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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0336.PDF
130 FLIGHT. FEBRUARY 4, 193J, Commercial Aviation REDUCING RADIO CONGESTION Some Concrete Proposals and Constructive Criticism : Better Operators and More Machine DJF : The Question of Pay THE Maybury report recommends a very large increase in aeronautical radio services to cope with increased flying services, but complaints have been made that the waveband allotted to air radio service is already con gested. This congestion will soon become acute unless some movement is made towards its reduction. Much of it is due to inefficient work, both in the air and on the ground, and until the operating standard is raised it will persist. British marine radio operation is of the highest standard, and there is no reason why the aeronautical service should be inferior. It is rather disturbing, in fact, to discover that the majority of tramp steamers have more highly skilled operators than are required for aircraft work. The examination for aircraft operators is much too easy and should be amended as soon as possible. Holders of existing certificates should be allowed a limited time in which to re- qualify, say six months, and in the event of failure to do so should lose their " tickets." As a suggested basis for the examination the following might be considered: Morse speed should be increased to twenty-five words per minute, for both sending and receiving, and 100 per cent, accuracy should be required. A real operating test should be carried out, under adverse conditions and at high speed. A thorough practical and theoretical examination should be insti tuted on aircraft radio and accessory apparatus, including practical direction-finding and position-fixing. Sufficient ele mentary navigation should be learnt to enable an operator to set a course from D/F observations and to use a C.D.C. with accuracy arid dispatch. Ground station operators should be at least as highly quali- Hope Springs Eternal . . . CAPT. W. L. HOPE of King's Cup fame, has been appointed technical director of a new company, International Air Freight, Ltd., which he has formed in association with Capt. Woolf Barnato and Messrs. Daniel Metz and W. G. Robson. Faster to Munich AT present, the air journe3- from London to Munich takes a matter of seven hours or more, with a wait of nearly an hour at Cologne and a start at 8.15 a.m. This year, remem bering, perhaps, the number of English people who travel to Bavaria and Austria for their holidays, D.L.H. will start a new 4|-hour service to Munich via Frankfort. North-east Europe" is being brought in by a service from Berlin to Helsingfors. Real Air Transport LAST year Canada's air traffic loads were ten times that recorded in 1931, and the air mail alone reached a new record of 1,250,000 lb. Curiously enough, both the mileage and hourage figures for 1936 u-ere a little below those for the year 1931—a fact which suggests that real pay-loads are being carried. Needless to say, mining loads formed a great proportion of the total, ancj something like 800 tons were transported from Goldpines, on Lac Seul, to Casummit Lake. Life-saving T HE sensible idea of using aeroplanes to assist lifeboats has been developed in the Orkneys following the loss of thirty lives in the foundering of the steamer Johanna Thorden on the Pentland Skerries. It is essential for a lifeboat crew, in the midst of a violent storm to obtain some idea of the spot where a steamer's small boat or boats are likely to be found, as otherwise a search is almost bound to prove fruitless. A more efficient and effective life-saving system for the Orkneys is regarded as essential and it is probable that the matter will affect also some of the islands on the Scottish West coast. Meanwhile, flying a Highland Airways machine in a 70-m.p.h. blizzard, Mr. Adam Smith landed at North Ronalds- hay, on January 27, to bring relief to 160 inhabitants who were in danger of starving. Earlier in the day Kirkwall radio station picked up an S.O.S. from the islanders. tied. Accurate D/'F can be carried out in the air by an experi enced operator and the use of D/F equipment in aircraft should be encouraged. If the insurance companies were to offer a small reduction in the premiums for machines so fitted I am sure that many would take advantage of the offer. A very large proportion of all the radio work carried out between ground and air consists of D/F, which could equally well be done on board the machine. Such items as back bear ings to check drift and QDM when inward-bound are outstand ing examples. It is not suggested that the controlled zone system should be abolished, nor that all D/F should be done in the air, but if halt of the present amount of this work could be done upstairs it would help matters considerably. The two steps suggested would together reduce the present state of congestion by at least 25 per cent., and it could be further reduced by abolishing radio telephony on all the air lines. The wavelength and sidebands allotted to R/T would provide us with two extra communication channels, one of which should be devoted to D/F work between air and ground. The other could very well accommodate a public radiotelegram service between air and ground. This has been talked about for a long time, but congestion has always been raised as an obstacle. It could easily develop into a profitable sideline. All these things could be done if we had efficient operators, but these are not at present forthcoming. Nor can they be trained in a few weeks or even in a few months, and in view of the long training and high state of efficiency which will eventually be required it will be necessary to offer much higher wages than are at present obtainable. At the present time the standard of payment is scandalous. CRITIC Radio Rationalisation in U.SA. A NEW corporation, absorbing four radio and aviation equip ment companies has been formed in the U.S. The new organisation will specialise in radio equipment for communi cations and navigational purposes for the aircraft industry, and will pay particular attention to blind flying and to de veloping methods for landing under adverse weather conditions. The Bendix Aviation Corporation is the power behind the combine, which will be known as the Bendix Radio Cor poration, and will be staffed with more than a hundred engineers and technicians, and will have plants and laboratories in Chicago, Dayton, Washington, and Oakland. Newcastle is Ready W HATEVER may eventually be developed from the recommendations of the Maybury Committee, at least one of the terminal points in the junction system, Newcastle, has received some long-merited attention. More than eighteen months ago the city's new airport at Woolsington was officially opened by Lord Swinton (then Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister), and since that time full night-landing equipment has been installed by Clarke, Chapman & Co., of Gateshead, and D/F radio equipment has been made available by the Air Ministry. The aerodrome has a total area of some 105 acres and the shortest runway is a matter of 700 yards in length. It lies 51 miles north-west of the city centre and on the main Ponte- land road. The lighting equipment consists of three fixed floodlights, of the totally enclosed three-unit type ; a flashing neon location beacon on a 35-foot tower beside the main hangar ; a 20ft. bv 20ft. wind-tee ; boundary lights of cruciform type with a "breakable" fitting in case of accident; and the necessary obstruction lights. Included in the control tower switchboard—which is also a repeater, the indicator lamps for which are in their correct relative positions—is a wind-tee indicator and a remote con trol arranged so that the officer in charge can turn it into any desired position in conditions of calm. As far as the clubhouse part of the services are concerned, there is certain limited bedroom accommodation for the use of visiting pilots and others. During the past year the New castle Aero Club has put in 2,200 hours of flying and has trained twenty-seven "A" licence and four "B" licence pilots. Six machines are in use.
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