machine he is going to handle and know just what he is trying to do in the air. Together with twenty-five other men, who began their studies at about the same time, I was ordered to attend the theoretical courses. When not in the classroom we were stationed on the aviation-field where we could watch the more advanced "élèves" fly, thus familiarizing ourselves by observation with all the details of our profession. ”

“ The pupil is a pilot, the air has no terrors, and he has learned the oldest truth of flying, that there is nothing to a spin unless you don't come out.
The natural result of training a pupil along those lines is that he graduates rapidly into a good stunting pilot. He realizes that he cannot tempt the devil at three hundred feet and hope to live, but he takes a good altitude, throws his machine upside down, and knows that, given enough air, he must come out. He does come out unless he loses complete control of his mind and body. ”