The first time in the air!

    Event ID: 103

    Categories: 

    General Event
    Deutsch
    Der rote Kampfflieger von Rittmeister Manfred Freiherrn von Richthofen, 1917, 351.000 - 400.000, Verlag Ullstein & Co, Berlin-Wien

    31 May 1915

    Morgens früh um sieben Uhr sollte ich zum erstenmal mitfliegen!
    50.98033853742382, 6.897883820507864
    Flieger-Ersatzabteilung 7
    Köln

    Source ID: 4

    Der rote Kampfflieger von Rittmeister Manfred Freiherrn von Richthofen, 1917, 351.000 - 400.000, Verlag Ullstein & Co, Berlin-Wien p.   

    ‘The first time in the air! I was to fly for the first time at seven o’clock in the morning! I was in a somewhat understandable state of excitement, I couldn’t imagine anything at all. Everyone I asked told me something different. In the evening I went to bed earlier than usual so that I would be fresh for the big moment the next morning. We drove over to the airfield and I sat in an aeroplane for the first time. The propeller wind bothered me immensely. I was unable to communicate with the pilot. Everything flew away from me. If I took out a piece of paper, it disappeared. My crash helmet slipped, my scarf came off, my jacket wasn’t buttoned up tight enough, in short, it was miserable. I wasn’t even ready to take off when the pilot stepped on the gas and the plane started to roll. Faster and faster, faster and faster. I held on tightly. Suddenly the vibration stopped and the plane was in the air. The ground whizzed away beneath me. I had been told where to fly, i.e. where to direct my guide. We first flew straight ahead for a while, then my guide turned round, then round again, [46]to the right, then to the left, and I had lost my bearings over my own airport. I had no idea where I was any more! I gently began to take a look at the area below me. The people were tiny, the houses looked like something out of a children’s construction kit, everything was so cute and delicate. Cologne was in the background. Cologne Cathedral was a toy. It was a sublime feeling to float above everything. Who could do me any harm now? Nobody! I didn’t care that I no longer knew where I was, and I was very sad when my pilot said we had to land now. I would have preferred to fly again straight away. There was no question of me having any discomfort, as I would have had on an air swing, for example. The famous American swings are, by the way, disgusting to me. You feel unsafe in them, but in an aeroplane you have an absolute feeling of security. You sit very still in your seat. There is no chance of getting dizzy. There is no one who has ever felt dizzy in an aeroplane. But it’s a damned thrill to whizz through the air like that, especially afterwards, when it went down again, the aeroplane tilted forwards, the engine stopped running and suddenly a tremendous calmness set in. I held on tightly again and thought [47]of course: ‘Now you’re going to crash.’ But it all happened so naturally and naturally, including landing, touching the ground again, and everything was so easy that there was absolutely no feeling of fear. I was thrilled and could have sat in the plane all day. I counted the hours until the next take-off.’

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