DESCRIBES FLYING IN FRANCE

The following letter was received from R. L. Moore '18, who is now serving in a French flying squadron in France:

"Here it is nearly Christmas time. Just four months ago today I took my first flight. And now I have nearly finished my training. I am flying the little chasse monoplane machines, and have finished acrobatics. Some sensations! The vrille or spinning nose dive, where the machine falls perpendicularly, spinning around, its longitudinal axis as it falls; the renversement where you give a jerk and a kick which flops you on your back and then complete the loop and come out traveling in the opposite direction, the quickest way to turn around; and lastly, the side slip, where you turn the machine on its side till the wings are vertical and just plain fall without any supporting surface. It is the quickest way to lose altitude and you certainly do come down. You fall faster and faster till the wind roars through the wires and the machine shakes and vibrates till you think it is going to fly to pieces and till it throws the pilot hard against the belts.

"Now the first few of us are doing formation flying, and in a few days we are going to the front. Wish us luck. We are still only half-trained, for we have had no machine gun work, but I believe we are to be given some shooting at another school where we get the latest type of machines, each fellow his own."