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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0217.PDF
MARCH 22, 1928 The next demonstration consisted in landing exactly the reverse way, i.e., " 10 ft. below the ground " ! In "other words, a beginner may misjudge his height in two ways he may think he is on the ground and " flatten out " too soon (as in the previous flight), or he may have the impression that he is not yet low enough, and may glide his machine into the ground. Flight No. 3 imitated the last-mentioned case. Capt. de Havilland (deliberately, of course) failed to " flatten out." The machine struck the ground at its gliding angle, its nose jerked upwards, a bounce with the nose in the air followed, and then, at practically no forward speed, the machine sank in a stalled condition,"still without a sight of any tendency to drop a wing tip, and came to rest. The fourth and last flight was a demonstration of stalling the machine from about 200 ft., without any power to flatten out (the height being assumed insufficient to permit of the dive which must precede the " unstalling " of the machine). During the large number of stalled landings of this nature made during the experiments with the slotted "Moth," it was found that the vertical rate of descent of the machine was in the neighbourhood of 9 ft. per second (a parachute drops at 15 to 17 ft. per second). On this occasion, for some reason which is not yet known, the " Moth " appeared to descend in a series of "steps," very slight but unmistakably present, of acceleration and deceleration. As luck would have it, the machine was just in one of its acceleration periods when it struck the ground. The result was that the rate of descent was more than the fuselage could stand. The cross member of the fuselage gave way, the undercarriage " legs " pushed upwards through the body, and the machine sat down flat on its belly. The front portion with the engine dropped forward, the rear portion of the fuselage dropped backward, but Capt. de Havilland was not scratched ! Not only so, but he afterwards said he felt no particular shock, the whole proceedings being comparatively gentle. He was carrying no passenger at the time, but even if a passenger had been on board, it is extremely doubtful whether he would have been damaged at all. Both seats were intact, the aft cockpit entirely so, and the front cockpit damaged in such a way that a passenger would not be likely to have been hurt. Very naturally, there was a moment's anxiety among the onlookers, until Captain de Havilland was seen to jump out of the machine and to be perfectly undamaged. The accident did undoubtedly prove that, although nobody would suggest, or try to encourage, careless handling of a machine, the con- sequences of what is after all a comparatively trivial mistake, are not likely to be very serious in a machine fitted with automatic slots and with a good undercarriage. The next step in the evolution of the " Sloth " will probably be a redesigning of the part of the fuselage in the neighbourhood of the undercarriage. In this case the undercarriage itself was entirely undamaged, it was the fuselage which gave way.This is not surprising, as it had not been "specially designed for shocks such as it received. The demonstration undoubtedly proved that the automaticslots, properly designed, and with the rest of the machine designed to be in harmony, has greatly reduced the serious-ness of the consequences following upon mistakes in piloting. Nobody would claim that the slots make a machine " fool-proof." The four-wheel brakes on a motor car go a long way towards facilitating the handling of a car, in that reason-able errors of judgment in the matter of speed and distance can be corrected by means of the brakes. But the brakesdo not make a car " fool-proof." A driver can still, if he is fool enough to do so, drive straight into a brick wall. So also with the automatic slots. The fitting of these doesnot, for instance, prevent a machine from stalling. But the slots do prevent the common result of stalling : the spin,from which there is no way of getting out, except by diving. Put in a different way, the ordinary " Moth " (to keep to thismachine) can be stalled down, just as is the slotted " Moth," but, and that is the great point, it takes a very skilled pilotto prevent it from dropping a wing tip. It is, so to speak, balanced on a knife's edge laterally. With the slots, however,it is laterally stable in the stalled condition, and consequently the high degree of skill in preventing a wing tip from droppingis no longer necessary. Hitherto, if one may use the simile, there has been nopunishment to fit the crime ! The trivial error of getting into a stall has only too frequently resulted in the pilot losing hislife. The introduction of the automatic slot will, we firmly believe, in the vast majority of cases, reduce the " penalty "to nothing worse than a damaged machine, and probably very rarely even this. And, finally, we cannot conclude these notes withoutpaying a tribute to Captain de Havilland for the practical and personal way in which he interests himself.in aviation.We know that he habitually flies every new type of machine produced by his firm. That he should have been willing togive a demonstration like that on Monday last, is one more proof of his very great keenness and courage, for we main-tain that it takes a great deal of courage to make the " mis- takes " which " D.H." deliberately made. For a skilledpilot to make up his mind to stall into the ground, a procedure against which all his instincts as a pilot rebel, must take atremendous amount of will power. When that same pilot is, in addition, a trained engineer and a world-famous air-craft designer, with a full technical knowledge of all that is happening, the performance is even more remarkable. A spectator asked the writer who the pilot was, and onbeing told, exclaimed " Oh, young de Havilland ! " In view of the fact that "D.H." has been flying since 1909, the remarkis rather significant. LIO-HT 'PLANE CLUBS London Aeroplane Club, Stag Lane, Edgware. Sec, H. E. Perrin,3, Clifford Street, London, W.I. Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club, Filton, Gloucester. Secretary,Capt. C. F. G. Crawford, Filton Aerodrome, Patchway. Hampshire Aero Club, Hamblc, Southampton. Secretary, H. J.Harrington, Hamble, Southampton. Lancashire Aero Club, Woodford, Lanes. Secretary, C. J. Wood,Oakfield, Dukinfield, near Manchester. Midland Aero Club, Castle Bromwich, Birmingham. Secretary,Maj. Gilbert Dennison, 22, Villa Road, Handsworth, Birmingham. Newcastle-on-Tyne Aero Club, Cramlington, Northumberland.Secretary, A. H. Bell, c/o The Club. Norfolk and Norwich Aero Club, Mausehold, Norwich. Manager,F. Gough, The Aerodrome, Mousehold, Norwich. Nottingham Aero Club, Hucknall, Nottingham. Hon. Secretary,Cecil R. Sands, A.C.A., Imperial Buildings, Victoria Street, Not- tingham.The Scottish Flying Club, 101, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow. Secre- tary, Harry W. Smith.Southern Aero Club, Shoreham, Sussex. Secretary, C. A. Boucher, Shoreham Aerodrome, Sussex.Suffolk Aeroplane Club, Ipswich. Secretary, Courtney N. Prentice, " Hazeldell," Stowmarket, Suffolk.Yorkshire Aeroplane Club, Sherburn-in-Elmet, Yorks. Secretary, Lieut.-Col. Walker, The Aerodrome, Sherburn-in-Elmet. LONDON AEROPLANE CUIB REPORT for week ending March 18.—Total flying time. 21 hrs. 2(1 mins.Dual instruction, 13 hrs. 35 mins. ; solo flying, 7 hrs. 45 mini.. Dual Instruction.—(With Capt. F. G. M. Sparks) : G. Black, Mrs. Fraser,A. O. Wigzell, D. S. Schreiber, A. I1. Glenny, Miss H. Cholmondeley, Miss Fletcher. R. Ward, Miss Wilson, F. C. Fisher. (With F. R. Matthews) : A. O. Wigaell, J. A. Crane, Dr. Cook, Mrs. Cook, L. Rowson, H. Lane,S. Hansel. Solo Flying.—R. Sanders Clark, C. E. Murrell, H. B. Michelmore, P. Hoare,H. M. Samuelson, W. L. M. O'Connor, O. T- Tapper, Lord Douglas-Hamilton, B. B. Tucker, K. V. Wright, J. A. Brewster, J. H. Saffery, G. C. Bonner, H.Solomon. Passenger Flights.—(With Capt. Sparks) : N. F. Shelley. (With A. R.Ogston) : E. G. Denton. , Flying at Stag Lane on Friday and Saturday was curtailed on account oithe R.A.F. display at Hendon before the King of Afghanistan. Presentation to Capt. F. G. M. Sparks. Capt. Sparks is giving up his post as chief pilot instructor of the club earlyui April, having accepted a lucrative appointment in Canada. Capt. Sparks has beenjthe chief pilot instructor of_the_club since it started, and it is no exaggeration to say that he has turned out more pupils than anyother club instructor. Capt. Sparks is a great favourite with all the members, and his departure will be keenly felt. In view of the very valuable services rendered to the club by Capt. Sparks,the committee think that the members would wish a presentation to be made to him, before hisldeparture, as a mark of their appreciation of his efforts on behalfof the club. It has therefore been decided to invite donations, limited to 10s., and members wishing to subscribe to the presentation are requested tocommunicate with the Secretary of the London Aeroplane Club, 3, Clifford Street, London, W.I. Capt. S. L. F. St. Barbe has been granted three weeks' leave to enable himto carry out a flight to Constantinople and back. During his absence the club have secured the services of Mr. F. R. Matthews.Visit of the King of Afghanistan to Croydon.— In response to the invitation of the Air Council, the club will send three D.H. " Moths " to Croydon onWednesday, the 21st instant, in charge of Capt. F. G. M. Sparks. The club will be represented by the following members :—Mr. O. 1. Tapper, Mr. F. R. Matthews, Miss Winifred Spooner and Mr. H. Sutton.In addition to the three club machines, the following members will also attend in their privately-owned " Moths " :— Mr. G. R. Merton, Mr. N. H. Jones and Capt. S. J. Burt. 197
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