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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0007.PDF
JANUARY 5, 1928 PRIVATE FLYING A Section of FLIGHT in the Interests of the Private Owner, Owner-Pilot, and Club Member PRIVATE FLYING IN 1927 ONE of the natural aspects of private flying is that it is private flying for the greater number of private owners. They pur- sue their sport in utter privacy. They obtain their machine after learning to fly at one of the clubs or schools, and they take it away to their own part of the country and you never hear of them any more. There is something commendable in this modesty and in a strict sense the attitude is as it should be. It shows that these owners regard flying as a normal habit and nothing to tell the world about. But, however admirable this may be, its one disadvantage is that it conceals exactly what the world wants to know. Although flying may be normal to them, it is not so with hundreds of others, who, therefore, need an example. At present, this is not forthcoming to the extent that it could be. There are at least seventy private owners in this country and there cannot be more than half-a-dozen who are publicly known. The experience gathered is consequently very small. One result, then, is that in a resume of the past year for private flying there is not much to recall. It is possibly presumptuous to attempt this at all, and comparable to a baby reflecting upon its first year, during which it has not done much more than just put on weight, for the year 1927 really marks the first year of private flying. It has assumed proportions in this period which has marked its definite arrival. At the beginning of the year there were twenty- five owners, so now there are nearly three times that number. It would be interesting to know how many hours flying they have all done for the period. Whatever it amounts to, it cannot be counteracted with any fatalities to our know-ledge. If any of the modest owners have hurt themselves, they have kept that private too, but we are very certainthey are all present and correct. There were a few accidents, but the victims recovered except in one instance, when theowner's passenger died. The most useful work accomplished by the owners last yearare the tours of the Continent. Prominent among these were those of the Duchess of Bedford, who covered 4,500 milesin one tour to Tangier in the course of 55 hours' flying over a period of three weeks, and later in the year this was followedby a 3,500-mile tour to the Lido and Naples. On both occasions the Duchess flew in a " Moth " piloted by Capt. C.D. Barnard. Apart from these trips, she has flown elsewhere and in particular from her Woburn seat in Bedfordshire toher Scottish seat. Incidentally, the Duchess appears in this year's Honours List as a Dame Commander of the BritishEmpire Order. The other two well known lady owners, Lady Bailey andLady Heath (Mrs. Eliott-Lynn), have been conspicuous for making altitude records, as well as air racing. The firstrecord was a joint effort, Lady Heath then being the pilot and Lady Bailey passenger. On May 18, they ascended fromHamble, Southampton, in an Avro " Avian " Mk. II Cirrus, and reached a height of nearly 16,000 ft. On July 5, LadyBailey made her own attempt with Mrs. G. de Havilland as passenger, from Stag Lane. In a D.H. " Moth " an altitudeof 17,284-3 ft. was gained, and this still remains the world's record in the two-seater light aeroplane class. Lady Heathtried to beat it in an Avro " Alpha-Avian " from Woodford, A NEW YEAR GREETING FROM SWITZERLAND: These photographs have been sent to FLIGHT by Major Nabholz de Grabow, Switzerland's veteran private owner, who. in spite of his 59 years, is never happier than when he is flying his Morane-Saulnier parasol monoplane. The photograph on the left shows the Major and his daughter on the return from a flight, while on the right is an aerial view of Mount Pilatus.
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