Page:The Fun of It.pdf/86

68 If you would like to see what you can do—or can’t—when you are unable to see, try to walk blindfolded in a straight line. You had better go where there is plenty of room and have someone walk closely behind you lest you run into some­thing. Pick out a point several hundred feet away, and then see where you are at the end of the time it would have taken you to reach your objective.

In thick or heavy rain or snow, a pilot is just as blind as if he had a black cloth over his eyes. Con­sequently he will make the same mistakes as I did in the chair, if he does not have unbiased instru­ments to tell him the truth. Thus the plane might be in a steep spiral and he might be trying to right it by doing unknowingly the very thing which would tend to keep it so. I do not wish my state­ment to sound as if all any flyer had to do in “soupy” weather is to look at a few instruments, flap his wings and away. It must be remembered that reading and reacting to instruments require practise and skill.

As with music, for instance. One might well say to any random individual, “Here is a sheet of music and there is a piano. Go ahead and play.” It would be absurd to expect faultless execution with­ out the subject’s understanding and his repeated performance.

To complicate matters, instruments for blind fly­ing are not yet perfected, neither those for the cockpit nor those which are a part of ground equip­ment.