On Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:40:02 -0700, Don Tuite
wrote:

I don't think anyone has mentioned "Those Magnificent Men in their
Flying Machines." Am I alone in remembering it as awful?

I actually enjoy it...depictions of early aviation are just so outright rare,
and the fact that they built all those flying replicas just makes me shiver. :-)

Anyone ever watched "Wings"? I never saw the movie myself, but my
mother had a novelization of the movie (Yes, they did that even back
in the silent days.) that I read several times when I was a kid. (The
plot of "Flyboys" included a few elements of "Wings.")

Years ago, I read the autobiography of Dick Grace, who did the crashes in
"Wings,", including the SPAD that crash-lands in the trenches and flips upside
down. In the book, Grace says that the director wanted to keep filming after
the plane hits, rather than have the aid crews immediately come to the pilot's
rescue. Grace told him that if he was OK after the crash, he'd flip the rudder
back and forth.

And sure enough, you can see the rudder waggle on "Wings"....

Ron Wanttaja