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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0683.PDF
FLIGHT, JULY 3, 1931 • nel- and Air Vice-Marshal H. C. T. Dowding, andn ! er visitors, including the large number from overseas. H "spoke of the great need they saw for instruction inhtac1 flying, and as an example of the result of such he said that recently an Instructor had flown aith the hood over his cockpit from Hamble to i dii Sh train-lieMMachine with the hood ov p Hest'-'fl, arriving directly over his destination. Such afljeh* ' he said, would not be expected of pupils in the rdiiiary way, but they were at least trained to make ablin<^ flight over a triangular course of about 60 miles, usinu their instruments only. LORD AMULREE, Secretary of State for Air, who spoke on behalf of the visitors, mentioned that he was particu-lariv impressed by the close co-operation of all who were interested in flying, and that they all worked together toadvance the art and increase its efficiency, safety and popularity.A.P.T. in particular, he said, showed great evidence of this co-operation by the fact that so many members ofthe staff were distinguished officers of the R.A.F., so what the R.A.F. had lost, civil aviation had gained. Hereferred to the prevalence of low flying in bad weather and to accidents which had therefore occurred. If blind flyingmethods were used, he said, there would not be such accidents, and although many problems had to be solvedbefore it could be adopted for fast civil aircraft, he was glad that the school was making a particular point of this. AIR COMMODORE MERINO also spoke, and expressed his-pleasure for receiving the invitation to-day and his happi- ness at being able to accept it. It will be seen that one of the branches of flying whichappear to be considered most important by all the members of the staff is that of blind flying, and certainly GroupCapt. Barton and Flt.-Lt. Jenkins have made a particular study of this branch. At the present moment Avro Tutors(Lynx) and Avro Avians (7-cyl. Genets) are being used for this particular form of flying, with a hood which can bedrawn over the rear cockpit, thus necessitating the pilot flying entirely by his instruments. The chief extra instru-ment fitted for this purpose is the Reid & Sigrist Turn Indicator, which, of course, is augmented by a very fullset of the other usual instruments. This particular Turn Indicator has, we understand, been chosen by Flt.-Lt.Jenkins after a careful trial of all other makes. Blind flying ability is undoubtedly a necessity for allpilots engaged in commercial work, but until they are able to indicate their position to other aircraft, we are not atall sure that it is desirable to encourage actual demon- stration of this ability, since if pilots, and particularly theyounger civilian pilots, feel entirely confident in leaving an Aerodrome enveloped in low cloud, there are bound to becrashes which could have been avoided by waiting for better weather, such as is now ordinarily done, instead oftheir flying straight out into the " murk." A Visit to the A.I.D.THE NO. 1 Stores Depfit, R.A.F., at Kidbrooke now houses an extraordinarily interesting range of instrumentsand equipment for testing every conceivable instrument and material which is used in the R.A.F. A visit wasarranged for a large number of people last Friday, June 26, aud an endeavour was made in some two or three hoursto give them an idea of the equipment now installed. In the space at our disposal, it would be quite impossible togive even an abbreviated list which would show the immense amount of work now being done there, and we can only say that there is very little now used in theAir Force which does not undergo the most modern and strict test at Kidbrooke. The rooms at present fitted upcomprise a standard clock room, a transmitted test room, instrument test rooms Nos. 1 and 2, a battery test room,an oxygen test room, H.T. flash and extra H.T. flash rooms, a lens and film-testing room, a photographic testroom, generator test benches, two rooms for gauge test- ing, condition and physical test rooms for materials, apaint and dope room, and micrographic, oil, chemicals, heating treatment, and metallic test rooms. Mr. John C. Webster, a Director of the Montreal Light Aeroplane Club, with his Curtiss-Reid Rambler (Gipsy III), which he>s flying in the King's Cup Race. Mr. Webster brought his aircraft over unpacked, that is, simply folded and secured on ioard. At Southampton it was towed to Hamble where its wings were spread and it was flown to Heston. There itwill be cared for by the firm of Brian Lewis and C. D. Barnard Ltd., while in the country. (FLIGHT Photo.) 637
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