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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0431.PDF
FEBRUARY 18, 1937- FLIGHT. 169- NOT SO ARCTIC Some Thoughts on Winter Flying in the Modern Style : Interesting Weather T Figures By "INDICATOR" IME was when the aver age motorist solemnly wrapped up his car and put it away in the garage for the winter months. That was to save the cost of licensing. The aeroplane owner still tends to do much the same thing, and certainly does not consider the purchase of a new machine until the spring. He has a much better reason for looking on the winter months as '' out of season," since the flying day is so comparatively short. Nevertheless, it is possible to put in some very useful and pleasant flying during this period, provided that plans are not made too firmly in advance and that one is flying a cabin aeroplane. The Meteorological Office can give you a very good idea of the sort of weather to be expected during the next thirty-six hours, but beyond that even their skill and experience is of little avail. Nowadays there is no need to fear the discomforts of cold weather, or the embarrassments of a multiplicity of garments. Recently I made two useful day trips in weather which, at fifteen hundred feet, would have been desperately uncomfortable in any open type. In a Hornet Moth's cabin I flew, for the most part, without coat or gloves. Noiv and Then Since becoming cabin-conscious during the past three years I have often wondered how I managed to do any navigating at all with numbed gloved hands in an open cockpit. My last real flight in an open trainer started auspiciously with the complete loss of a map section which had been temporarily accommodated in a cubby-hole above the dash; previously I had lost a glove down the fuselage, after suffering the annoyance of fogged goggles while taxy- mg out. Yet. somehow we managed to get about the country in the bad old days with very fair success, though at a great cost in the replacement of sodden maps. The secret of success and mental composure in this busi ness of winter flying is the study of meteorological reports. « you are in any doubt at all," ring up the Air Ministry; but the excellent system of broadcasts now carried out on Mai metres from the old Daventry station should gener ally relieve you of this necessity, unless vou plan a trip involving more than one day's flying. My usual scheme «i to listen to the general forecast at 8.45 a.'m. and then to we station reports at 9 a.m. and 9.15 a.m. ; but if an ear ier start is demanded, station reports can be heard from /•15 a.m. onwards and a forecast heard at 7.45 p.m. on the erTl°T mght' The station reports will not help a very tim Smce the conditions may have changed by. the som •?" are due t0 fly' but they wiI1 at least §ive vou me idea of the possibilities. For an afternoon trip, there '^general forecast at 11.45 a.m. casteT TT**15, ag0 1 made UP m>' mind to use tiiese broad- throu^h +late the number of davs on which useful flying the country was possible between October 1 and March H, but I missed so many days that the project was abandoned. However, a very general examination showed that in the months of November, December and January cross-country flying to a definite destination south of the Tweed was safely possible on 25 per cent, of the days, though probably a departure from or an arrival at Croydon, Heston and certain industrial area airports where smoke-fog is often suffered could not be guaranteed on more than two-thirds of these. A table providing really accurate information would have involved a detailed dis section of the station reports throughout each day. Flights to and from aerodromes lying outside the London controlled zones, and covering only the south of England, were possible on a further 35 per cent, of the days. Pilots housing their machines in other parts of England would probably find that flying was possible on a similar number of different days. On the remaining 40 per cent., visibility of less than 2,000 yards or a cloud-base lying below 500 ft. would have virtually precluded anything but aerodrome flying—and that only in certain areas. The ability to fly usefully on a quarter of the number of available days is not, perhaps, very encouraging to the man-in-the-street who hopes that aeroplanes will eventually be used like cars, but it does suggest to the initiated that an aeroplane is not without real value even in the worst months of the year. The two trips previously men tioned would not in any case have been possible in the time at my disposal by any other means of transport. One unpleasant fact connected with flying conditions generally is that year by year they appear to be deterior ating. The only reliable figures are those provided by a few clubs and schools, but, when allowances have been made for instructors' fondness for golf and other hobbies, these certainly suggest that we are going through a phase of really poor flying'weather. This, however, cannot be expected to last, and the 1937 winter may show an im provement which entirely balances the temporary deterioration. Deterioration The effects of properly ordered commercial flying opera tions with the controlled-zone rules probably cause Heston's school figures to be slightly below those attainable at some other training centres, but the actuality of the general trend cannot be denied. At Heston the average number of flying days per month during the years between 1933 and 1936 has descended from 23.5, through 20 and 18, to 14.3. Last year, out of approximately 310 days on which school flying was officially possible, only 172 days were climatically possible. In 1933 the figure was 281. During the four years the best months were July and August, and the worst was December. Nevertheless, if in this worst month solo pupils could fly on an average of n.7 days out of 25 or so (allowing for Christmas and the weekly holiday),
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