My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyframe pivoted on the ground in the shape of a T with the cross-piece facing the wind. Imay have been in the mood for some mild exhibition within the narrow limits of myknowledge and capacity as pilot, because my mother had come to watch and wasstanding at a corner of the hangar with my instructor, who was also a good friend.While I was up the wind changed direction so suddenly that there was not time to shiftthe T, which was on the far side of the ground and I failed to notice from smoke orother usually discernible signs what had happened. Consequently I made what Ithought would be a rather fast, clean landing in the direction of the hangars—adirection which had previously been correct. But owing to the change of wind, thelanding speed was considerably greater than I had intended. The machine hit theground with a bang and was thrown high into the air. It was instantly clear to me thatif I continued to attempt a landing I would crash into the hangars, so I opened theengine to full throttle, pulled back the stick and just cleared the hangars. My motherturned to express her admiration to my instructor for the skilful and pretty fashion inwhich her boy had bounced, but he was missing; for he was, of course, all too wellaware of what was happening, and had gone to make ready for a probable disaster.It was something of a miracle that the engine picked up quickly enough to lift theaircraft over the hangars, but the acute question then arose, what to do next? It waseasy sitting out in front of a Morris Farman Longhorn to look down and see that theundercarriage was badly damaged. This meant that a normal landing might entail itscollapse, with the result that the nose would enter the ground at speed and the enginewould come on top of me; these machines with the engine behind involved this hazard,whereas an aircraft with the engine in front might offer nothing worse than standingup on its nose or turning over on its back.I decided to turn round and attempt a slow, pancake landing. This meant coming in soslowly, yet without stalling, that the aircraft lost flying speed at exactly the rightheight and fell flat to the ground. If it lost speed too high above the ground the nosewould go down and the fatal crash with engine in the back could occur. If it did notlose flying speed until too late, the undercarriage would make contact with the groundat speed in the way of a normal landing and would collapse with the same result.With some difficulty, I managed to make a pancake landing, but from a considerableheight and with a crash which was consequently severe, though the loss of flyingspeed did not decline enough for the nose to come down and cause a disaster. It was aclassic pancake landing, but a heavy shock. My legs were driven hard into the floor ofthe cockpit and injured, one of them severely. Strangely enough, as sometimeshappens with severe shock, I felt nothing much at the time as I was completely numb.I even managed to walk from the machine, and was unaware of the extent of the hurtuntil later, when the pain and swelling began. I got leave and went back to the bonesetter,but was informed that the injury was much more considerable this time. Thetreatment was not entirely successful; I could walk, but with some difficulty.During this period I had news that my regiment required officers, because that springthey had suffered severe losses, particularly of officers, from the explosion of minesin the front line. I was in a dilemma, as I wanted to complete my training course andreturn to the R.F.C. as a pilot, but on the other hand felt that my first duty was to myregiment. This was the over-riding reason which decided me to return—it was not anorder but a choice—yet I may have been influenced also by a desire to have the two57 of 424