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New York Long Island First to obtain the new international certificate of expert aviator of master pilot in this vicinity will probably be Lieut. Horacio Ruiz of the Mexican army, who Saturday took the first of the required tests on Long Island. In a Moisant monoplane he flew 50 miles across country without stop, covering the distance in 59 minutes. Lieutenant Ruis rose at the Hempstead Plain Aviation Field, observed by Mortimer Delano, for the Aero Club of America. The course was to Central Islip and back. There was a 10-mile breeze at the start, not long before 4 o'clock, but the machine, with its 50-horsepower Gnome engine, drove straight into it without a quiver, ascending at a long angle that gradually carried the officer up to a height of nearly 3,000 feet, and he was lost to view in the clouds to the eastward. Forty minutes after leaving the field he was over the State Insane Asylum, near Central Islip, where the Aero Club was stationed Winthrop M. Southworth to witness the turn. The flight back had the advantage of wind astern, and was made consequently in half the time of the outward passage. On landing the lieutenant received congratulations from a small group of his countrymen and from his flying instructor, S.S. Jervan, of the Moisant school. Later he will take the test of reaching an altitude of 2,500 feet, and thence volplaning to the ground, landing within 328 feet of a mark. At the Hempstead Plain Aerodrome another of the Moisant pupils, David Edelman of this city, took all the required tests for an ordinary pilot's license at the same time that the Mexican officer was in the air George W. Beatty and Charles B. Prodger also made flights. In the evening Beatty and Prodger flew for nearly an hour over the villages in the vicinity of the field in their biplanes, which were outlined in strings of red, white and blue electric lights. There were also fireworks on the field. Exhibition flights on Sunday at the Hempstead Plains Aviation Field have been prohibited by the order of Sheriff Charles T. Demott of Nassau county, who says he received many complaints against the exhibition form residents of Brooklyn, who are said to be members of the Sunday Observance Association. The gates therefore be closed tomorrow. FLYING MACHINES SAVED FROM WATER Moisant Aviators Have Busy Day Securing Property From Danger-Aeroplanes Dismantled and Moved to Farm House-Prepared for the Worst. [[left margin note]] Mar IG/13 At the Moisant aviation camp, every precaution was taken against the high water. The four flying machines had been dismantled before 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon and store snugly on the front porch of the dwelling house at the camp ground; the entire repair equipment had also been removed to the house and the hangars had been anchored to withstand the pressure of possible high wind or the rush of high waters. It is believe that the property is well above any danger. The army camp stored much of their equipment there last year when the water rose above 36 feet and no damage was done to it. It was as early as 10 o'clock when Chief Pilot Jerwan and the students of the Moisant school, with the mechanicians of the party, realizing that the aeroplanes and all accessories were likely to be submerged unless removed from the low ground, where the hangars are located, threw themselves with a rush into the task of taking the machines to pieces and rolling them across the water-covered field to the place of safety. Wagons were employed to transport the wings and other parts that could be lifted, but the body of the monoplanes, including the heavy engines, had to be rolled over the intervening ground by "man power," and a right good job it was for a small number of stout-hearted and sturdy-limbed young experts. The regular work of the school and the daily flights will be resumed as soon as the waters subside. M [[cut off]] F [[cut off]] c [[cut off]] Mr. S. S. [[cut off]] chief pilot of the Moisant School of Aviators, is planning to make a flight scross the river to the Hampton Terrance Tuesday afternoon, the occasion being the opening of the famous winter hostelry. Mr. Jerwan will make the flight in one of the graceful, high-power Moisant monoplanes, landing on the golf course in front of the hotel, after circling above the building. After his reception by the lessee, Mr. C. A. Wood and a tour of inspection of the hotel, he will mount to the seat of his machine, and fly back to the camp below Augusta. Tuesday was ideal for flying. The atmosphere was perfectly clear, not too cold and almost free from breezes. It was expected that there would be extensive flying at the camp Tuesday because of these ideal conditions. Mr. Jerwan Replies to a Critic To the Editor of the Scientific American: In your issue of March 16th, 1912, I read an article on "Gyroscopic Action in Aeroplanes," by Joseph A. Blondin, in reply to an article under my name published in your issue of February 10th, 1912. Taking the machine in question (a monoplane in which the propeller revolves anti-clockwise as viewed from the front) it can be easily noticed that in starting, when the motor reaches the necessary velocity and the machine is let go by those holding onto its tail, the pilot gives one, two or three quick and sharp kicks to the foot bar which operates the vertical rudder, with his right foot, so as to prevent the monoplane from turning to the left. If the operator fails to do that and the machine takes its course in turning to the left, it cannot be righted up at all, but keeps on turning round and round until the power is stopped; and such have been the experiences of beginners. Once a runway Bleriot monoplane with its rudder set straight circled round and round on the ground in the direction opposite to that of the revolving propeller for about twenty minutes until at last it broke down. If Mr Blondin will try to run a monoplane with the belief that it tends to deviate in the same direction as the rotating propeller, he will experience unpleasant results which will make him understand how valuable (?) "Vehicles of the Air" will have been to him as well as it has been to others. In his article Mr. Blondin gives a wrong explanation of my statement as to the effect of gyroscopic force on either turn. The statement was that the head of the machine points upward on a right turn and downward on a left turn, and not that the machine rises and dips on these turns. For a beter explanation I will give the following: Considering the elevator to be set in the same position without changing its angle of incidence and without banking the machine on either turn, in a right turn the head points upward and in a left turn the head points downward. But if the elevator is operated so as to level up the machine longitudinally, as it is often done instinctively and unconsciously by pilots, the machine then rises on a left turn and descends on a right turn. In making series of figure eights, the foregoing facts could be readily observed even by spectators. In conclusion, it is not amiss to impress upon Mr. Blondin's mind the fact that mere theorizing and didactic generalization do not play any important part in the birth and development of practical sciences. As an instance, I would call attention to the remark attributed to the late Prof. Simon Newcomb, who, after years of study and mathematical calculations pertaining to mechanical flight, gave as his opinion the impossibility of man's conquest of the air with a heavier-than-air machine, which opinion, with all due respect to the memory of that illustrious savant, has been exploded by successful flights of machines brought forth by dint of observation and experiences upon which didactic authors would do well to base their academic statements. New York city. S. S. JEEWAN. Two New Pupils Arrive at the Local Moisant Aviation School --- Lieut. Buflea, a German Officer and Will McGinn, Former Newspaper Man, Join Aggregation of Fliers. Flight Tuesday P. M. by Aldasoros. Feb. 26/13 There has been unusual activity about Moisant School of Aviation for the past several days. Two new pupils have arrived recently; two army officers who had expected to begin monoplane flying are on the verge of leaving; and the arrangement for the Aero Club of America test of the Aldosoro brothers, before Capt. Charles DeForest Chandler is being made. Lieut. G. R. Buflea, a German officer, and Mr. Will McGinn, a one-time newspaper man of Cincinnati, but now a confirmed monoplane flyer, have arrived in Augusta for instruction under Chief Pilot S. S. Jerwan, of the Moisant School. It was expected Lieut. Milling and Lieut. Graham of the United States Army would next week began instructions for monoplane flying, but the removal of the camp from Augusta to Galveston has precluded any such possibility. There were flights Tuesday afternoon by the Aldasoro brothers, John Aldasoro ascending with 'Monoplane' the prize bull-terrier of Chief Pilot Jerwan. Mr. Aldasoro was aloft six minutes with the dog, and descending his place was taken by the chief pilot, who flew for miles around Augusta with the pet in the craft. Messrs. Aldasoro are trying to arrange forie tests for Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning before Capt. Chandler leaves. Capt. Chandler made a very pretty cross-country flight to Waynesboro Tuesday afternoon, spending the night there and returning to August Wednesday.
