We have already remarked that certain pilots do not pay sufficient heed to the inspection of their machines before making a flight.The difference between pilots in this respect is interesting to observe.On the great day at Hendon, in 1913--the Aerial Derby day--there were over a dozen pilots out with their craft.
From the enclosure one could watch the airmen and their mechanics as the machines were run out from the hangars on to the flying ground.One pilot walked beside his mechanics while they were running the machine to the starting place, and watched his craft with almost fatherly interest.Before climbing into his seat he would carefully inspect the spars, bolts, wires, controls, and so on; then he would adjust his helmet and fasten himself into his seat with a safety belt.
"Surely with all that preliminary work he is ready to start," remarked one of the spectators standing by.But no! the engine must be run at varying speeds, while the mechanics hold back the machine.This operation alone took three or four minutes, and all that the pilot proposed to do was to circle the aerodrome two or three times.An onlooker asked a mechanic if there were anything wrong with that particular machine."No!" was the reply; "but our governor's very faddy, you know!"And now for the other extreme! Three mechanics emerged from a hangar pushing a rather ungainly-looking biplane, which bumped over the uneven ground.The pilot was some distance behind, with cigarette in mouth, joking with two or three friends.When the machine was run out into the open ground he skipped quickly up to it, climbed into the seat, started the engine, waved a smiling "good-bye", and was off.For all he knew, that rather rough jolting of the craft while it was being removed from the hangar might have broken some wire on which the safety of his machine, and his life, depended.The excuse cannot be made that hismechanics had performed this all-important work of inspection, for their attention was centred on the daring "banking " evolutions of some audacious pilot in the aerodrome.
Mr.C.G.Grey, the well-known writer on aviation matters, and the editor of The Aeroplane, says, with regard to the need of inspection of air- craft:--"A pilot is simply asking for trouble if he does not go all over his machine himself at least once a day, and, if possible, every time he is starting for a flight.
"One seldom hears, in these days, of a broken wheel or axle on a railway coach, yet at the chief stopping places on our railways a man goes round each train as it comes in, tapping the tires with a hammer to detect cracks, feeling the hubs to see if there is any sign of a hot box, and looking into the grease containers to see if there is a proper supply of lubricant.There ought to be a similar inspection of every aeroplane every time it touches the ground.The jar of even the best of landings may fracture a bolt holding a wire, so that when the machine goes up again the wire may fly back and break the propeller, or get tangled in the control wires, or a strut or socket may crack in landing, and many other things may happen which careful inspection would disclose before any harm could occur.Mechanics who inspected machines regularly would be able to go all over them in a few minutes, and no time would be wasted.As it is, at any aerodrome one sees a machine come down, the pilot and passenger (a fare or a pupil) climb out, the mechanics hang round and smoke cigarettes, unless they have to perform the arduous duties of filling up with petrol.In due course another passenger and a pilot climb in, a mechanic swings the propeller, and away they go quite happily.If anything casts loose they come down--and it is truly wonderful how many things can come loose or break in the air without anyone being killed.If some thing breaks in landing, and does not actually fall out of place, it is simply a matter of luck whether anyone happens to see it or not."This advice, coming from a man with such wide experience of the theory and practice of flying, should surely be heeded by all those who engage in deadly combat with the demons of the air.In the early days ofaviation, pilots were unacquainted with the nature and method of approach of treacherous wind gusts; often when they were flying along in a steady, regular wind, one of these gusts would strike their craft on one side, and either overturn it or cause it to over-bank, so that it crashed to earth with a swift side-slip through the air.
Happily the experience of those days, though purchased at the cost of many lives, has taught makers of air-craft to design their machines on more trustworthy lines.Pilots, too, have made a scientific study of air eddies, gusts, and so on, and the danger of flying in a strong or gusty wind is comparatively small.
