Flying 100
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 his mind
as he writes twenty two years later.
September 27th, 1939
Cricklewood Flying School
 |
| 2nd Lieutenant
Ian Cameron and his 'bus'. |
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.
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been replaced by an elevator and rudder assembly behind the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.
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 guages 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.