Page:The Fun of It.pdf/60

44 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 aviation, not to mention varied 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, plane travel might be more comfortable, 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