Flying 001
When it comes to becoming a pilot one has to start somewhere. Few of us today can imagine that "somewhere" for the early vestiges of the Royal Flying Corps meant sitting on a small seat on the edge of a wing with feet stretched out into space to a rudder bar. Here is a first-hand account of the experience - still fresh in the mind of 2nd Lieutenant Ian Cameron of St. Thomas, Ontario as he writes twenty two years later on September 27th 1939. At the time he wrote this letter, he did not know that he was soon to be the Lt. Colonel of the Elgin Regiment, Officer Commanding the 2nd Elgins. This is the best description we have of what it was really like to earn your wings in 1917.
Cricklewood Flying School
This picture shows me with the bus in which I had just completed my first "solo" flight, 22 years ago today. The machine is a hybrid, known as a Beatty-Wright, adapted from the design of the Wright Brothers plane, by an American named Beatty, who had conducted a civilian flying school at Cricklewood, near London, England since before the Great War.
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Standard "Wright" Dual Control Machines
Mr. Beatty's school with civilian planes and instructors, was taken over by the Royal Flying Corps as an elementary flying school and I did my first flying there.
Our first dual training was received on standard "Wright " machines, similar in design to the first power driven aeroplane flown by the Wright Brothers in 1903, with the exception that the front extension and elevators had been replaced by an elevator and rudder assembly behind the main planes and small bicycle wheels had been added to the landing skids. |
Seats on the Edge of the Wing
In these machines there was no fuselage or nacelle instructor and student being located side by side on small seats on the leading edge of the lower wing with feet stretched out forward on the rudder bar. Looking down between ones legs, there was nothing between the flyer and terra firma but a lot of air. Lateral control and elevation were regulated by a wheel similar to an auto steering wheel, instead of the conventional "joy stick".
There were no ailerons, the outer portions of the trailing edges of the wings being warped by wires from the control wheel to produce "bank". The plane was powered by a 40 h.p. stationary water-cool engine, also mounted on the lower wing, by the instructor's seat which drove two "pusher" propellers by means of sprockets and bicycle chains.
There were no ailerons, the outer portions of the trailing edges of the wings being warped by wires from the control wheel to produce "bank". The plane was powered by a 40 h.p. stationary water-cool engine, also mounted on the lower wing, by the instructor's seat which drove two "pusher" propellers by means of sprockets and bicycle chains.
Three Hours Instruction Before Solo
After about three hours instructions on dual control machines, I was considered "ready" to do my first "solo" flight. As the Beatty-Wright shown in the picture is a single -seater, I had no instruction in it before taking it up for my first time alone in the air, although it has an entirely different type of motor from the dual control machines.
The Beatty-Wright was a "pusher" type, but it was powered by a 7-cylinder 80 h.p. Gnome rotary engine, which considerably increased the speed, and the pilot sat in an enclosed nacelle, in a different position with relation to the wings and landing gear and altogether it was a different proposition from the dual control machines.
I might add that there were no unnecessary gadgets such as air speed indicators, bank and glide indicators, pressure gauges or other instruments to distract the mind of the pilot from the main job of keeping the bus In the air and getting down safely
The Beatty-Wright was a "pusher" type, but it was powered by a 7-cylinder 80 h.p. Gnome rotary engine, which considerably increased the speed, and the pilot sat in an enclosed nacelle, in a different position with relation to the wings and landing gear and altogether it was a different proposition from the dual control machines.
I might add that there were no unnecessary gadgets such as air speed indicators, bank and glide indicators, pressure gauges or other instruments to distract the mind of the pilot from the main job of keeping the bus In the air and getting down safely
Figure Eights
I managed however to take off, do a few careful circuits and "figure-eights" and to make several "non-fatal" landings, so after a total of about four hours dual instruction and two hours solo flying, I graduated from the elementary school seven days after taking my first ride in an aeroplane and I was posted to a training squadron for further (badly needed) instruction.