Page:The Fun of It.pdf/48

34 Besides skidding, a plane can stall as a car does on a hill. Chug-chug-chug—chug. Can the motor make the top? Chu-g-g. It gives a final gasp and “dies.” The car starts to roll downwards, but by­ jamming on brakes and starting the motor, the driver easily recovers control.

If a plane is stalled, the motor doesn’t stop nor does the vehicle slide backwards. Instead, it be­gins to drop nose first and the pilot has to wait until enough speed is attained to make the rudder and ailerons effective. Of course, with airplanes there is little or no control at slow speeds any more than there is with a motor boat when it is barely moving.

At several thousand feet, a simple plane stall should not be hazardous. However, if it occurs so close to the earth that there isn’t time to recover control, a hard landing, sometimes resulting in con­siderable damage, may be the outcome.

But in the air, as with automobiles, many acci­dents are due to the human equation. The careful driver, either below or aloft, barring the hard luck of mechanical failure, has remarkably little trouble, considering what he has to contend with.

After I was able to keep the plane pretty level, and go toward a designated landmark with a fair degree of accuracy, I was allowed the exciting ex­periment of trying to make a turn. After turns came landings, most difficult of all and requiring the most practise. In all, I spent with my instruc-