Arthur Cobby on the isolation a WWI pilot felt.

Cobby writes:

In the air a pilot's job is a strangely isolated one. Although formation flying and fighting demanded a very close cohesion among the members of the flight, in the early days one felt very much alone and at the mercy of chance.

Lack of means of communication with one's fellow was, I think, the principal cause of this. You could not communicate with other chaps about what was going on.

Every possible eventuality had to be studied before leaving the ground. Plans had to be made to meet each contingency that might arise, and then your memory and a thorough understanding of the characteristics of your leader and your comrades had to be relied upon to dispose of each bit of trouble as it presented itself.

There was no means of talking over what you were going to do; once something started you just went ahead and did it and the firm reliance one placed on one's comrades later on was the result of long and continuous association in the air under all sorts of conditions.

In those early days [1917] we lacked this strong background of mutual support and understanding.

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