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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1103.PDF
4&o FLIGHT. APRIL 30, 1936. Private 'H5T Topics of the Day Landing Fees T HIS depressing question of landing fees appears just now to be engaging the attention of a good many of the more energetically minded private owners. Some of them are endeavouring to work a form of boycott as an answer to what someone has very happily labelled " sanctions." Unfortunately, boycott or no boycott, one does not fly merely to arrive anywhere, and sooner or later the most haphazard pilot is bound to alight on or in an aerodrome from whose control office the bailiffs will emerge, palm out stretched. It is not in the least curious that owners who spend upward of a couple of hundred pounds yearly on this flying business should grudge the odd eighteen pence, half-crown, or so. If the sum went to the wives of aged control officers nobody would mind, but these owners merely object to the idea on principle. The clubs, the club pilots, and, in sequence, the private owners/ who have done more than anyone to encourage flying in this country, spend quite a large amount of money at every aerodrome, and they feel that it is something of an insult that they are made, in addition, to pay a landing fee. A correspondent in this week's issue has put the matter in a nutshell when he says that '' in the olden days one felt that one was a welcome visitor at every club, just as we welcomed others at clubs of which I happen to be a member." The Other Side FROM the aerodrome owners' point of view, of course, there is no reason at all why every pilot, whether he or she is carrying fare-paying passengers or not, should not pay a small sum for the upkeep of the green—though good ness knows that the few shillings taken daily from the pri vate pilots will hardly help to pay the interest on the quarter-million or so which may have been spent on an aerodrome layout. The point is that unless all aerodrome owners agree to inflict such penalties, it simply will not pay them to do so. Count the number of owners and club pilots who come into Croydon—where I paid 7s. 6d. only a few weeks ago for the pleasure of landing on its switchbacks—and then count those who come into Heston, where no landing fees are charged. The fact that one is, reasonably enough, charged there for everything else does not deter owners, and therein lies the kernel of the problem. People do not mind paying for services rendered, and an aerodrome owner who charges more for hangarage but nothing for landing will always get away with it. One well-known club which has been charging fees found that so few owners and club pilots turned up that the charge has had to be washed out. At the other extreme is Lympne, which is an Air Ministry aerodrome. Landing fees are charged there, but people still roll up in fair quantities, partly because the reception is far from official and partly because the other expenses are trivial. Last week, for a sum of is. 6d., my hired machine was housed for the night, moved about and run up for me in the morning. As a country member of the club no landing fee was charged, and I am not sure what this would have been. (Moral: Become a country member of every club !) Luggage Accommodation A FEW weeks ago, when idly discussing the points of the single-seater, I suggested that the average pilot was a good deal more interested in luggage accommoda tion than was generally imagined. The days have gone when an amateur was satisfied to carry a pair of pyjamas and a tooth-brush on his trips, and the fact that one has come by air is now a poor excuse for rolling in to a club party encased in a set of oily plus fours and a sports shirt. One can, of course, wear overalls over a dress suit, but only the least self-conscious of persons would be happy in such garments during the following two days while wait ing for winter to turn to summer and the clouds to rise from the visited aerodrome! Mere volume of luggage accommodation is of little value if the shapes of the lockers are odd, and acreage is the only thing that really matters. Nobody cares to pack a much-admired suit in a haversack, or even into a miniature case, and a space of at least 2^ft. by i£ft. by ift. is essen tial for the happy tourist—with as much more in height as can possibly be discovered by the worried designer of a private owner's aeroplane. Space Before Volume AMONGST the less expensive aeroplanes one must hand a prize to the Hornet Moth, in which there is space and to spare ; with metal ribs and strong straps—which are there to be used. Flying over Kent last week-end beneath a very low cloud base in a tapered Hornet, my case would most«- tainly have been launched into the dashboard, with lata results, if it had not been firmly strapped in place. 1^ bumps were exhilaratinglv terrific, and, though I was e in by a thigh belt, my head hit one of the roof meIIin*' on several occasions, and after I had looked down at my maps for a moment the machine was usually iou,n,ay'e one wing tip or the other. As a passenger I shoulc ^ hated it, but as the pilot these bumps took my mina other matters. . • ^e Incidentally, every club should have a radio set ^ member's room, so that they and the visiting P| whjci, listen to the half-hourly meteorological broadcasts ^ save so many shillings in last-minute telep e0(jrorne Although these broadcasts do not cover every ae ver every area, and are of importance, they do covt- deal more comforting than the general forecas s ^ ^ whole country, however accurate these may s for the rnesb INDICATOR'
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