Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 152
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 152]
when flying low through our own barrage but by a marvellous bit of work he landed more or less safely and escaped with a badly bruised head. Now he is on leave from hospital but I don't think he will ever fly again.
Since my last letter I have looped the loop for the first time. I did the deed in a Bristol Fighter which is the only machine I have flown that I felt safe to loop. Of course, as I have always said, there is nothing difficult in it but it is a big strain on a machine & I never intended to loop until I had a machine that I knew was strong enough to stand it. I don't think there are very many pilots who can say that they had flown 400 hours before doing their first loop!
I have had awful trouble with my flight and one day could hardly get a single engine to go. I just went mad & stormed round the place telling the mechanics exactly what I thought of them. Since then things have been better. I have had a lot of very bad luck with the RF8s. My first two pupils did their solo all right but have since crashed a machine each. They were not hurt but wrecked the machines. Both crashes were done to hopelessly bad landings. It is very disheartening and altogether bad luck as they had far more instruction than any others have ever had here. The crashes were due to their own stupidity & not any lack of instruction. Still it is a very bad start for me but I hope for better luck next time. I was told to day that Sharpe is going & I am to take over his flight of Bristols in