Air Chanteys

Young though it is among the arts, sciences and sports, aviation already has its own vocabulary, traditions, legends and songs. Pilots' slang and customs are fairly familiar to fiction readers and cinemaddicts. But songs of flying, unlike cowboys' and sailors' songs, have never been collected in print. In the May-June issue of Sportsman Pilot, out last week, appeared the beginning of an anthology of flying songs. First contributions came from John C. Haddock, Pennsylvania mining engineer and sportsman pilot. Pilot Haddock recalled a chantey by which student aviators in the Navy were taught the rudiments of safe flying, each verse pointing a moral. Excerpts:

They picked his engine off his neck, His prop from out his belly-o. They sewed him in his uniform, And sent him home to Nelly-o, Crashed plumb to jelly-o-- Don't lose your flying speed! He did a bank at ninety feet, It was a kinda foolish thing, And now he is the devil's meat, Or listenin' to the angels sing,-- Try to get some altitude! He kicked his rudder right around, When landing cross wind to the breeze, And much to his surprise he found, He had an engine on his knees-- Land 'em straight and land up slow!

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