Can someone tell me about the dangers that early pilots faced?

[Vin]

1. Their superiors (particularly RFC).
2. Aircraft Manufacturers.
3. Grog.


Vin

No one has mentioned friendly fire or clouds (c/f Albert Ball) or ground attack work, lets face it anyone who has played any combat sim of the time knows that ground attack=death.

Mark

[Vigilant]

In the RFC, if you survived flying school you were doing well. The RFC (Royal Flying Corps) lost as many men to accidents as they did to enemy action. Other airforces were considerably better however.

Typically a new pilot solo-ed after 2 or 3 hours. Today it's more like 15 to 25 hours in planes that are a lot easier to fly.

Vig.

[Lufbery]

Let's not forget that navigation was exceptionally difficult compared to today. This is true for a number of reasons:

1. The instruments in the planes were primitive at best. There was no way for a pilot to fly the plane based solely on instruments if he were to find himself in fog, clouds, night, or lousy weather.
   
2. For most planes, there was no communication with the groud, and therefore, no groud control. IOW, there was no way to call home and get position fix. Also, the lack of ground control often resulted in crashes while planes were trying to land.
   
3. There were no runway lights or navigation beacons, so pilots coming in at night had to reley on their comrads on the ground lighting barrels of fuel oil to mark the runway and fire flares in the air (Very lights) when they heard the planes, to notify the pilot of the aerodrome's location.

Now, the fact that most sorties (air missions) were flown during the day, in a relatvely small area (the planes only had fuel for 2 hours or so), during reasonably good weather, mitigted against some of these problems. But there were always pilots that would push their luck, or the weather would change, or they'd get lost, or something else would happen.

Oh, did I mention combat?

I hope this helps,
-Drew

All,
Did anyone happen to mention bailing out of a burning aircraft with no parachute. It gives one the sensation of flying, but gravity and that sudden stop at the end make it a REAL BUMMER! ; )
VBR,
Jim

Jim, You have that absolutely correct. Burning was the most terrifying thing that an early pilot could face. Some of the early Gnome engines with valve-in-piston were known to allow crankcase expolsions or fires. Broken fuel lines, forgetting to kill the ignition in case of trouble,all could result in a rather terrible death. Some "wanna be" WW-I pilots should think this over. We tend to think only of the glamerous aspects.
When fire was detected, a pilot would often make for the nearest body of water, jump and try to swim for it. Luf was trying for a pond, but ended up on a picket fence, because he misjudged drift and inertia.

[rammjaeger]

I did not read all replies but I guess animals were not mentioned. I was reading repeatedly about dogs and even a cattle running into a starting or landing aircraft and causing crashs. O.K. - I admit a more exotic and not so important factor!

My father was a WWI pilot and aereal photographer.
I have his log books beginning 1917. The number of "forced landings" documented are many with remarks as "water boiling", "engine out",
"snow & sleet" , landed in field, throttle jammed upon landing, broke tire. and other notations.

Hannes has a point, to which I would add "collision with birds." These may seem minor things, but they did cause problems for early aviators.
Another problem was the fragility of the fuselage fabric. It was found that ejected cartridge cases would punch holes that could tear further and cause major damage.

[Vin]

Some of the dangers they did NOT have to face

Drowned in mud at the bottom of a trench
Mustard gas
Buried alive in a direct shell hit
Bitten by rats who had just fed off corpses
Slaughtered in a machine gun rush
Trench foot


Vin

*****