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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0835.PDF
FLIGHT, AUGUST 7, 1931 The lecture rooms are all well-fittedout as this view of the engine lecture room shows. Sectioned engines areused as well as drawings. is always, therefore, a matter of effect rather than ofinstinct. Thirdly, the senses are not only inadequate for flyingblind, but are definitely misleading. Without elaborating on these conclusions, it is necessaryto emphasise the last. Nearly all pilots who have tried to fly in a cloud, particularly if they have endeavoured tomanoeuvre under these conditions, can admit to peculiar and erratic results. They obey their senses, notably thatof deep muscle or " seat " feel, and the aeroplane, unfortu- nately, does not behave as it should. The result is thatmost pilots come out of a cloud in a steep, nose-down spiral, and frequently in a spin. The reason for this isalways the same, and actually amounts to the fact that the pilot is unable to distinguish sensorily between a yawone way and wing-down the other. Assessing Errors in Control These shortcomings can, however, be met by propertraining in the use of carefully selected instruments. Curiously enough, it is found that nearly every errorcommitted in Blind Flying is due to the misuse of the rudder, in fact, the difficulty of control has been assessedin the proportion—rudder, elevator and aileron as: — 6:2:1 for nearly all pilots on at least four widely different types of aircraft, including twin-engined, heavy aeroplanes. In consideration of the factthat practically all errors are due to yawing, probably owing tofaulty use of the rudder, or un- appreciated effects of ailerondrag, it is evident that the turn indicator must be the basis ofinstrument flying. Training in Stages In training, the methodwhich has been adopted as a result of natural evolution enables a pilot to build up hisefficiency in stages, starting with the use of the rudder alone, then the elevator alone, then ailerons alone, andthen gradually combining any two, and finally all three, until after, say, eight hours, co-ordination is achieved. Skill in Blind Flying can only be achieved by painfulexperience and the development of concentrative powers not usually called upon in flying. Nobody likes BlindFlying for its own sake, but no pilot's technique is com- plete without a reasonable degree of skill in this direction.The pilot who can fly blind, in the full sense, should be able, entirely blinded, to take off, climb, fly really straightand level, turn to change course as often as desired, spin and recover, recover from any attitude without unneces-sary loss of height, glide and change course on the glide, and be able to correct for nose-and-tail heaviness or lackof lateral trim. Such is the standard which should be aimed at when training pilots to fly blind, and resultshave already proved that the average pilot is capable of achieving this with proper training. In conclusion, it would perhaps be well to emphasisethat an enhanced morale is a direct result of ability on the part of a pilot to compete with unexpected or knownfog or cloud, and morale plays a very strong part in the ordinary duties of a pilot. A view along the main road through the school. The buildings on the left are the pupils' quarters where each one is provided with a comfortable and well-fitted bedroom. (FLIGHT Photo.) 781 ' ; ' ' B 2
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