Early Aerial Service
Late in 1914, Lufbery was accepted into the pilot training program and was assigned to fly reconnaissance missions with Escadrille VB 106. He later applied for a transfer to fighter planes and was trained on the Nieuport. Although he became an ace, Lufbery was not a naturally gifted pilot. His success was due to perseverance and attention to mechanical detail. He was often harassed by fellow pilots for working with the mechanics on his plane. Lufbery also inspected and polished each bullet in his gun's drum to help avoid jams, a frequent problem of the Lewis gun.
Read more about this topic: Raoul Lufbery
Famous quotes containing the words early, aerial and/or service:
“As I went forth early on a still and frosty morning, the trees looked like airy creatures of darkness caught napping; on this side huddled together, with their gray hairs streaming, in a secluded valley which the sun had not penetrated; on that, hurrying off in Indian file along some watercourse, while the shrubs and grasses, like elves and fairies of the night, sought to hide their diminished heads in the snow.”
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“Every year lays more earth upon us, which weighs us down from aerial regions, till we go under the earth at last.”
—E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)
“You had to face your ends when young
‘Twas wine or women, or some curse
But never made a poorer song
That you might have a heavier purse,
Nor gave loud service to a cause
That you might have a troop of friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)