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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0913.PDF
I FLIGHT, AUGUST 28, 1931 ihurate Club Htm GROSVENOR CUP RACE HE Newcastle-upon-Tyne Aero Club membersvindicated themselves on Saturday last, August 22, and showed that in spite of all the adversereports which have been spread about their organising a thoroughlycapable of pageant or meeting, whichever -you efficiency they aresuccessful display, prefer to call it. They were not so lucky asto get an immense crowd to attend, for no doubt theadverse effect of some of their recent meetings, especially themost recent and most widely advertised ones, will have tobe lived down • before the general public again have con-fidence enough to think that they are going to get theirmoney's worth. Saturday's meeting should, however, havehad the desired effect, and it is to be hoped that next timea large proportion of those who on Saturday lined thehedgerows will come into the enclosures of their own fret-will. If they don't, then the police should be em-powered to " move them on." The actual attendance wassomewhere in the neighbour- hood of 10,000, so thatalthough the Club may not reckon this as a large crowd,we feel that it is only a matter of comparison, and that, bear-ing in mind what has gone before, they should be wellcontent. The organisation and con-trol of the meeting itself was m the hands of Capt. J. DIrving, who was therefore re- sponsible for the smooth wayin which everything was carried through. He was ablybacked up by other members of the Club, who acted asMarshals, and also by the Pilots of the competing machines who invariably got out ontc' the starting line as soon as they were asked to do so. mis sort of co-operation is the thing which helps a meet-ing to go through smoothly, more than anything else, and the complete absence of anyone who tried to quibbleor dictate to those in charge was a very pleasing feature of the whole afternoon. Tne Grosvenor Cup Race was the main attraction on the programme, although as a spectacle the two displaysgiven by the R.A.F. must have been better value for the general public. For future occasions we would suggestthat the aircraft be parked at some point towards the end of one of the public or club enclosures, for as they wereon Saturday they were straight in front of the crowd, and certainly, for a large part of the R.A.F. display, theyblocked the view badly. Another criticism which can justifiably be levelled against the arrangements is one onthe way in which the question of joy-riding was carried out. Mr. Fielden was allowed to park the Handley-PageW.8 right in front of one of the enclosures, and also actually to make flights while the races were in progress.On one occasion he landed as two machines were coming in to land during the Relay Race, and consequently thatheat had to be re-run. Joy-riding must be kept quite apart from the programme of such a meeting as this. Wefully understand the desirability of having means by which THE GROSVENOR CUP WINNER: Sqd. Ldr.Woodhouse who won the Grosvenor Cup Race in a Bluebird (Gipsy I), talking to the Lady Mayoressafter the race. people can take flights, but if this is to be done during theflying programme it must be carried out on some part of the aerodrome where there is absolutely no interference withthe machines taking part in the display, otherwise it should be left until the end of the show altogether.The broadcasting arrangements were also not above criticism. The type of loud-speaker used was that long trumpet kind, and they are .: • • , never so good as the open box variety. The music came through fairly well when one was not too close to the speaker, but speech was verypoor. This was rather a pity, as the programme included adisplay of wireless controlled formation flying, wherein theorders given by the Flight- Commander were received bythe ground station as well as by the aircraft and broadcastthrough the speakers, but un- fortunately they were some-what indistinct. The actual announcing, as distinct fromthe mechanical side, of the broadcasting, was in the verycapable hands of Mr. E. C. Brown, who by the way hasnow taken charge of the aviation department ofAlexander Duckham & Co., Ltd. Mr. Brown's announcinghas now become an institution at these meetings, and hehas naturally developed a technique which is nearlyflawless. He knows just how to temper a technical descrip-tion of aerobatics and such like manoeuvres so that thegeneral public feel that they have really learnt somethingabout how such things are done, and by virtue of hisconnection with the trade he is able to bring in a reasonableamount of publicity for the makers of the various air-craft taking part in the meet- ing without making this uninteresting or too blatant. Clubs usually manage to secure some support fromthe local press at these meetings in return for facilities to sell the papers on the aerodrome. On this occasion itreally seems as if the management of at least one paper took a very unfair step when they printed the whole pro-gramme in full, together with the times of the events. They must have realised that the Club would be lookingtowards getting a substantial profit on the sales of their own programme, but naturally the fact that the samelist of events could be obtained for the sum of one penny instead of the sixpence charged for the official programmemeant that the sales of the latter were very small, and probably resulted in a loss to the Club instead of theprofit which they had expected. In a meeting like this the weather is one of the mostimportant factors and, this being England, is one which keeps people guessing right up to the last minute. OnSaturday we were lucky—the spell of bad weather which had been the lot of most of us for so long beingbroken. The wind was light and from a northerly direc- tion, which made the take-off in a very good direction forthe meeting, while the clouds, although fairly thick, were at such a height that they did not impede aerobatics andflying in general, in fact, as one Club member said, the visibility was too good; meaning that had it been bad then, 859
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