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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0193.PDF
FLIGHT, MARCH 1, 1934 HTHE HERTS AND ESSEX AEROPLANE CLUB On Thursday, February 22, the Herts and EssexAeroplane Club held their third annual dinner and dance under the chairmanship of Mr. A. R. Frogley. The workput in by the Rrogley family, not only in establishing the aerodrome at Broxbourne, but in building up one of themost flourishing clubs in the country, will go down to history as one of the better things achieved during thethree past rather lean years. Their third annual dinner exemplified the growth of the club, as, from small begin-nings it had grown to a comparatively large and fashion- able affair which was held in the Wharncliffe Rooms, HotelGreat Central. Well over 200 people enjoyed themselves thoroughly andwitnessed the presentation by Lt. Col. F. C. Shelmerdine, Director of Civil Aviation, of the large number of cupsfor the club competitions which had been held during the past year. They were also gratified to hear that bothCol. Shelmerdine and Mr. J. A. Mollison had offered cups to be competed for as the club committee saw fit. Speaking on " Civil Aviation," Mr. Mollison referred tothe early days when he himself was an instructor at a flying club in Australia, a period which he enjoyed verymuch. He then went on and expressed the desire that the speed of commercial flying would be increased considerablybefore long. He drew attention to the large number of internal airlines which were springing up in *this country,and hoped that they would learn from America, where a line which ran " every hour on the hour " had proved tobe a great success. He said that he had been going into the matter himself extensively, and was satisfied that a linerunning between London and Glasgow, which could count upon 30 per cent, of the first-class traffic at present carriedby rail, would prove to be a success. Replying to the toast which had been proposed byMr. Mollison, Col. Shelmerdine reminded those present of the debt of gratitude which they owed, and the irreplac-able loss which they had suffered, by the death of Mrs. Frogley, the mother of their chairman. He continued hisspeech with some statistics which showed very clearly indeed the great progress made by the club. He said thatfor the period April 1, 1931, to March 31, 1932, that is the period during which the subsidy was paid on the old£10 basis, the club members secured 28 "A" licences and there were four renewals, the amount of subsidy paid being£240. For the next period, April 1, 1932 to March 31. 1933, when the subsidy was granted on a new basis, 26"A" licences were secured, two " B " licences and 20 renewals, while the amount of subsidy earned was £893.For the last six months, that is, from April 1, 1933, to September 30, 1933, the figures were 17 "A" licences,13 renewals and £545 worth of subsidy, so that there was every reason to suppose that the full year would proveto be the best so far. Put in another way, he said that during the first year the club was twelfth out of fifteensubsidised clubs and in the matter of membership thir- teenth out of fifteen clubs. In the second year they werefifth out of fifteen for earnings and tenth out of fifteen for membership, while for the first six months of thecurrent yeax they were seventh out of eighteen for earnings and had increased to fifth out of eighteen for membership.As a more general measure of the growth of civil aviation, he said that there were slightly under 1,000 licences issuedduring 1933, an increase of 14 per cent, over 1932. This number included 141 " B " licences, which was an increaseof 40 per cent, over 1932. In all there were some 2,900 current licences at the present time, of which 128 hadbeen issued to women. Therefore he felt that we were justified in saying that general progress had been verygood, despite the bad times. Talking of the growth of internal airlines, he felt that it was entirely wrong togeneralise, particularly when comparing our conditions with those in the United States of America. Especiallywas this so with regard to cruising speeds. It was purely a matter of comparison, and in this country there weremany places where a cruising speed of somewhere about 130 m.p.h. was not only more than adequate to competewith existing transport services but was infinitely more economical than high speeds in the region of 200 m.p.h. For European routes, however, he thought it was essentialthat the speed be raised considerably. He hoped that it would be possible to give some Government assistance tothe operators of these lines, and if that were found pos- sible, he thought that in all probability assistance wouldtake the form of established wireless and meteorological services. He looked upon the recent announcement by therailways as one of the most momentous which had been made, and hoped that it would prove of ultimate benefitto aviation. Capt. Diamant then proposed " The Health of theClub," and in doing so voiced a plea that the members who had not learned to fly should forthwith do so. Thetoast was replied to by the chairman, Mr. A. R. Frogley, who thanked the members for the support they had givenhim and told those present that, although during the past year the clubhouse had been extended by the addition ofamenities like a billiard room, and so forth, it had become necessary to extend again and would, he hoped, benecessary to extend still further in the future. Presentations were made to Mr. S. A. Perrin and Mr.Whittaker for the loyal services they had given to the club. The latter is the club's chief ground engineer, andon him and his staff falls the care of all the club machines. In conclusion, the club's appreciation was expressed of theexcellent work which has been done for them by their secretary, Mr. F. E. Darlow. Nothing, it was said, wasever too much trouble for Mr. Darlow, and no one could have carried out the work more efficiently than he haddone. LJATFIELD *^ The flying times for the London Aeroplane Club totalled 35 hr. 15 min. during the last week. Among new members the Club have much pleasure in welcoming Miss P. Bradford. Two more members have been elected to serve on the Club Committee, Messrs. J. V. Holman and F. H. Marusoh. The flying times for the R.A.F. Reserve amounted to 62 hr. 5 min., the R.A.F. Reserve Flying Club 4 hr. 35 min., and the Stage and Screen Aero Club 2 hr. 30 min., Mr. Ralph Richardson com- pleting his " A " licence." Mr. Fulford, one of the instructors at Hatfield, has left for a two months' tour of South Africa with Sir Malcolm Campbell. F/O. V. R. Moon has joined the Instructor's Staff. Private owners who flew during the week-end were Lady Bailey, Sir Derwent Hall-Caine, Capt. Monohan, Messrs. Marusoh, Place and Samuelson. Lady Loch left on February 21 for a tour round the South of France and Sicily in her " Moth." Visitors by air included Mr. Ramsay in a "Martlett," Messrs. Tweddle, Horden, Opie, Bush, and Patten in " Moths," Mr. Marshall in a " Puss Moth," and Mr. Amherst in an " Avro." The Saturday Dinner Dances have now been discontinued, and in their place informal Dinner Dances will be held from 8—12 p.m. (evening dress optional). The Squash Club played their first match against " The White Elephant " Club of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, on Thursday, February 22. The Club, who were represented by Major Newnham, Messrs. Thomas, Moon and King, won, the score being 3—1. Two other matches have been arranged, against Corpus Christi College on Wednesday, February 28, and against Hadley Wood on Friday, March 23. pINQUE PORTS FLYING CLUB ^ Fog during the latter part of the week curtailed flying times, which only totalled 16 hr. 56 mins. On Tuesday night flying activities took place in co-operation with Brooklands, two pupils being sent by them from Croydon to Lympne and Mr. Anderson receiving dual and being sent from Lympne to Croydon, thus three " B " licence tests being completed in the one night. On Wednesday nine Hawker " Harts " from No. 18 Squadron and two from No. 24 Squadron arrived at Lympne prior to escorting H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to Brussels. The pilots and observers all lunched at the Club before leaving at 2 o'clock to meet the Prince over Dover. On Tuesday Mr. Van Marken and Mr. Midgley arrived on their way to deliver a " Puss Moth " and a standard " Moth " 193
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