Canadian Fnrcsfrii Journal, Fcbruari), 1918 



1523 



per day. I am working on the basis 

 that every day for six months your 

 phmes will examine 8, ()()() square 

 miles. You will need tw^o or three 

 mechanics, at four or five dollars a 

 day, say three of them at four dollars 

 a day; that will be 312 a day for 

 mechanics. Your pilots will be ex- 

 pensive gentlemen — you'll have to 

 pay them at least $10 a day each, and 

 you'll be luckv to get them at that: 

 you will have to have two pilots. 

 K'ow, two pilots, at, oh, vou'd better 

 say $3,500 a year each (because you 

 have to pay them by the year whether 

 you like it or not; will mean $7,000 

 a year, or $38.88 per useful working 

 day. Of course, you could put them 

 at shovelling coal, or some other such 

 highly useful occupation, in the six 

 months they are not flying and lower 

 the cost that way, but if you haven't 

 any work like that for them you just 

 have to carry the gentlemen for six 

 months out of the year in order to 

 have them for the other six. So far 

 the cost per day is $64.76, that is 

 taken on the basis of six months' 

 work. 



Cost of Flying 



We must also take into considera- 

 tion the question of depreciation and 

 repairs, and that item depends largely 



on the mileage flown, but you can 

 say 10 cents per mile for that and 

 you'll be about right. Then you have 

 your petrol and oil; that cost is less 

 than a cent a mile, — quite a bit less 

 if you have an economical engineer. 

 You can count on $16.80 per day for 

 petrol and oil, for 800 linear miles 

 hying. That means that the total 

 daily expenditure for examining 8,000 

 square miles every day for six months 

 will be 2.0195 cents per square mile, 

 say 2 cents, or 20 cents per linear mile 

 you fly. I think these figures are 

 fairh^ accurate, and if they err at all 

 it is on the side of being too conser- 

 vative. There are many ways in 

 which you might save. For instance, 

 you have to employ the pilot, all the 

 year round — ^you pay him for a 

 year and w-ork him for six months — 

 but as I said before, if you happen to 

 have anything else you can put him at 

 you can save quite an item there. 



The Range of Vision 



One thing I am often asked is: 

 "Can you see what is going on from 

 an aeroplane — can you see anything 

 much?" That depends on what is 

 going on down below. For instance, 

 a fellow Hying over the line in France 

 is keeping his eyes open for enemy 



