St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 65

A LEARNING I I i i WIF 1 HN Student making a left turn, "flying blind I 7 Tie Student in a Link the Adverse Conditions of No Visibility With Nothing but His 9 Instruments to Rely On. Parks Air i student. II 1 djJ ing conscious, of other errors indicated within the numerous circles on the instrument panel. Loss of air speed preceding spin was due to undue elevation of the ship's nose without compensating acceleration, carefully noted by the instructor since the training apparatus is pivoted so that it responds by actual change in its position to each pressure on the controls. With only the lighted instrument board before him.

the student loses his sense of balance and. except, when he refers to the mechanical indicators, is unaware of deviations from the horizontal as to wings or fuselage. As in actual blind flight, his instincts will betray him. He must put implicit trust in the instruments. As long as the proper course was kept after the theoretical radio beam was reached, the head phones carried that message.

Failure to allow for drift caused by a wind of increased velocity, perhaps due to a change in altitude, was called to attention by the change in the identifying dots and dashes of the beam. The problems which can be improvised by make-believe changes in weather conditions are no more difficult than those created by Mother Nature herself. IN SHORT. Gruen explained, the new device will simulate actual flying conditions with the advantage that in preliminary instruction in blind flying, particularly, much time in taking off and landing will be saved. It will be used both for the instruction of seasoned pilots who wish to learn blind flying and radio navigation and for neophytes tcking their first lessons in nomenclature and use of the many instruments.

Experience elsewhere has indicated advantages in teaching beginners to fly, by instrument instead of visual reference early in their courses. Furthermore, the noise created by the mechanism and the electric fan that circulates air for the comfort of the student in the close confines of the covered cockpi' and causes desirable vibration of instruments, is much less than the noise of a motor. This permits intelligent discussion of problems as they occur, whereas in actual blind flying by studenjs. noise prevents correction at the time when visual note of minor error might be taken and the safety of student and instructor might depend in cases of more serious mistakes upon use of the dual controls. Trainer Meets Instructor Gruen with chart through the ear phones.

Soon it became the steady overlapping Morse code signal of and a continuous bussing sound signifying a position exactly on the beam. 1 There was a secure feeling of an even keel and that all was welL But what was that altimeter doing? It was edging alarmingly counter-clockwise which meant the ground must be coming up. A moment's distrust and the dinned words of the instructor were recalled. "Don't fly the ship; fly the instruments." BRINGING the stick back slowly returned the altimeter needle to its proper position of indicated safety, but the ear phones' cicada-like chorus had become a dash-dot, dash-dot. that meant the side of the beam had been reached, requiring a swing back to the course.

There were unimportant ups and downs and brief lateral excursions before a moment's reference to tnap and quick mental computation of speed and elapsed time indicated a theoretical position near Columbia where the radio beam from Kansas City should be picked up after a "flight" of 30 minutes. Then weather conditions pre George Gruen, instructor at Coliege. working with a By SAM ARMSTRONG Of the Post-Dispatch Staff EARNING to fly an airplane on a straight qourse and at even keel has some similarity to the old stunt of rubbing one's stomach with one hand while the other pats the top of the head and then suddenly reversing these motions without confusion. Wings must be kept level, the nose of the ship at proper elevation, speed at a point sufficient to insure response of controls all at the same time. requires co-ordination.

In further comparison. blind flying, with the hooded cockpit restricting the pilot's view to the lighted instrument panel which contains gadgets more numerous than were obtainable for the model Fords of another day, is something like the head and stomach trick executed while doing a horn pipe on a tight rope, yodeling Old Black Joe and mentally computing the probable national deficit as of next Fourth of July. Then, at about this time, some transport pilots have learned, the stewardess sticks her head in and says the big Hollywood producer wants to know what time he thinks they'll make New York. The writer got some idea of what it's about recently at Parks Air College near East St. Louis.

He was handed a weather report which showed a ceiling of 500 feet, visibility of a half mile, temperature of 35 degrees, dew point (when precipitation would begin) of 25 degrees, barometer reading of 30.2 inches, northwest wind at two miles an hour, and told that his problem was to reach Kansas City without peeking. That was no sort of weather to be flying in even with gay Kansas City as a destination. But a problem is a problem and there were the instruments. He saw, not on the flying line outside, but In the center of an office in the corner of a hangar. $7000 worth of new equipment resembling an airplane, though smaller except to the cockpit, and climbed over the sil-er wing and into the single leather-covered at in the blue fuselage.

The safety belt fastened and the roof closed over him he eased forward the throttle at bis left and felt a draft about his ankles. Eyes glued on the instrument panel, he advanced the throttle further. Then, gently bringing the tick toward him. he noted the rate of climb indicator with satisfaction. With the altimeter showing 2000 feet, the i went forward to level off.

the needle tood motionless except for the quivering from vibration, and pressure of the seat kack eased. A glance at the bank and turn ndicator indicated a low left wing resulting from momentary inattention while putting the nip on a westward compass course until a 'adio beam could be picked up. He clapped 0vr his head radio ear phones, found on a at his right, as he held the stick with to knees. Th tachometer showed propeller revolu-ti0D of 1600 a minute, producing an air Peed of about 200 miles an hour. No soon-r had the radio control been set for the kabert-st.

Louis Field freauencv than the greeted by George Gruen, chief pilot and instructor in advanced flying and instrument work. Gruen still was seated at his desk, but before him was a sheet of paper on which was inscribed a design similar to a 3-year-old child's letter to Santa Claus. But each curve, tangent, direction and length of line was significant. It told the story of aerial sins of omission and commission on the erratic theoretical flight half way to Kansas City in the new device, the first in this district, although recently put in use elsewhere for training of army flyers. A stylus, actuated by the controls which exactly duplicate those of an airplane, and notes of the instructor had faithfully recorded the flight As nearly as the reporter could tell, he had flown under the St.

Charles bridge, over the Mineola Valley at a prodigious height, descending while fretting with the radioed Kansas City weather report to knock the statue of Ceres from the dome of the State CapitoL yet lived to blushingly report a happy landing. The automatically penciled record showed each deviation of direction, and heavy points made by the circular movement of the stylus indicated tail spins in moments when the novice centered attention on what appeared most important at the moment instead of be ir It 10311 made by a student In "flying" the Link Trainer. viously outlined indicated advisability of obtaining some later information about weather at Kansas City. A request on the microphone in the cockpit brought through the ear phones from the instructor the word that the field there was closed down by fog and that landing there should not be attempted. Likewise, emergency fields nearby were blanketed by mist.

The correct answer was a 180-degree turn and a ride back to St Louis on the beam, ahead of icing conditions shown to be probable by a reported falling temperature at Columbia. But what had become of the beam during these moments of concern about the weather? And what was that altimeter needle doing down there and that air speed indicator at 250 miles an hour? By the time this situation was remedied, a glance at the compass showed a southerly course. A 180-degree turn after several minutes again located the beam and a 90-degree turn regained the aerial highway. An hour after takeoff the plane was landed at Parks Airport. The reporter unlatched the hood, cut the switch and stepped on the floor from which he had climbed an hour before, to be Closeup of instrument panel.

From left. Top row: Magnetic compass, air speed indicator, turn and bank indicator, rate of climb indicator, tachometer. Second row: Light control switch, altimeter, directional gyro, artificial horizon, radio control panel. Bottom row: IgnitiotQ switch, radio compass, marker beacon, radio volume control. If- PotDi patch February rytrident bu" of dot-dash, dot-dash, indicating f.

a Position to the side of the beam, came Page Three Sunday Magazine St Iauls i i.