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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0336.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 10, 1931 THE GROWTH OF N.F.S. A unique organisation with vast possibilities of doing much to place private flying on a firm basis "*HK last few months have shown a very radical change in the policyadopted by those responsible for the welfare of National Flying Ser-vices, Ltd. It will be remembered that, not so long ago, after approximately one year's work-ing, the Board of Directors was re-formed, and many of those responsible for its inceptiondropped out. This, together with the adverse balance-sheet which was presented at the firstannual meeting, was taken by many as a sign that the company w-as on its last legs. Afterreconstruction, however, matters began to look very much more cheerful, and the newBoard, under the energetic management of Col. The Master of Sempill, togetherwith Sir Alan Cobham, has already done a great deal to mitigate the somewhat direeffects of a very bad beginning. Col. Sempill is proverbially one of the world's hardestworkers, and the unflagging zeal with which he has characteristically thrown himself intosaving X.F.S. cannot but have the requisite effect. One of the first economies to be effectedunder the new management was the closing down of the large London office at GrandBuildings, Trafalgar Square, and the opening up of the Grange at Hanworth as the central office of the company.The Grange is a large and spacious building, situated on the west side of Hanworth Park, which hitherto had notbeen utilised to its full. Now, however, it rather resembles a beehive, and we have no doubt that such administrationas must be done from a central office will be more efficiently carried through at Hanworth than it could have been up inLondon. The vicissitudes which the management of N.F.S. have had to cope with since the beginning have been manyand varied, and not the least of these has been over ambition and lack of realisation that an organisation such as thismust be decentralised. This latter, we understand, is being considered very seriously, and it is possible that theprovincial clubs will become more and more self contained as regards individual management, while relying on thecentral station at Hanworth for their aircraft and overhaul work, etc. When N.F.S. opened in September, 1929, with a resonantflourish of trumpets, there was a lot of talk of their taking over the management of the majority of flying clubs in the country,and it is probable that their methods in advocating this HANWORTH CLUB : The central N.F.S. Workshop, together withthe " Grange," where the head office is nowhoused, can be seen on the far side of the aerodrome behind the tail of the club Moth (Cirrus III).The wonderful old club-house, with its well-kept lawns and gardens, is best seen from the air. (FLIGHT Photo.) step were not. too tactful, since a very regrettable amount ofill-feeling was engendered over the whole proceeding, with the result that N.F.S. and its provincial clubs has ever sincehad to combat a large amount of, probably unjustified, antagonistic feeling. HANWORTH CLUB Even the central club at Hanworth has never been reallypopular with flying people in general, in spite of the fact that it has a large membership, since this membership hasmainly been drawn from a particular class of Londoner who has only just come into aviation. The fact that they haveattracted this class of member is really rather a feather in their caps, since undoubtedly anyone who brings newcomersinto aviation is to be congratulated. Running coincidently with this unfortunate antagonism has been, the far too oftenreiterated cry of trade depression, with the result everybody has, we feel, been brought to think that the state of things ingeneral was far worse than was actually the case, and this undoubtedly has not made the management of N.F.S. anythe easier. Hanworth itself has now taken on a newlease of life, and a committee of members, including Major Petit, Flt.-Lt. M. A. Findlay,Capt. L. Hutcheon, Lt. R. T. Rodd, Miss A. Sale-Barker, and the Dowager Lady Sway-thling, has been formed, under the very able chairmanship of Mr. M. L. Bramson. Then-work already has benefited the club to a large extent, and several innovations have been made which have gone a long way tocreate more of that spirit which we usually associate with flying matters, and we trustthat what they have done is merely the beginning of far better management in thefuture. There is no reason why Hanworth THE ISLAND SITE : Hanworth Club issituated on an "island," so that there is a usable aerodrome on each side of it,and it is thus pleasantly isolated from any except bona-vide visitors. (FLIGHTPhoto.) 312
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