I took off at Buffalo one time to do a test job. I had been called up
there as an expert and was supposed to be pretty hot stuff.
I took the ship off and started rocking it violently from side to side.
I kept this up through a variety of speed ranges, watching the ailerons
closely all the time. I wanted to find out first of all if the ailerons
had any tendency to flutter under a high angle of attack condition. Then
I began horsing on the stick to see if anything unusual happened to the
ailerons when I introduced the high angle of attack condition that way.
I interrupted my observations of the ship's behavior after a while to
look around for the airport. I couldn't find it! I had forgotten that I
was in a high-speed ship and could get far away from the field in a very
short time. Furthermore, the country was unfamiliar to me, and I had no
map. Gee, if I had only thought to stick a map in the ship before I took
off.
I knew the airport was somewhere on the west side of town. I thought it
was somewhat north. But how far north I didn't know. I couldn't remember
even if it was close in to town or far out. I had a vague idea it was
far out, but how far out I didn't know. If I had only thought to bring a
map! Or if I had only kept the airport in sight. Good old hindsight!
I was panic-stricken. There I was, a supposedly high-powered test pilot,
lost over the airport. What a dumb position for me to be in!
Before I found the airport by just cruising around looking haphazardly
for it, I might be forced down by the weather, which was none too good
and getting worse, or I might run out of gas. What if I was finally
forced to pick a strange field, a pasture or something, and cracked up
getting into it? How would I explain that?
I decided to cruise north and south, up and down, in ten- or
fifteen-mile laps, starting far enough out of town to be sure to fly
over the airport on one of the laps as I moved closer in on each one.
That would be at least an orderly procedure.
I found the field on my fourth lap. But was I in a sweat! And did I keep
my eye on that field after that!