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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 2353.PDF
230 FLIGHT. AUGUST 27, 1935. Private Flying . *£&T Topics of the Day Qround Signs AT no time does one feel so helpless or realise the /\ limitations of the normal aeroplane so well as when * • one is unable to recognise a town or railway- crossing during a cross-country flight in thick weather. One often longs to be able to stop the machine for a moment in order to have a good clear think and look, yet the best one can do is to hurtle round in a tight turn while the compass spins and the landmarks look less and less like anything to be seen on the part of one's map covering the appropriate area It is easy to say (as I have said before now) that the pilot should carry on until something unmistakable appears beneath the wing, but there are times when it is absolutely essential to discover one's exact whereabouts in order, for instance, to make for the nearest aerodrome before the ground disappears altogether when flying at a safe height. While on a cross-country flight a few weeks ago I passed over a small town—I think it was Market Harborough— which would have been completely recognisable in such conditions, for the simple reason that its name had been painted on the top of a gasholder. There are quite a few towns which have similarly considered the comfort of the weather-bound aeronaut, and the Standard Car Company, for instance, has gone to great trouble to pro vide all manner of useful information, which is painted on the roofs of the shops. The ground height and the direction of both Coventry and Castle Bromwich are indicated. Helping the Helpless 1 HAVE not got the least idea of the cost of such sign painting and of keeping the sign legible in this English climate, but it could not be a very serious item in the budget of a town of, say, 10,000 inhabitants or more, or in that of a large business house. Such signs, if the pilot knows that every town or city of a certain size has pro vided them, would be of immense help both to the private pilot and, on occasion, to the transport pilot working towards an area unprovided with the radio facilities which are so very necessary. If the towns themselves do not see fit to do anything about it, then some benevolent millionaire might find many less useful ways of spending his money. On the map the average town appears as if it ought to be quite obvious when seen from the air, but, in fact, the railway lines, marked so very clearly, are very thin affairs when examined in thick weather, and the beautifully curving branch line may be nothing more than a spiderish single- track which looks like a mineral railway. Parts of the North of England, incidentally, are a network of these misguiding railroads, and not all of them are shown on the ordinary aviation map. Real Navigation VVT'HEN you are bored during a plain cross-country " flight, and when you have previously ascertained the cloud-height at your destination, I suggest that you do a little mental or shirt-cuff calculation and climb up through the clouds. I am willing to bet that on your first serious trip of this kind you will come down through them at least five minutes before your estimated time of arrival. For some reason or other one becomes more and more certain that the calculations are wrong and that one must have passed one's destination. Probably the impression is largely gained from the fact that, for once in a way, the pilot obtains a very real impression of speed. I usually omit to allow for the fact that my ground speed is reduced to 60 m.p.h. or less during the climb to and through the clouds, which may take anything up to ten minutes and will add three or four minutes to the flying time. The last time I went in for this form of flying I checked the machine on its course for nearly half an hour over high country and then allowed myself twenty minutes for the balance of the journey. I came down after eighteen minutes and found that the machine was dead on its course and just five miles short of my objective; where upon I went up again through the clouds in a temper and came out two miles beyond the aerodrome. Accurate Flying ONE'S flying is usually very accurate in these conditions because the air above the clouds is smooth enough to allow one to fly within a degree or so of a previously calculated and checked course. I strongly advise the com parative novice to check his compass course very carefully before going through and to make quite certain that mat ters are in order at the other end. After coming in to Le Bourget on two occasions, with one of the early mornmg newspaper pilots, on radio bearings and with a low cloud- base, I can assure everyone that an altimeter reading of less than five hundred feet can be very trying to the nerves when the ground has still failed to put in an appearance. Lots of good men have hit hillsides when trying to be a little cleverer than Nature will ever allow one to be. Hemmed about as we are with rules and regulations, worried by insurance risks, and suffering from a morbid desire to live to a ripe old age, it is not often that we have a chance of enjoying that most exciting of sports—ne^' or wave-hopping. For those who miss the doubtful thru of speed after leaving the roads for the sky, I also sug gest a bout of cloud-top cross-country work. If you fly ten feet or less above the top layer you will obtain all the "kick " required out of flying, while con tinuing to expect a long and prosperous life. Clou s sometimes look excitingly hard, and the view, in any case, is staggeringly beautiful. INDICATOR.
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