20 hrs., 40 min. : $b our flight in the Friendship : the American girl, first across the Atlantic by air, tells her storyEarhart, Amelia
History
20 hrs., 40 min. : $b our flight in the Friendship : the American girl, first across the Atlantic by air, tells her story
Earhart, Amelia
Earhart, Amelia, 1897-1937; Transatlantic flights; Women air pilots -- United States -- Biography
There are bumps, too, from sources other than these land shoals.
Areas of cool air and warm disturb the flow of aerial rivers through
which the plane moves. The “highs” and “lows” familiar to the
meteorologists—the areas of high and low barometric pressure—are
forever playing tag with each other, the air from one area flowing
in upon the other much as water seeks its own level, creating fair
weather and foul, and offering interesting problems to the students of
avigation, not to mention variegated experiences to the flyer himself.
The nautical boys have an advantage over the avigators. Constant
things like the gulf stream can be labeled and put on charts and
shoals marked. But one can’t fasten buoys in the atmosphere. Flyers
can only plot topography. Air, like water, gives different effects
under different conditions. The pilot must learn that when the wind
blows over a hill from one direction, the result is not the same as
that when it blows from another. Water behaves similarly. The shoals of
the air seem a little more elusive, however, because their eddies are
invisible. If one could see a downward current of air or a rough patch
of it, avigating might be easier sometimes.
“Bumpiness” means discomfort, or a good time for strong stomachs, in
the air just as rough water does in ocean voyaging. There is no
reason to suppose, however, if one isn’t susceptible to seasickness or
car-sickness, that air travel will prove different.
Some of the air-sickness experienced is due to the lack of proper
ventilation in cabin planes. Many are not adequately ventilated for
with the opening of the windows, the heat and sometimes the fumes of
the motors are blown in. Adequate ventilation is one of the amenities
which the plane of the future will have to possess.
Perhaps the greatest joy of flying is the magnificent extent of the
view. If the visibility is good, the passenger seems to see the whole
world.
I have spoken of the effect of height in flattening the landscape,
always a phenomenon in the eyes of the air novitiate. Even mountains
grow humble and a really rough terrain appears comparatively smooth.
Trees look like bushes, and automobiles like flat-backed bugs. A second
plane which may be flying a few hundred feet above the ground, as
seen from a greater altitude looks as if it were just skimming the
surface. All vertical measurement is fore-shortened.
The world seen from the air is laid out in squares. Especially striking
is the checkerboard effect wherever one looks down on what his brother
man has done. Country or city, it is the same—only the rectangles are
of different sizes. The city plays its game of checkers in smaller
spaces than the country, and divides its area more minutely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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