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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0337.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 10, 1931 should not be a very great success as a club, and in fact, from the flying point of view it certainly is, as the amount of flying which has been done there is vastly more than at any other club in the country, as is also the number of pilots who have been turned out. It is only this unfortu- nate anti-N.F.S. feeling which has grown up in flying circles, which has to be uprooted, and this new committee will, we think, be quite capable of squashing it. Most excellent dances and entertainments of various kinds, including luncheons to well-known public bodies, are held periodically, and these are well attended, while very generous invitations have been sent to other clubs making their members honorary members of Hanworth during any visit they care to make there. When one comes to the question of provincial clubs, the matter is rather different, since here they were dealing with clubs which had already been formed, and it was a question of modifying their new management to operate in harmony with the existing committees. HULL AERO CLUB During a recent trip in one of the N.F.S. Moths, we visited Hull, Leeds and Nottingham, and found them in varied stages of prosperity. At Hedon aerodrome, which is the municipal airport of Hull and the home of the Hull Aero Club, matters are particularly difficult. At the present moment, since Hull is not a very rich city, its younger generation have not a great deal of money or time to spend on flying ; there are, however, 80 flying members and 70 non-fiying members, and over 17 pilots have been trained for their " A " licences there. They have three private owners of aircraft and one aircraft factory situated on the aerodrome. This latter is the Civilian Aircraft Co., Ltd., its product, the Civilian Coupe is briefly described on pages 308 and 309. Fit./Lt. I. W. C. Mackenzie is the pilot in charge, with Mr. B. E. Moody as his assistant. The Secretary is an ex R.A.F. padre, the Rev. Mr. Newcombe, whose enthusiasm is unbounded and whose mission in life seems to be modelled on " Cobham lines " since he makes it his particular job to educate the young and particularly those at schools in Hull. With this end in view'they have organised what they call " Britons' first Schools Aviation Day " on Saturday, April 11, when a flying display will be held and over 4,000 school children have been invited to attend. Hedon is a little unfortunate in its situation, since it is entirely dependent on Hull for its members. Bounded on the south by the Humbef, and on the north and east by open somewhat bare country, it has no other direc- tion to which it can turn except Hull. Hacked sis it is, however, by the municipality, we do not think it will be long before the membership grows to very large proportions. The club-house both here and at Nottingham is to the standard N.F.S. provincial type, and is particularly palatial for such a club, out like so many flying clubs it has, during che week-ends, to cope with a large influx of THE HULL AERO CLUB : At Hedon, the Municipal Airport for Hull. The long building on the left of the photo- graph is the factory of the Civilian Aircraft Co., Ltd. (FLIGHT Photo.) THE NOTTINGHAM FLYING CLUB : Situated at Tollerton Aerodrome the Nottingham Flying Club is in ideal surroundings and clears the smoke of the city. (FLIGHT Photo.) members, so that although during the week it is comparatively empty, they cannot afford to have a smaller place if the week-end members are to be satisfied. THE YORKSHIRE AERO-PLANE CLUB Sherburn-in-Elmet is the aerodrome for Leeds, and it is here that the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club is situated. The situation would first lead one to suppose that the membership must of necessity be small, since if is over 14 miles from Leeds and apparently at the end of nowhere. Such, however, is certainly not the case, as its membership is over 220, and includes residents of Bradford, York, Leeds, Sheffield, Scarborough, and in one or two cases from even further. Some 150 of these are flying members, while fifty pilots have been trained at the club. Private owners possess three Puss Moths, three Moths and three Bluebirds, and the work done there during week-ends is simply amazing. Capt. W'orrall is, of course, an ideal pilot-manager for such a club, and his geniality and rubicund countenance are well known amongst all those who fly. The club is fortunate in having large hangars, albeit somewhat dilapidated and draughty ones, and a spacious brick-built building for a club-house, which they are able to rent from the Burnett Wagon Works. Mr. H. A. Love has for some considerable time been assistant to Capt. Worrall, but we understand that he is shortly being moved to Hedon. The President of the club is Lord Grimthorpe, who has recently learnt to fly and is closely associated with Air Speed, Ltd. THE NOTTINGHAM FLYING CLUB Tollerton aerodrome is another municipal aerodrome, it being that for Nottingham. The pilot-instructor in charge is Mr. R. T. Shepherd, and he is making a particular matter of cross-country flying and pilotage. With this end in view he has been taking navigation classes for members each Friday, and proposes to do all he can to encourage cross-country flying, it being his view that members who are capable to go anywhere are much less risk to the companies' machines. The club did not have an extremely easy begin- ning, but it has since shown steady improvement, and now has 71 flying members with 31 " A " pilots, of whom 17 were trained in 1930. The weather latterly has been, of course, very bad indeed, but, in spite of this fact, consider- ably over 10 hours a day was the average achieved during the month of February. The Nottingham club is not quite so unfortunate as Hull, since it is able to draw its members from a fairly wide district having towns situated at all points of the compass, chief of which are Mansfield, Lincoln and Derby. This is naturally an advantage, and the steady growth of the club both on the flying side and the social side, is doing a great deal to get new members and place the club on a sound footing. 313 c 2
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