Page 99 - KBHA Bulletin 10

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had been fixed up, the machine was wheeled back to the original starting point for a
second attempt.
Again the crowd watched with interest the preparations for flight. The engine
refused to spark at first, and then jumped off into that vicious crackling noise which was
succeeded by the hum when the propeller was doing twelve hundred revolutions to the
minute. The pilot gave the signal, the “steadiers” let go, the machine ran along the
ground for a few yards and then soared upwards.
For a couple of hundred yards a straight course – with a graceful, sweeping
motion – was set. Then the tail began to wag, and the machine slewed towards the left,
Mr. Weston’s intention being to take the ground in front of the grand stand.
Suddenly the engine commenced to miss fire; there was an irregularity about the
crackling that sounded ominous. The pilot, however, kept on his way, and just when a
height of eighty feet was reached he planed towards earth. Down, down the machine
went and became hidden from the crowd by the buildings on the course. There was a
rush of spectators over the fences to ascertain the cause of the trouble.

ENGINE GIVES TROUBLE
There was something wrong with the engine. Mr. Weston did not know what the
trouble was, but the “Gnome” was at fault. The crowd gathered round while the
particular portion of the Bristol that was concerned was closely scrutinised by the
experts. They used a spanner here and there, and the engine was again set in motion to
see if the trouble could be located. Those who had got too near the engine scampered
away when she started.
It was far more comfortable to view the “Gnome” and the propeller from afar.
The one gave forth sounds that were absolutely deafening; the latter created a breeze
that played havoc with hats. After many trials, the engine was got to work, and the
Bristol flew home. Those who were present were perfectly satisfied with the flights, but
Mr. Weston would have liked to have done better. Had it not been for the engine’s
faults he would have shown what the machine could do, and then pilot a trio of Press
people eager to soar.
At all events, everything will be in order on Wednesday, when there will be
flights on the Racecourse. Biplane engines, however, are finicky things and have to be
carefully handled. The perfect plane engine has not yet been discovered. The “Gnome”
is perhaps the most effectual of the engines used.
So far as yesterday’s flights were concerned, the first was 150 yards long, the
highest point reached being about fifty feet. The second was 500 yards long, and the
highest point approximately eighty feet.
A photograph of yesterday’s flight is reproduced on page 9.

Daily trials were scheduled for the following days and some were postponed owing to
poor weather with dangerous gusting winds, currents and eddies. These made control of

the machine difficult and were attributed to the topography of the nearby Peninsula

mountains. The crowds of over a thousand people who turned up regularly in the late