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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 2003.PDF
y8 FLIGHT. JULY 16, 1936. Private Flying Topics of the Day Approach Instinct S OME time ago 1 commented on the peculiar fact that no single sense could be applied successfully to the business of producing three-point landings. Some machines, notably those in which the pilot is seated right in the nose, demand visual judgment of de scent almost alone until the moment of making the landing; others need to be checked on feel while there is still plenty of air speed, owing to a tendency for the machine to sink long before the real stall has been reached ; and others give such a strong premature impression of being stalled that the actual landing has to be carried out visually. In fact, one's judgment of height, one's sense of loss of buoyancy, and, in a few machines, one's knowledge that the elevator control, for instance, tends to be too weak or too strong at the last, must be combined in the whole business of holding off and landing. More peculiar is the way in which one knows, even in a strange machine, that one is tending to undershoot. With me the feeling is so strong that I can almost feel the machine dropping behind the boundary fence when I am still a thousand feet up, and the result is that I tend to over- rather than to undershoot. Obviously it is not mere judgment of height and distance, for an unexpectedly strong wind at 1,000 feet would upset the whole thing; obviously, too, it is not only a matter of experience with particular machines, for I know when a burst of throttle will be needed even when I am travelling in a transport aeroplane as a plain passenger. The knowledge must result from a combination of ex perience and a sense of relative forward speed and descent. On my first attempt with an efficiently napped machine I undershot badly, but realised that I was doing so fairly early in the process. In this case I used my knowledge of other machines when choosing a cut-off point, and this knowledge was of no value whatever in the circumstances. A Qround Simile THESE interesting powers of judgment are not, of course, confined to the air, and are developed by anyone whose eyesight or general judgment are not thoroughly poor. On the road, for instance, an experienced motorist knows exactly how quickly he may negotiate a bend with safety. Yet if he were asked to give his speed without glancing at the dashboard he would be unable to give it with any accuracy unless he were so accustomed to a car that the exhaust notes at different speeds were part of his mental furnishings. Racing motorists and motor cyclists do not drive on their speed indicators, though most of them change gear with an eye on their revolution counters to prevent over-revving. In this mere mechancal business some guide is necessary, but bends are judged almost solely by the way they appear when approached at different speeds. Practice MAN'S capacity for work demanding manual and visual judgment combinations is really quite remarkable, but the ability to learn how to operate controls in three dimen sions during, for instance, a vertical turn, is no more re markable than the ability to learn to ride a bicycle—usually at a very much earlier age. In each case the younger the person the easier it is to learn. Long and constant practice in flying produces some extraordinary results, and an instructor is usually capable of putting down the machine to which he is accus tomed almost anywhere. Furthermore, he puts it down with what the author of England Have My Bones describes so adequately as, " the ease of a rather absent-minded man putting his pipe in his pocket." A particularly sporting instructor in my early days felt that I was going stale on forced landings, so he asked me to cut the motor anywhere and at any height while he did his stuff. Although, quite naturally, he did not put the machine down on the odd cabbage patches which were the only possible alighting places, the position and speed while crossing each boundary were such that there was no doubt that a non-fatal landing, at least, could be expected. I was so encouraged by the ease with which it was all accom plished that I recovered my spirits at once. To Taste WHEN people talk too much about the '' ideal private owner's machine" one can only laugh. We are all prone to describe or even to plan out such a machine and to talk as if nobody had ever discovered "ideal features" before, but most of us realise that the ideal is our own— and only temporarily our own at that. Because I like one particular feature, I can hardly guarantee that every one else will. Those enthusiastic owners with strong ideas of their own cannot usually afford to have machines made to their design, but they will be able to afford to buy used machines and to have these modified as far as possible. One of the nicest and safest aeroplanes ever produced was the Desoutter, and that there are all manner of modifications which can be successfully made to this type to bring it into line with modern ideas has been proved, for instance, by Mr. Shuttle- worth, who owns a small fleet of them. Another obsolescent, but pleasant, machine is the Puss Moth, and Airwork have recently carried out some interest ing modifications thereon to the order of Mr. Alan Munz. These included the addition of extra rear windows, an improved top panel, a special ventilating slit and a sliding section in the nearside windscreen panel (similar to that described in these columns a fortnight ago) for bad weather flying. Such minor changes do not cost a very great deal of money, and can make a lot of difference to flying com fort and safety. INDICATOR-
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