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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0834.PDF
FLIGHT, AUGUST 7, 1931 The old Avro Mess Room whichhas now been refurbished and made into the head office and club hcujcfor A.S.T. (FLIGHT Photo.) In connection with the A.S.T.course, it is interesting to note- that Mr. Oscar Garden, who hasbeen doing a course of blind fly- ing, has now completed hiscourse, and in the final tests he was able to take off withaccuracy, climb and glide the machine at correct angles, doaccurate turns, spin, and recover with ease, correct the machine from awkward positionswith promptitude, and he fltw around a course of approxi- mately 70 miles, with the start and finishing point atHamble, finally concluding the flight precisely over the aerodrome—all of this completely blinded by the hood.This is a typical example of what can be done with proper training. Including his flight to Australia, Mr. Garden had done500 hours' flying, but had never had any instruction in flying entirely by instruments before this course. Fit.-Lt. Jenkins has, together with other acknowledgedexperts, very kindly compiled the following short treatise on Blind Flying, which describes clearly its aims andobjects. BLIND FLYING—SOME CONCLUSIONS / "111""'° 8rasP fully what is meant by " Blind Flying," (^ III it is first necessary to understand a little of theIII complex action of the human system which enables a man to fly in the ordinary way.The controls of an aeroplane are worked by the muscles of the hands and feet, and every movement of the planeis controlled by these muscles. They must, however, receive their orders through the agency of the nerve pathsfrom the brain of the pilot, and the brain must in turn use its perceptive members for its information. Flying by Eye The major part of the information relied upon by thebrain is that obtained by the eyes, although a little— such as the whistling of the wires in a dive—is obtainedthrough the ears, and, again, some is obtained by the feel on the seat, etc. It is, however, definitely established that without theeyes it is impossible to fly for any length of time. The eyes rely on horizons or datum points so that they mayconvey to the brain the amount of movement, if any, from a datum plane or point in either of the three dimensionsof flying. A bad horizon, as in misty weather, will cause a greaterstrain on the pilot, because it is more difficult for the eyes to locate the information required.When the eyes are unable to pick up a datum point or horizon, a condition is reached which is termed blind flying.When flying through clouds, etc., it is often possible to pick up a patch slightly darker than the rest, and imme-diately the eyes function again, but when there is a complete absence of any information, such as in thick fogs,clouds, and especially clouds at night, then the pilot can quickly lose all control until the eyes can functionnormally. The difficulty is, that when the clouds are very close to the ground it is too late to regain control of themachine. In these days of advanced aviation, when structuraland engine failures are very rare occurrences, the safety of flying almost entirely depends upon the skill, judgmentand airmanship of pilots, and the record of accidents directly or indirectly attributable to pilots being unex-pectedly caught in circumstances of bad visibility is, regret- tably, a long one. Bad Visibility and Accidents . . Many^' inexperienced pilots have been sorely tried bythe. lack of a clear horizon, particularly when manoeuvring 780 near the ground, and so get into difficulties when thereis insufficient height for recovery. Taking off in conditions of bad visibility has also claimed its quota of accidents.Encountering fog when making a cross-country flight or being compelled to climb into cloud to avoid high groundhas also resulted in crashes. In fact, so high is the pro- portion of accidents in which the basic cause is inabilityon the part of the pilot to orientate himself, that this failure can be regarded as one of the principal flying risks. How Blind Flying has Developed With a view to reducing these risks, experiments inflying by instruments were carried out in this country as far back as 1917 and 1918. At that time, however,suitable instruments were not available, but even so, constructive results were achieved and pilots were taughtto fly with reasonable accuracy for short periods in clouds. Shortly after the Great War, the development of BlindFlying was continued in France, and later, considerable experiments have been made possible in America by Mr.Daniel Guggenheim, who inaugurated a fund for this purpose. It is only recently, however, that the necessityfor pilots to be trained to nV by instruments has received recognition in this country and a system of training is nowestablished at the Central Flying School, the premier train- ing unit in the Royal Air Force. As a result of the developments at the Central FlyingSchool, the definite conclusion has been reached that practically the whole of the risks arising from conditionsof bad visibility can be overcome by the training of pilots in the technique of Blind Flying, and the reliability ofinstruments specially designed for the purpose has played an important part in making this training practicable. Instrument Flying is More Accurate In addition to the primary object of a training in BlindFlying, i.e. to enhance security in bad visibility, instru- ment flying also provided for more accurate flying in morrordinary circumstances than .is afforded by its counterpart, " sensory flying " and allows of greater precision forspecific purposes such as dead straight runs of short duration for wind finding, vertical photography, or experi-mental purposes. The average pilot who has not approached the subjectwith an open and analytical mind will nearly always data to be able to fly blind if need be, yet if called upon to doso, usually provides some good excuse. It is probabh quite true that the average pilot can fly reasonably safelythrough a cloud-bank for a very short period of, say, ten minutes, but teits at the Central Flying School of abouteighty keen pilots with flying experience ranging from 300 to 2,000 hours showed that not one of them couldfly blind salely for more than twelve minutes, even when provided with adequate instruments, without specific train-ing in the use of these instruments. The reason for wiis is only apparent when the question of training for ^'in.Flying is examined. Certain conclusions are then arm at unmistakably which throw a light on this very import-ant subject. +Firstly, the process of flying blind is at first unplea>ani- to such a degree that firm instruction on psychologic^sound lines is essential. No pilot can fly merely by senses without reference to some external datum. Secondly, instruments do not give a really natural^ re-action, and their use to replace the normal external -datu
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