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Aviation History
1929
1929 - 0494.PDF
MARCH 7, 1929 Australian stage of over 10,000 miles, the spare engines were at Singaporeand jRIelbourne. Small supplies of parafiiu for the cooking stove and mooring lights, anddistilled water for accumulators, engines and drinking, were also arranged. The distilled water was, perhaps, a luxury, but was not difficult to put downwith the fuel, and it was hoped its use would avoid troubles due to furred-up radiators, corroded water-jackets, and sickness due to drinking impure water.In a few cases the distilled water was supplied in containers which were dirty or had contained acid, and it had to be rejected. Fortunately at these placesgf>od water was obtainable locally. Arrangements were made for moorings for the four boats to be availableat each refuelling base. A holding power equivalent to 15 cwt. of iron on the bottom was asked for. These moorings were generally extemporised fromthe material available locally. The personnel of the Flight were fully occupied in preparing for the cruisereceiving instruction in semaphore, Morse, cooking, boat work, first aid, swimming, etc., and in learning their special duties. For example, the\V,T operators were responsible to the first pilot of their boat lor the cooking, rigging repairs and adjustments, cleaning of hull and superstructure, mooringgear and lamps, in addition to their duties with the W/T and electrical gear. As any airmen nf a boat's crew might be left in charge of a flying-boat atmoorings, he had to practise starting up the engines and slipping moorings single-handed, taxying the boat in traffic, etc. All the fitters in the boats'crews were taught simple flying. All the alterations to the aircraft and the equipment had to be tested out, Each crew had to practise working andliving together as a crew; maintaining the aircraft and changing engines, «*tc, on the water without dropping essential parts overboard. All thepersonnel were kitted up for foreign service, inoculated, vaccinated, and sexit on a month's leave before the aircraft for the cruise were ready for deliveryat the end of September. On October 13 everything was ready, the boats were launched, tested andmoored out at Felixstowe, and the Flight was inspected by senior officers from the Air Ministry and Coastal area.On October 14 the Flight left Felixstowe at 09.00, flew to Plymouth, secured to buoys in the Cattewater, and refuelled. The conditions duringmost of the flight were rather unpleasant with rain and mist, but the weather was good at Felixstowe and Plymouth. During the flight the bottom waterelbow on the starboard radiator of one aircraft split at the Sange. As there was time, a new radiator was obtained from the makers and fitted. Longerrubber connections were bought in Plymouth and htted between these elbows and the bottom water pipes in all the aircraft, so as to reduce the risk ofsimilar failures during the cruise; this proved quite effective. The Air Ministry had stronger elbows and stays for the bottom water-pipe made andsent out to the Flight; these were fitted at Singapore. A small leak was found in the oil tank of one aircraft, where the supporting tube passes throughthe tank ; this was repaired. Group-Capt. Cave-Browne-Cave proceeded to give a detailed account ofthe four stages of the cruise : first, Felixstowe-Karachi; second, Karachi- Singapore ; third, Singapore—round Australia-Singapore ; fourth. Singapore -Hong Kong-Singapore. The official logs, previously referred to and pul>- Iished in FLIGHT, covered most of these details except in the case of thefourth stage, so we need only refer here to the lecturer's remarks on the latter. The route was as follows : Singapore ; Kuching • Labuan ; Prin-cessa; Manila; Salomague; Hong-Kong; Tourane; C. St. Jacques, Saigon ; Tachin, Bangkok ; Victoria Point; Penang ; Singapore. A totaldistance of 4,655 nautical miles. " This stage," said Group-Capt. Cave-Browna-Cave, " was flown in Novemberand December, which is the early part of the N'.E. monsoon and the wet season along the east coasts of Malaya and Annam and the north coast of Borneo,but the dry season for the rest of the route. The Flight met a good deal of rain at first, but the storms were local and all the heavy ones were avoidedby small alterations of course. There were some heavy thunder and ram storms whilst we were at Kuching—about one a day—and one at Labuan.This season is comparatively free from typhoons, but we knew from the records of past years that one would probably form to the east of Luzon and passover to near the Amman coast, re-curving northwards. A severe typhoon did this whilst the Flight was at Hong Kong, and although it delayed the Flightthree days, as already stated, it did not come close enough to give us bad weather. The Flight could move much faster than the typhoon and I thinkwe could have avoided it whatever course it had taken, as we were in a very good position to know its probable movements. The worst weather weexperienced was in the east of the China Sea between Salomague and Hong Kong. We knew it was practically certain that we should find a N.N.E.wind of 25 to 30 knots with low clouds, occasional rain and a very rough sea, and it was so. We tried flying above the clouds which ended at about3,tKXl ft., but although the conditions were much better there we had no means of finding our drift and consequently had to come down undertl>»- clouds again. Owing to the cracking of one airscrew boss, already r»-ported, the route between Saigon and Bangkok was flown three times andwe found that by flying from Saigon below 2,000 ft, and returning above 2,00u ft. a favourable wind could be obtained for each of the overland crossings.The navigator found this on the fiat flight by noting that the cloud shadows on the ground were travelling in the reverse direction to the wind in which wewert- flying. It was confirmed by one aircraft of the Flight flying up into the reverse wind and by the subsequent crossings. On the flight up from PuertoPrincessa to Manila the weather was bad on the east coast of Palawan and we avoided it and the strength of the head wind by crossing over to thewest coast where the conditions under the lee of mountains were good but rather bumpy. '• The route flown is generally suitable for seaplanes. There is. of course.practically no shelter on the crossings between Singapore and Borneo, and from Salomague to Hong Kong; the latter is nearly always rough, at thisperiod, for the eastern half of the flight. The chart alone is not a reliable gutd* to the suitability, for seaplanes, of the rivers in Borneo, as there \s oftenmuch heavy drift wood and some have dangerous ' bores.' •• On arrival bafck at Singapore the aircraft of the Flight were all flying verywell and giving no trouble, and I have no doubt they could have flown back i-> F.ngland if that had been in accordance with Air Ministry policy. Theyart- being refitted by the Base and Flying Parties at Singapore, and by now several of them are again in commission there. The deposits of barnacles wereless than on the Indian cruise, but more than on the Australian cruise. " During alt the stages of the cruise tbe routine maintenance work wascarried out by tbe boats crews. On an average one control wire required renewal in each aircraft about every 60 hours' flying. The equipment andinstruments were very satisfactory, except that a revolution indicator failed m rationally, due, I think, to there being no means oi lubricating its mechanismwithout stripping it ; the pink liquid in the strut thermometers lost its colour alter about four months' exposure, and the aneroid we carried instead of abarometer was reading alx>ut 0 3 in. iwlow at the end of the stages, although it was> tested and re-set before each." The lecturer then gave the following general notes :— (a) Hulls " In many harbour- in tt,e F.ast serious deposits of barnacle* tak« place onthe hull bottoms if flying boats are moored out more than a few days. The warmer and dirtier the water the qmcktr lariuda *ecm UJ grow. Once they get a good huld they are very difficult to remove and generally bring theprotection paint away with them. We did not find any protective coating which prevented their growth, but they grew much quicker on the blackrecognition marks, than on white enamel. The best general protective for the hull bottoms we used was V.84 varnish with gums added to make it stick better.The only serious corrosion took place on the rivet points, and some alternative to duralumin rivets is required to prevent these parts needing renewal longbefore the rest of the structure. We tried Monel metal in a few places, it did not corrode or cause corrosion, but was rather too hard. The work of renewingrivets is much easier when the internal fittings of the hull-lockers, etc., are attached by bolts and easily removed. There was practically no corrosionon the surface of the anodically treated duralumin plates except a little in places where sea water could lie stagnant—under stiffening plates and anglesand in the actual joints. The hulls had no double bottoms and they did not leak at all after about the fi.rst fortnight when the few tiny leaks in the jointshad beeu found and stopped. A hu 1 ran fairly hard on a sand bank occasion- ally, but this never damaged it. We found green canvas attacked duraluminwhen wet with sea water ; it attacked the frame of the tail trolleys and was removed. We used white duck canvas for our awnings and covers, this wasquite satisfactory, but some of the Flight had experience of balloon fabric covers and considered them neater and better. The type of beaching gearused on the Southampton in which the hull bottom is clear for work without jacking up, and which cannot damage the hull bottom is very much betterthan a trolley. If we had used wood hull!: 1 think we should have had trouble with borer worms, as in about three months at Singapore they ate through tin-bottom of a dinghy and through a painted wood frame of 3-in. sprare whieh •was holding some metal samples in the water. (b) Wood Shrinkage " The wood frame of the superstructure shrunk very little and practicallyno internal adjustments were necessary. I think this was due to the rare with which the wood parts had been sealed with varnish and the more constanthumidity of the air close to the sea compared with conditions inland. A few of the external nuts on bolts pacing through wood members required tighten-ing occasionally, I think larger and stiffer packing blocks would have prevented this. Deterioration " I understand it is difficult and costly to make parts of stainless material,but I think it will save trouble and be cheaper iu the end to use stain less material wherever possible in seaplanes which have to be exposed forlong periods. 7inc coating, painting, etc., do very well for a short time, but they will not resist exposure to warm sea water for long. The best protectivecoating we used was V. 84 with added gum for painting on, and lauoline for greasing. It is essential to prevent sea water getting inside the fabric eoveredsurfaces, and particular attention must be given to maintaining water- tightness of inspection doors and where wires, rods, tubes, etc., come outthrough the surfaces. If the top of the hull by the centre section is nm watertight rain will drip in and make living inside unpleasant : the place-here rain may get in are similar to those in the fabric surfaces.' The stowages tor tools and spares must keep the water out. The fairings of struts must notallow water to get in and collect- Metals which attack each other when in contact with sea water must not be used in contact. Control cables workingover pulleys should be avoided if possible, where they must be used the short length that wears should be connected to the rest of the cable by shackles, sothat only short lengths have to be renewed, and it should be possible to tit these short lengths after the eye at each end has been spliced. The edges otformer ribs, spars, etc., where fabric may chafe should l>e rounder] and protected with tape. All these points are well known, but I doubt whether itis Tealised how vitally important they are in flying-boats, particularly it they are to be used in the tropics. Our Southampton^ were particularly wellprotected against deterioration, and we were all surprised at the «»ay they stood up t) the very severe test. Rubber Dinghies " The triangular rubber dinghy carried by each flying boat weighed justunder 50 lbs., complete with pump, oars and repair outfit, and was invaluable It was used for communication work, and on thre* occasions for refuelling,and was available for life saving; it could be used for maintenance work under the planes and tail plane without fear of damaging the aircraft. Iiis a good bath and a comfortable bed, and can be used on tlie bottmn plan, to give access to parts which are otherwise difficult to reach. Living Conditions and Health of Crew " Two officers and two airmen can live and sleep in a Southampton inreasonable comfort for short periods, but as the conditions -ire craui|>rd. the food monotonous and mostly tinned, and fresh water very scarre, i! t-undesirable for the same men to be in the tioats for more than a frw dav» on end. In hot weather, the temperature in the hull is no more th.ui in tincabins of ships under the same conditions. In mid weather, the boat- ,ir. very cold, even with the cooking stove burning and thr ventilation mlm-ntto a minimum with the cockpit ewers. Continuous rain, or a moderately rough sea, make conditions on board very uncomfortable. Tlie e.rewgenerally slept well in the boats, but occasionally the slapping of the water on the hull bottom and the jerking of the boat at it- moorings make >lee|<difficult. During the cruise, the crew slept on board a good deal. Fur example, on tbe last stage, which lasted 41 days, the average number of nighi-slept in the flying boats was 17 by each ofheer, and 27 by each airman. 1 "IK general health of the crews was extraordinarily good riMisidrrine tiv clhllaticonditions. The lull crews were available for every Wight except two I' each of these cases, one officer had Dengue fever and could have coin'- "iwith the Flight, but as it was possible for him to travel by other means ami rejoin the Wight at the next port, and as the local doctor* recommendedthis course, it was followed. The only accident of anv consequence was Ilia: an airman upset a frying pan of boiling fat whilst cooking at Hong Koni;This scalded his right leg and foot rather badly, and he was on light dutv ii the flying boat for some time. He recovered completely, thanks largely '••the treatment he received from the medical authority* at thf: ports visited. Navigation and Weather " For the open sea stages, the track made potul w* found by taking strnbearings on some mark on the sea, either the mark from a wave crest <•: a stain on the surface produced by dropping a small packet of aluininiii!powder. Very good land falls were marie in each case. The weather report obtained over most of the route gave little or no information about tlie wiuilat height. Such information would be of value in finding the best licitf!'- to fly. For long stages with no shelter, warning of strong ad versa? winds i-important. Information on the height to which the monsoon witid> hoi. would be very useful; our experience on the Saigon Bangkok flights (alr«a>l,mentioned snows that in some rases there hi a reverse wind at quite a I"-' height. Information is also required on the height lo which typbooiextend, as it may foe possible to avoid them by flying above them. We dii not meet any really bad weather, none in lac! worse than is often met rouu..the British Hies, but there was bad weather about, and if we had been flyui=| at uight and unable u> sec it, we might frequently have run into it, insteai.of avoiding it. We did not fly in the south-west monsoon on the coast o!
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