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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0029.PDF
FLIGHT, JANUARY 9 1931 PRIVATE FLYING AND CLUB NEWS D£ HAV1LLAND Aircraft Co., Ltd., having recentlyenlarged their facilities for private owners at Stag Lane Aerodrome, now have a few vacant lock-ups for the housingof Moths and Puss Moths. This accommodation, with attentive service, is available immediately. Q Ports Flying Club.—Fog stopped flying on bothMondays. December 15 and 22, and on Friday, Decem- ber 19. Sunday, the 14th, would have been a good day, butS. A.'s carburettor chose to go out of action, and had to be changed. During the nine days ending December 22 mem-bers got in a total of 21 hr. 40 min., made up as follows :— Dual (6 members), 5 hr. 30 min. ; advanced dual, 15 min. ;solo, " A " pilots, etc., 13 hr. : tests, etc.. 2 hr. 25 min. The Club was glad to welcome back Mr. d'Ydewalle, whoqualified with the Club last June. Mr. d'Vdewalie is an officer in the SouthStaffordshire Regiment, and has done a great deal of flying during the autumnin the North of England. The Club closed down on December 22 and re-opened on December 31. During 1930 the club aircraft have made some 3,204flights totalling 1,252 hr 55 min. June was the best month with 177 hr. F./O.Fox Barrett of No. 25 (Fighter) Squadron very kindly acted as Instructor at timeswhen Mr. K. K. Brown was away and between them these two have trained37 members for their "A " licences, 24 of whom had had no previous experienceat all. On December 31 there were 145 members, of whom 120 were flying mem-bers, of these latter 58 held " A " licences ; 2, " B " licences and 28 ownand fly their own aircraft. During the whole of the year there were only threeaccidents. The first resulted in complete destruction to the aircraft, but onlyslight injuries to the occupants ; the other two were merely trivial damage to theaircraft and no damage to the occupants. THE HAMPSHIRE Aeroplane Clubhas had a very good and pros- perous year, earning the full amountof the subsidy. Their total number of flying hours for 1930 was 2,362, whichis an increase of 600 over the previous year. Forty-one members obtained their" A " licences against 37 in 1929. The club aircraft were replaced as thev becameobsolete and the fleet now consists of four Moths and one Avian. An interestinginnovation has been the institution of a periodical landing competition which proved very successful,so much so that it will be continued during the ensuing year. During the winter months an instructor is taking a machineto Basingstoke, once a week and giving dual instruction and joy rides, and schemes are on foot for similar activities to beundertaken in other parts of Hampshire. As has already been reported in FLIGHT, the fifth Annual Dinner and Dance washeld early in December, and it proved to be by far the most successful of the series. On March 1 last, Mr! H. A. Marshjoined the staff as Assistant Instructor to Mr. Dudley, and the considerable increase in the number of flying hours is inno small measure due to the keen way in which he has tackled "Is job. The club house has also been greatly improved by theaddition of electric light and many other small details. Those interested in the club should note that a Dance is being heldat the Pavilion, Bournemouth, on Wednesday, January 28, th'kctS i0T wnicn are 3A- 6(* each and may be obtained fromw- Secretary. The membership of the Club at present stands well over 400. Q-\" PILOTS' LICENCES—In FLIGHT for December 5 we h .^Printed the first part of an article on the above subject> Mr. Alan Goodfellow from The Elevator. This is now included, and we are glad to see that he holds to our opinion 31 that while rules are definitely very necessary and that theexisting ones require rationalisation, it is, at the same time, essential that the whole subject should be reviewed at anearly date and the number of rules kept down to the absolute minimum. On the matter of pilots' licences, it would seemthat more good could be done by a few simple rules strictly carried out and adhered to in the same sort of spirit as ourcontributor " Daedalus " advocated in his article on December 19, and was endorsed in our correspondencecolumn bv Sandv McTavish last week. ENCOURAGEMENT: Thismagnificent Cup has recently been presented by Cirrus AeroEngines, Ltd., to the New South Wales Aero Club, for annualcompetition. Last month we dealt in some detail with the existing " A "Licence tests and with proposals for their improvement. It is not the writer's intention to deal with the " B " Licencetests in the same detail, partly because detailed criticism of the tests by a pilot who went throughthem appeared in The Elevator a short while ago, and partly also because it isnot really for an amateur pilot such as the writer to suggest tests for a commercialpilot's licence. It is not out of place, however, to discuss whether, without lay-ing down the actual tests to be imposed, the form and validity of the existing" B " licence (leaving out of question for the moment the Master Pilot's licence)might not be altered. The point is that there are so many different typesof commercial flying, involving such different degrees of experience and -skill,that the licence in its present form is lacking in elasticity. It ought to be madeas easy as is consistent with the safety of the public for a pilot to get into com-mercial flying, while, on the other hand, the young pilot should start at the bottomand should be restricted to types of flying in which his lack of experience is unlikelyto lead to serious consequences. Roughly speaking, the idea would be that as soonas a pilot could satisfy his examiners that he was competent to be trusted with anynormal single-engined aircraft under reasonable conditions he should be grantedhis " B " licence and allowed to enter commercial aviation. His original licence,however, would only permit him, for example, to fly single-engined machinesof not more than three-seater capacity within the boundaries of Great Britain.As he grew more experienced he would pass further examinations which wouldqualify him for employment in other types of work, such as (a) piloting multi-engined aircraft, (6) flying instructor, (c) air line pilot, and so forth His additional qualifica-tions would be added by endorsement to his licence as and when he passed each examination. This idea seemssounder than the present licence, which (subject to his obtaining a second-class navigator's certificate for certaintypes of work) entitles him to take on any form of commercial flying, but only as pilot of the makes of aircraft specificallyendorsed on his licence. The idea" is similar to that already in force in America, but would be a considerable extensionof the same. It is fairly obvious that these suggestions could not besatisfactorily carried into effect without the existence of one or more recognised training centres for civil pilots,where the advanced training could be carried out. There is reason to hope, however, that such centres may be estab-lished before long. It is common knowledge that one of our biggest aircraft combines have one under consideration,and that, in addition, the establishment of an Imperial School of Air Pilotage is being discussed by representativebodies. There are two additional aspects from which the tests ingeneral may be impartially, and therefore usefully, con- sidered. Firstly, there is the question of how the tests shouldbe passed and who should be the examining authority. p2
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