ESCOLE D’AVIATION MILITAIRE
AVORD, CHER, FRANCE.
Friday, July 13, 1917.
You see it’s Friday, the thirteenth, my lucky day, and I’m happy
because the work is going well. First, I’ll tell you about a smash I
had a week or so ago.
The roller or _Rouleur_ class which I smashed in has the same machine
as those that fly with a 45 P motor. Only it is throttled down, and we
are supposed to keep it on the ground--just about ready to fly, but
not quite getting up--a speed of about 30 m.p.h. When there is the
slightest wind we can not roll, because the wind turns the tail around
and swings the machine in a circle--a wooden horse--_cheval de bois_.
I rode about the end of the list Saturday--and the wind had come up as
the day got on. Work stops at 8:30 a. m. always because there’s too
much wind. My first sortie or trip went O.K. with a considerable breeze
on the tail, but on the second there was too much wind and after I got
going pretty fast--around she went. The wind caught under the inside
wing and up it went. Smash went the outside wheel, and a crackle of
busting wood. All the front framework of wood that holds the motor was
smashed--a pretty bad break. The monitor was a bit mad and talked to me
a bit in French.
The next morning I was called in to see the chief of the Blériot
school, Lt. de Chavannes, a very nice officer. He told me that my
monitor was not satisfied with me--that he had told me to do something
(cut the motor when the machine started to turn) three separate times,
and that each time I had intentionally disobeyed, that if anything like
that happened again I would be radiated (discharged from the school).
That was quite the first I had ever heard of it and I was so mad at the
monitor that I could have kicked him in the head. I tried to explain to
the Lieutenant but he never heard a word, so I just gurgled with wrath
and didn’t do anything. But yesterday we got another monitor who is a
different sort.
The class after _rouleur_ is _decollé_--it is the same machine, but one
gets off the ground about a metre or two, then slacks up on the motor
and settles to the earth. It is strictly forbidden to _decollé_ in
the _rouleur_ class. This morning I had a sortie in the _rouleur_ and
all of a sudden noticed that I was in the air a bit--managed to keep
it straight and get out of the air without smashing. The monitor said
nothing so I _decolléed_ on all the sorties. When I got out the monitor
explained that it was strictly forbidden to go off the ground in the
_rouleur_ class, that I shouldn’t have done it, and then asked me if I
would like to go up to the other class. Whereupon consenting, I am now
in the _decollé_ class, leaving sixteen rather peeved Americans who
arrived in the _rouleur_ the same time I did, who can perform in the
_rouleur_ quite as well as I can and who will remain in the _rouleur_
for some time yet. They’ve no grudge against me, however, as it was
only a streak of luck on my part. Later in the morning I had some
sorties in the _decolleur_ and got up two or three metres. The wind was
too strong, so my trips were a bit rough, but nothing was damaged--so
hurrah for Friday, the thirteenth.