Air Service Boys Flying for France/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV
AT THE FRENCH FLYING SCHOOL
At last the two air service boys were lodged in a city within connecting distance of the great aviation field at Pau, where some of the most successful among French and American air pilots have received their instruction in the art of flying.
Both Tom and Jack were soon at home in the camp. As they possessed some knowledge of French, and were studying diligently to acquire a wider acquaintance with the language, they found it possible to understand most of what was said to them, and also make some sort of reply.
They were deeply impressed with what they saw during that first day at Pau. Permanent sheds had been erected in place of the former canvas hangers; and German prisoners of war had been used to build a narrow-gauge railway running from the camp to the town.
This allowed the students a chance to live at a distance and still continue their daily work at the aviation school. The best of instructors were found there, men who had made their names famous in their work.
Tom was, of course, in his element, and, quiet, studious and industrious, he soon became a favorite with his instructors, who were quick to recognize that his former American instructor had said truly when he pronounced the youth a natural-born aviator.
Only those with previous experience were allowed in the sector to which the chums were assigned. Novices had other places, where their first blundering work might not act as a menace to those who were near the end of their work in the school.
The various types of French machines interested Tom in particular, from the start, for they differed vastly from anything he had as yet handled. The little Nieuport especially held his attention, for he knew very well that that was the airplane in general use on the French front for fighting. It is capable of making the most extraordinary speed, and can, moreover, be manipulated by an expert with the ease that an accomplished horseman on the plains handles his broncho, and can perform the most amazing feats in the air that any one can imagine.
Tom fondled the first Nieuport he came across lovingly, and imagined himself mounted in the seat, flying above the hostile lines, daring a German airman to ascend and meet him in a duel to the death thousands of feet above the earth.
But just as he anticipated, Tom had to start at the bottom of the ladder again, and undo much that he had already learned. As for Jack, he began to despair of ever being able to master the intricate education that every French air pilot must pass through before he is allowed to go to the front.
Each one entering the school is placed where it is believed he will do the most effective work. One applicant may be better qualified to man a bombing plane than for the more dangerous calling of a fighting unit, where great dexterity and lightning-like quickness in making a decision mean everything.
The bombing planes are much larger and slower, for, as a rule, when going out on a long trip to damage the enemy's lines of communication these are fully protected by guards in the shape of Nieuport pilots, who will defend them against the enemy airmen, if such should rise to waylay them.
Tom went forward with astonishing rapidity. Day after day he was in the air, and his instructor took the greatest interest in his rapid progress, for he felt he had what he called a "prodigy" on his hands. He realized that unless some unfortunate accident cut Tom's career short, the Lafayette Escadrille would soon receive another recruit whose record in time might equal that of any of its most shining lights, some of whom had already given their lives to the service of France.
The youths found that making successful landings was a very important factor in the education of an aviator, and had often to be attempted under difficult conditions. Clumsiness at this has played havoc with many a bright pupil's hopes, and even taken lives as its toll.
From one class Tom passed into another. Jack strove earnestly to keep abreast of his more accomplished chum, and was doing very well, but still fell far behind Tom's record. Indeed, the marvelous manner in which Tom Raymond climbed the ladder made him the talk of the camp. The Americans there were proud of Tom. They believed that, given time, he was fated to become one of their best and most famous flyers; and none of them, placing the service far ahead of his own personal hopes, showed the least jealousy because of his rapid promotion.
Various types of machines were given to Tom to handle, and he seemed to be perfectly at home with them all. It was "born in him," as his genial instructor explained it, and everybody agreed that he was a wonder.
Eventually he was allowed to mount to a very high altitude, further than he had ever gone before, so that the snow-capped Pyrenees seemed on a level with his machine.
His first trial at such a high altitude flight was exciting enough, though its successful accomplishment soon made it an easy task. In the little Nieuport he mounted to the great height. Then the machine was made to dive rapidly for a short distance, after which Tom gave a sharp pull on the controls, forcing the machine to climb suddenly, at the same time shutting off the motor.
When the little plane lost its speed, it fell over backwards. Just at the proper second, when the machine had reached the line of diving, Tom turned on the spark and once more resumed his flight, to repeat the experiment again and again until it became an old story with him.
Jack wondered how successful he would be when the time came for him to try this necessary evolution, which some day when in action and wishing to escape from an enemy might be the means of saving his life.
Tom was next put to work on other even more dangerous tactics, all of which have to be learned at the French aviation schools. Finally, when the pilot is deemed properly qualified, he may be sent to the fighting front, there to take his place with the veterans in the art, who have perhaps won their right to be called "ace," because they have already brought down at least five enemy machines, and can prove each and every encounter.
"Corkscrew looping" was not so very difficult for Tom, although generally considered so by most aspirants for honors.
Only the very best pupils are considered fit subjects for the most advanced course, known as the "vrille," but so ambitious a student as Tom Raymond would not be satisfied without attempting it.
This manoeuvre consists in a series of spiral movements constituting a rapid descent. The plane is tipped at an acute angle, and set to spinning on one wing. An accomplished aviator will take as many as eight of these speedy spirals, one after the other, and thus fall a distance of some five thousand feet, when he can suddenly recover, and fly away in safety from the flock of enemy machines by which he had been suddenly beset high in the air.
It is a manoeuvre full of danger to the novice, and a number of ambitious aviators have lost their lives in trying to accomplish it. Tom was one of those who mastered the feat, just as his far-seeing instructor believed he would be. Before he left the school at Pau he was able to do the "vrille" wonderfully well, and thus became an object of admiration and envy to the American colony of intending fliers.
One day there unexpectedly turned up there an old friend from the other side of the Atlantic—no other than Dawes, whom they had left working steadily away at the Government aviation school in Virginia. The boys were delighted to see him again, and during the remainder of their stay at Pau the trio were much in one another's company.
Jack continued to make steady progress, although it was evident that he would never be in the same class as his more brilliant chum. Finally their eagerness to get nearer the front was rewarded, for they received permission to go to another aviation field.
This was also in southern France, at Casso, on the shores of a long lake less than an hour from Bordeaux. Here the Flying Corps has a range of its own, with a number of captive balloons and a series of moving targets out on the lake.
The pupil is taken up in a double-seated plane, and operates the quick-firing gun or, as the French call it, a "mitrailleuse." At first it is exceedingly difficult to shoot down from a rapidly moving plane, but after considerable practice the eye becomes educated to the changing perspective, when the airman finds it as easy to register hits as though he were upon the solid earth.
Finally came the day when the two young Americans, having completed their schooling, were allowed to offer their services at the front to fill the sadly depleted ranks of the foreign Flying Corps. They left the training camps, and took train for the region where the German invading host was being held at bay by the allied armies.
"Now, I guess we'll see service before long, Tom!" cried Jack eagerly.
"I shouldn't wonder but what you are right," was the reply.