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LEARNING TO FLY


  [Illustration: _Photo by Topical Press Agency._
  A SCHOOL MACHINE WELL ALOFT.]


  LEARNING TO FLY

  A PRACTICAL MANUAL FOR
  BEGINNERS

  BY

  CLAUDE GRAHAME-WHITE
  AND
  HARRY HARPER

  _FULLY ILLUSTRATED_

  NEW YORK
  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY


  PRINTED IN ENGLAND.




CONTENTS


       I. THEORIES OF TUITION                                  9

      II. TEMPERAMENT AND THE AIRMAN                          20

     III. FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH AN AEROPLANE                 24
          (AS DESCRIBED BY MR. GRAHAME-WHITE)

      IV. THE CONTROLLING OF LATEST-TYPE CRAFT                31

       V. THE STAGES OF TUITION                               38

      VI. THE TEST FLIGHTS                                    53

     VII. PERILS OF THE AIR                                   56

    VIII. FACTORS THAT MAKE FOR SAFETY                        76

      IX. A STUDY OF THE METHODS OF GREAT PILOTS              82

       X. CROSS-COUNTRY FLYING                                92

      XI. AVIATION AS A PROFESSION                            99

     XII. THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT                               104




ILLUSTRATIONS


    A SCHOOL MACHINE WELL ALOFT                   _Frontispiece_

                                                       FACE PAGE

    GRAHAME-WHITE SCHOOL BIPLANE                              34

    THE CONTROLS OF A SCHOOL BIPLANE                          36

    REAR VIEW OF A SCHOOL BIPLANE                             38

    POWER-PLANT OF A SCHOOL BIPLANE                           40

    MOTOR AND OTHER GEAR--ANOTHER VIEW                        42

    PUPIL AND INSTRUCTOR READY FOR A FLIGHT                   44

    PUPIL AND INSTRUCTOR IN FLIGHT (1)                        46

    PUPIL AND INSTRUCTOR IN FLIGHT (2)                        48

    PUPIL AND INSTRUCTOR IN FLIGHT (3)                        50




Authors' Note.--The photographs to illustrate this book, as set forth
above, were taken at the Grahame-White Flying School, the London
Aerodrome, Hendon, by operators of the Topical Press Agency, 10 and 11,
Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C.




AUTHORS' NOTE


This book is written for the novice--and for the novice who is
completely a novice. We have assumed, in writing it, that it will come
into the hands of men who, having determined to enter this great and
growing industry of aviation, and having decided wisely to learn to
fly as their preliminary step, feel they would like to gain
beforehand--before, that is to say, they take the plunge of selecting
and joining a flying school--all that can be imparted non-technically,
and in such a brief manual as this, not only as to the stages of
tuition and the tests to be undergone, but also in regard to such
general questions as, having once turned their thoughts towards flying,
they take a sudden and a very active interest.

It has been our aim, bearing in mind this first and somewhat restless
interest, to cover a wide rather than a restricted field; and this
being so, and remembering also the limitations of space, we cannot
pretend--and do not for a moment wish it to be assumed that we
pretend--to cover exhaustively the various topics we discuss. Our
endeavour, in the pages at our disposal, has not been to satisfy
completely this first curiosity of the novice, but rather to stimulate
and strengthen it, and guide it, so to say, on lines which will lead
to a fuller and more detailed research.

It is from this point of view, as a short yet comprehensive
introduction, and particularly as an aid to the beginner in his choice
of a school, and in what may be called his mental preparation for the
stages of his tuition, that we desire our book to be regarded.

  C. G.-W.
  H. H.

  _April_, 1916.




CHAPTER I

THEORIES OF TUITION


Only eight years ago, in 1908, it was declared impossible for one man
to teach another to fly. Those few men who had risen from the ground
in aeroplanes, notably the Wright brothers, were held to be endowed by
nature in some very peculiar way; to be men who possessed some
remarkable and hitherto unexplained sense of equilibrium. That these
men would be