It was a piece of
cake. Probably no military group ever began a war
mission with greater joy and enthusiasm. For here
was an opportunity not only to serve their country
in a highly promising war effort, but to do so while
getting their fill of what they liked best to do –
flying. Whereas flying hours had previously been
limited due to their costliness, they were not
bountiful and free.
The course laid out by Mr. Alley and Mr. Stelle
under my direction was to last from January 15 to
February 28. After that would come the field test.
One-half of each day would be spent flying; the
other half in maintenance, for we were training
pilot-mechanics. The pilot had to be prepared to do
all the usual day-to-day maintenance in the field.
As far as practicable each pilot was assigned a
specific airplane, which was exclusively his to fly
and maintain. The CAA skilled flight and maintenance
instructors were all over the operation, giving dual
instruction, check rides and examination in both
subjects.
It was the flying, of course, which was the most
unorthodox. In their previous civilian training
these pilots had been taught to fly only from fields
large enough to provide a generous margin of safety
against misjudgment in landing and takeoff. They had
been taught to maintain, except at the final moment
of landing, a speed well above stalling. And they
had been required to fly at an altitude high enough
to provide reasonable safety in case of engine
failure.
Now all this was changed. They were to fly
"low and slow," formerly a prescription
for trouble. Flying low was to provide some
protection against hostile aircraft. Flying slow,
during the approach for landing, was to permit them
to get into the smallest possible field or strip,
since any excess speed would risk overshooting and
cracking up. The fields to be used were to include,
ultimately, those of smallest negotiable size and
the barest acceptability as to surface; the roads
with smallest tolerable clearance as to wires,
trees, telephone poles, fences and similar
obstructions.
What fun it was! Like defying the law of gravity.
Daring to do what you had been told, up to now,
never, never to do.
But this was no foolhardy enterprise, no exercise
in recklessness. We began by practicing this new
style of flying under conditions where the dangers
were only simulated. We began on practice fields and
strips as large and as smooth as many small
airports. We put up, at the approach end of the
landing strip, two bamboo poles about 20 feet high,
with a string bearing short streamers stretched
between their tips. The pilot’s job was to come in
over this simulated obstruction in a delicately
controlled power-stall approach and land as short as
possible, braking hard if necessary. If he overshot,
being too high or too fast, there was still plenty
of field left on which to make a landing. If he came
in too low the only damage was to the string and
streamers; if too slow, he might "stall
out" and have a hard landing, possibly washing
out the landing gear but nothing more. Actually, not
a landing gear was lost.
After several hours of this, when the pilot had
acquired a feeling of confidence in the power-stall
approach and a fairly good feeling for what size
field was acceptable, the scene shifted to smaller
fields and roads. Nothing was simulated here; the
obstructions were real. Landings on roads presented
no problem except in crosswinds or where
obstructions such as trees or telephone poles were
too close to the road. In that case a less hazardous
stretch of road was sought. After more experience a
pilot skilled in this technique could even land on a
curving road with confidence. The trick was simply
to fly around the curve, banking just enough under
part throttle to stay over the center line of the
road, then settling gently to a one-wheel, tail-high
landing. As soon as the landing roll was stabilized
on one wheel, following the curve, the outside wing
was lowered until the outside wheel touched the
ground. Rudder control was then sufficient to keep
the desired direction until, with throttle closed,
the tail dropped gently, the steerable tail wheel
touched, and the aircraft was braked to a stop.
During the latter part of this short-field work
our "evasive maneuver" was introduced.
Upon observing the approach of hostile aircraft the
pilot was to roll into a dive, aiming for the
ground. The hostile pilot could not follow this
maneuver because of much greater speed, and would
thus be thwarted. Our pilot, having rolled into the
dive, would immediately begin a gentle pullout, lest
a dangerously high airspeed be built up, which might
take him into the ground or cause him to lose a wing
in pullout. Little training was required for this
maneuver. In the production aircraft for field use
the observer would be seated facing to the rear,
with large plexiglass window areas giving him a good
feel of view for detecting the approach of hostile
aircraft.
Two other problems were the danger of loss of
life from fire when crash landing (because of the
location of the fuel tank) and the difficulty of
using a parachute (because of space and weight
limitations). Other disadvantages of the L-4 were
related to its being used for unintended purposes.
In the absence of the required air liaison air
support, L-4s came to be used for many missions for
which larger and better equipped aircraft were
needed. Because of these requirements, the AGF
requested and eventually acquired larger aircraft to
supplement the L-4s.
