I was taken up for a joy ride to see how I liked it and also to see if my nerves were good etc. There is a peculiar feeling as you hear contact called followed by the roar of the engine. In taking off you get the feeling for the first time of falling through space, this only lasts for about five seconds, until the machine is off the ground, then the feeling is nothing more or less than a joyride on a well sprung car travelling over a good road. The vibration is practically nil. On this trip I was ‘stunted’. I began to wonder if I would ever be able to fly, after the first vertical turn I was not certain if the machine was right way up, upside down, climbing or diving . I was in a maze, one minute I was being kept in by my safety belt, the next I was feeling as if I had a spring pressing into my seat. Every stunt seems to have a different action on the stomach. The nearest impression I can give you is the difference between ‘stepping on a stair that was not there’ and thinking you are at the bottom of a flight of stairs before you are, but at the same time it is very fascinating. The feeling when starting to come down is very feeble. I was under the impression that this was the worst part of the lot, but it was just like flying level, without the roar of the engine; in place of that there was the ‘singing’ of the wires.
