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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0892.PDF
FLIGHT, AUGUST 21, 1931 An Aerial view of Baldonnel Aerodrome. The H.P. W.IO in the foreground was doing joy-riding through- out the meeting piloted by Capt. E. B. Fielden. (Irish Times Photo.) becoming a well patronised social rendezvous, so thataltogether we can look forward to the Club soon being the chief power in Irish civil aviation.In the evening following the display the Club gave a dinner to the visiting pilots, and thereafter entertainedthem all royally, so much so that few of them could have been said to be " ready for work " early next morning! We with 1,he Cutty Sark decided to do a little amphibiouspropaganda before returning to England, so on Sunday morning we took on board two " natives " and thenproceeded to show them the value of such an aircraft by flying into Meath and landing them on a convenient loughnear their home. The Cutty Sark is an even better boat than she is a land machine, and it would need to be a verysmall lough which would be too small for her ; the twin engine arrangement makes her admirable to handle whentaxying, and we found no difficulty at all in manoeuvring while waiting for a boat to come out and take ourpassengers off. Those on shore with the boat seemed to think that the Cutty Sark was something supernatural tohave come out of the skies and sit on their lake, or else they thought we were hijackers, or whatever theIrish equivalent is, for the sight of us seemed to leave them bereft of all sense. They stood and gaped, andeven our passengers' good Irish took a very long time to stir them to action. However, they moved eventually. and having disembarbed our passengers, who werethoroughly pleased with their experience, we taxied down and took off for Baldonnel. The Cutty Sark took ofi withjust the same ease as with which she landed, and our allowance of several hundred yards for the take-off wasmany many times more than was necessary. Back at Baldonnel we took our leave of friends at theClub, and took off, again with our " escort," though this time the Avian was replaced by a Moth (Gipsy I), andfinally headed for England. This was duly and safely reached, and we landed at Barton 2 hr. 10 min. later.The journey home was through very bad weather, and the Cutty Sark had a severe buffeting (no relation to the tailvariety!), but she proved herself as airworthy as she is seaworthy, and if windscreen wipers were fitted she wouldbe very pleasant to fly in bad weather. So ended a most enjoyable week-end. After such a tripwe must agree that it is worth a very great deal to have an amphibian aircraft and that it adds to the pleasure offlying enormously. Let us hope that Col. Russell, Dr. Pepper, Mr. Reynoldsand all the other stalwarts who worked so hard will soon be having another meeting at Baldonnel to which we maygo, and also that they will come over to some of our meetings here and give our Clubs a chance of repaying thehospitality their members have received in Ireland. A VIATION AT BROOKLAND3.— Exceptionally bad**• weather iiampered the School's activities during the week, and as a result only 37 hours' instructional flyingtook place. Many pupils, however, turned up and spent most of their time in the lecture room, as it is the ruleat Brooklands to give lectures on non-dying days and furnish every encouragement to pupils to study meteoro-logy and navigation. The recent air display at Clacton was a sensationalsuccess, and as a result another display is being given on August 26. Four new pupils have joined the school. Messrs.Slaughter and Hardy have qualified for their "A" licences, while Mr. Dastur has successfully carried out his nightflying teits for his " B " licence. DRISTOL AIRPORT.—Private ownership is steadily on^ the increase at the Bristol Airport, and four members of the Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club have purchasedmachines this summer, including the president of the club, Lord Apsley, making a total of seven private owners in all. Three other members have signified their intention ofincreasing this number as soon as they have secured "A" licences.tlristol has been no better served in the way of weather this summer than any other part of the country, and ithas been a case of seizing the odd fine hours whenever possible to get in flying instruction. In spite of this, theclub aeroplanes flew a record number of flying hours in July, beating the previous record of 226 hr. 20 min. bynearly two hours. S38
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