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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0704.PDF
to the Club's exchequer. The President of the Club, MynheerC. Kolff, is apparently tireless in his efforts on behalf of the R.A.C., and as he belongs to one of the oldest and mostesteemed families of the town, his work has been of inestim- able value to the Club. In Mynheer de Niet the Club hasan energetic and able Secretary, who on this particular occasion was suffering the disability of the after effects of abad cold, which at "times left him almost unable to speak. However, he " carried on," and very effectively too, althoughquite evidently he ought to have remained quietly at home taking a rest. It is to be hoped that now that the meetingis over he will be able to do so. The clubs instructor and chief pilot is Mynheer H. SchmidtCrans, whose handling of the Pander biplanes showed him to be a pilot of more than average ability, while the qualityof the flying done by club members indicated that he is, in addition, an excellent instructor, two things which donot by any means always go together. Organised under F.A.I, regulations, the Rotterdammeeting consisted in the main of a rally, a relay race, and a main competition, including an altitude test, a speed test,and take-off and alighting tests. Marks were awarded in certain of these. The Rally The first day of the meeting was Friday, July 20. Althoughthe arrival of competitors and visitors was not expected [" FLIGHT " Photograph The right spirit : Trying out each other's machines was a favourite pastime at Waal- haven. Lady Heath is here seen after a flight in one of the Pander machines. In the front cockpit is M. Schmidt Crans, and standing by the side of the machine, M. Slot, constructor of the Pander aeroplanes. JULY 26, 1928 monoplane of the canduiie interieure type was standing there, ready for flight. Fitted with a Siemens engine of about 50 h.p., this little machine has the pilot seated in front, with two passengers, side by side, behind him in seats of the deck-chair variety. A small three-seater of this type should find a ready market, and with its low power should be very economical to run We gather that it is also contem- plated to produce a new " nose " to take the " Cirrus '' engine. The extra power and the cleaner nose thus made possible should produce a very useful little machine indeed. Being a three-seater, the F.K.41 is too heavy to come into the light 'plane class, and thus it was debarred from taking part in the Rotterdam competition. " Zero Hour " had been fixed for 4 p.m., and as that hour approached a machine which soon proved to be a " Cirrus Moth " flew across the aerodrome. It did not, however, land at once, but cruised around for a while. The identification letters G-EBZC indicated it to be Lady Heath's new machine, and when it alighted, just before 4 o'clock, this proved to be the case. By touching the ground just before " zero hour " she was disqualified from scoring any marks. The old Demonty-Poncelet O-BAFL arrived next, piloted by Wonters, but as the machine is too heavy for the light 'plane class, it could not take part in the main competition. Cordes, on the " Cirrus Moth " G-EBXG with Handley Page automatic slots, arrived next, a few moments after 4 o'clock. Then there was a long wait, until about 4.55, Desmottes, on until 4 p.m., FLIGHT for such of it as could be spared fromthe King's Cup race) visited Waalhaven during the morning, and very interesting it proved. The aerodrome must surelybe one of the very finest in the world, Of large area, perfectly flat and smooth, and with no tall obstructions surrounding it,Waalhaven is almost ideal. The fly in the ointment is not connected with the aerodrome itself, but with getting toand from it. Situated south of Rotterdam, and somewhat to the west, between the New Maas and the Old Maas,communication between the aerodrome and Rotterdam entails crossing the Nieuwe Maas either by the bridge somedistance up-river, or a little lower down by the new ferry running between the Park and Charlois. In either casethe trip takes a not inconsiderable time. The amount of air traffic at Waalhaven is little short ofamazing, machines arriving and departing with a few minutes' interval apparently all day long. M. Plesner, ManagingDirector of the K.L.M., has cause to be proud of his company, which, although at present receiving a Government subsidy,appears to be so busy that the day when the company can do without this subsidy appears to' be in sight. The layoutof the offices, hangars, restaurant, customs, workshops, etc., is excellently planned, and everything is on a generousscale, built obviously with future development in view. TheJK.L.M. machines are well kept, well looked after, wellhandled and manned, and well patronised. As already mentioned, the Rotterdamsche Aero Clubhas a large hangar on the aerodrome, and a short distance away is a smaller hangar on which appears the familiarname " Koolhoven." Knowing that in all probability our old friend would have something new there, we made ourway thither. And sure enough, a little three-seater touring the Caudron monoplane F-AIRA touched the ground, followed by Miss O'Brien on her " Moth " G-EBOS. Miss O'Brien had misunderstood the instructions and thought " zero hour " was at 4 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, instead of Dutch time. By waiting at St. Inglewert, she thus lost a considerable number of marks. Shortly before 6, Herr Fieseler arrived from Germany. In the evening the R.A.C. gave a dinner at " De Maas " Yacht Club, at which M. Kolff welcomed the visitors in English, French, German and Dutch. This dinner was a most charming affair, but had to be cut rather short, as a special exhibition of the film " Wings " had been arranged to follow elsewhere. The Climbing Tests. Saturday morning was devoted to the altitude tests of themain competition. In this, the competing machines were required to reach a height of 1,500 metres in the shortestpossible time, carrying their competition load (i.e., a weight of pilot and passenger of 160 kg. and a luggage weight of20 kg.). Although useful, this test was naturally not spec- tacular, but the time was whiled away very pleasantly bywatching Capt. Versteegh's flight of five Fokker C. V. machines with Hispano engines giving demonstrations offormation flying, " going around the mulberry bush." &c. The quality of the formation flying was very high indeed,and British visitors at any rate were agreed that nowhere outside England was better formation flying to be seen. During the morning two Belgian machines, type RSV.with " Renard" engines, arrived. These are two-bay biplanes of the normal training type, and belong to theAntwerp Aviation Club. Capt. Cord.es brought out his 648
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