When You Know (1936)

[Music] through day sky and night skies great man-made Birds Go winging over our heads over lakes and rivers and mountains faster than the wind they hum along with little effort but every plane has a guiding hand and behind the throttles of the giant engines there sits a pilot who makes them purr or Roar at his command the way these mechanical birs sail along through the sky looks surprisingly simple but is it so easy sure there's nothing to it take the wheel for example you can make the ship do most anything by moving it like this you can turn it over do loops Dives and fly upside down see this is all you have to do there's nothing to it of course you have to watch where you're going all the time and keep your eyes on these instruments they're all telling you something every minute the stabilizer here practically flies the plane for you you set it and forget about it except when taking off or Landing or changing altitude up or down or when the weight shifts from a passenger moving around or when the gas tanks get lighter oh is that all it's easy is it well not many of us would want to take off with no more instruction than that there's one thing this expert forgot that is he knows how and in what he knows is his is safety when a fellow learns to fly with the Army Air core he doesn't learn it all in a day a week or even a month the gateway to the air service is a big schooling ground at San Antonio Texas the primary training point for Army Pilots physical tests come first before he can even be considered every applicant proves himself sound in every way if the student reacts properly with 20 seconds of this he's ready for the next step watch his eyes ability to judge distance and timing is determined from the results of a depth perception test the student adjusts the controls to bring the two uprights an equal distance from his eyes he gets a thorough test on the coordinator to find out how quick Qui L he will react later in the air every Army pilot must be an expert radio operator to be able to understand signals in the air the greatest factor in safety is knowledge of what you're depending on before the aerial novice ever leaves the ground he knows all of why and hows of his engine a trained ear helps a lot in knowing the condition of the engine in the air and that makes for safety too in the classroom the student learns why an airplane can fly the lines on this chart represent the flow of wind the number of lines represent the amount of air less air on the upper surfaces than on the lower causes the plane to be lifted upward a small scale model helps teach the theory of flight the link trainer explains how the controls are operated and what effect their movements have upon a plane in the air in the link trainer preliminary instruction and instrument flying is given the student practices straight and level flying normal turns climbing and gliding turns stalls and Spins and flying a course on the radio beam then comes the work on an actual plane the Army pilot must know how to take the best possible care of his airplane the greatest care means the greatest safety later in the air one of the most important parts of the student training is learning how the plane operates and how it responds to the controls the flyer must understand every part of an airplane's assembly from the propeller to the rudder after many hours of preliminary training the student gets his first chance to fly on first flights the plane is always equipped with dual controls and an instructor goes along to guide him at the end of 8 to 11 hours of flying with dual controls the instructor can determine when the young bird is capable of making a flight alone now he's ready for the thrill of a lifetime his first solo flight far away from the rest of the Squadron the student gets the feel of the sky with the greatest possible safety there's a perfect three-point Landing to his credit couldn't be better months more of practice and the young flyer has earned the right to fly one of the Army's famous p26a Pursuit planes The harest Hornet of the air now he's a tough Notch Punt and flying is easy because he knows his plane and how to control it for safety it's easy to drive an automobile too but here again the greatest factor in safety is a knowledge of what you are driving and how it can be controlled anybody can start a car whether he knows anything about power and brakes or not it's easy to push down accelerators release clutch pedals it's easy to shift the silent synchrom mesh gears and it's easy to stop the car with perfected hydraulic brakes but like the expert flyer the driver of a modern high-powered motorc car should know all he can learn about automobiles the beginner should have an understanding of his automobile before he ever attempts to drive in traffic every driver should know the traffic rulle so well that he will automatically obey them and drive safely all the time every car has its instruction book the driver should study it and learn all he can about how his car works and how to take care of it he should have several hours of instruction at the controls and finally the first solo out where there's plenty of room for him to practice of course every driver cannot be expected to know quite as much about his car as every pilot knows about his plane but there are millions of safe drivers on our highways today the safe driver knows his brakes and he knows how to use them to stop without skidding the safe driver knows his transmission and how to start on slippery roads without spinning the wheels the safe driver knows the braking power of His engine and how to save his brakes on Hills driving safely is easy when you know how [Music] I