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SPORTS THAT MAKE SUCCESSFUL AIRMEN Maj Hicham of United States Air Service Declares Race Riding Most Beneficial BY FRANCIS NELSON NELSONTORONTO TORONTO Out May 23 The view of Gen I Ida re of the Royal Air Force that a good race rider other things being equal made the ideal flying man was presented to render of Daily Racing Form a good many months ago Gen Hoare who was at the head of the flying forces in Canada and organized the entire Royal Flying Corps establish ¬ ment in Canada ami Texas so expressed himself as long ago as the autumn of 1917 when the To ¬ ronto Hunt held a gymkhana at Woodbine for the benefit of the Red Cross funds fundsAlong Along similar lines Maj Horace M Hickam sec ¬ ond assistant to the director of the United States Army Air Service undertakes to answer the ques ¬ tion What games are most useful in developing qualities which make a successful airman Maj Hickam was a notable athlete at West Point and served in the regular cavalry until the beginning of the present war when he was transferred to the air force Writing in the May number of the United States Air Service Magazine Maj Hickam himself a skillful pilot says saysOne One of the qualities essential to the aviator is feel of the ship The nearest approach to this is the feel of the mouth developed in equitation and crosscountry riding or riding to hounds Indeed riding to hounds presents many parallels to aviation Here is to be found the same necessity for quick and accurate judgment under conditions of danger and the same need for feel in moments of excite ¬ ment and emergency and the loss of that feel may be quite as disastrous lit negotiating a tricky jump as landing in bad country with a dead stick A season of riding to hounds over trappy country will do much to develop the qualities mentioned not to speak of a certain measure of highly desirable discretion A few good horses would be a valuable addition to any flying school schoolThe The game of tennis is another admirable one with which to condition the aviator the exercise involved is sufficient fully BO from the purely physical training point of view There is in tennis the necessity for the same accurate sense of feel Football and similar games the writer holds have no special qualifications for making aviators They are team games while aviation is an individual affair
