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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1472.PDF
554 FLIGHT. JUNE 3, 1937. STRESSED SHIN IN MINI A TV RE . Capt. Hubert Broad flies the new C.W. Cygnet for the benefit of " Flight's " photographer. As will be seen theie is a certain amount of cleaning up still to be done, but with a Cirrus Minor engine the Cygnet has a cruising speed of well over ioo m.p.h- and an 8oo-ft.-a-minute climb. Topics of the Day Second Chance AFRIEND of mine, whose flying is done almost exclu sively in Service machines, is always mildly staggered at the thought that amateurs, myself included, fly about the sky and even go in for a few minor aero batics without wearing a parachute. I must admit that on the few occasions when I wear one of these affairs I feel a good deal happier and wonder why their use is not more usual among civil pilots There is no doubt that a parachute is virtually useless near the ground, where flying is most dangerous and where the light aeroplane usually flies. Very few amateurs carry out cross-countries or do aerobatics at a height much in excess of 2,000ft., and in the case of structural failure or similar trouble most of that height would have been lost before anyone had a chance of getting clear. In the majority of cases, too, it is safer to stay with the aero plane, since the inexpert jumper will probably hurt him self in any case. Nevertheless, a parachute provides just that extra chance for "absolute emergencies and makes one's flying a little more comfortable. There are two major reasons why club pilots and private owners are rarely to be seen thus encum bered One is that a parachute is comparatively expensive •—and must be so if it is to be absolutely reliable—and the other is that the amateur lacks the moral courage to wear one. He is so afraid of looking like a sea-going cross- Channel passenger who dons a lifebelt as soon as the boat leaves the quay. Possibly the sight at civil aerodromes of so many Reserve and Volunteer Reserve pupils, each with this cumbrous appendage, may change the fashion. There is, of course, no reason for a parachute to be cumbrous, and one or two of the modern types designed for civil use are quite neat. Nor do they impede movement on the ground; they remain PRIVATE F LYI N C in the aeroplane as a plain seat cushion, which one must have in any case. Whatever the club or amateur pilot may do on his own I do feel that all clubs should keep one or two Service-type parachutes for use during aerobatic instruction and practice. It is possible for a pupil to force a machine so powerfully into a bunt, before the instructor has a chance to do any thing about it, that the structure is heavily strained; and it is possible to slip out of one's Sutton harness, or even to forget to put the pin in securely. One day I shall buy a private umbrella and ignore the sniggers of the over confident. Unfortunately, I am always flying a different machine and I might not be able, with this device, to get into the very machines in which I need it most. Qround Control AFTER watching some ten or fifteen aeroplanes all coming ** in to or taking out of a well-known aerodrome in a dozen different directions I am more than ever convinced that really strict ground control is badly needed. Since I was flying one of the machines myself I feel very strongly about it. Nobody could have been blamed for this state of affairs on this particular occasion, for the very light wind was changing round all the time and the landing tee was set for flat calm conditions. In my own case I did one land ing according to the tee, found that there was quite a fair amount of drift to be corrected, and thereafter struck what I thought was a safe average between the tee and the wind- socks. The result was that I continued one landing run right across the bows of a machine which was being put down according to the rules, and had to apologise to the pilot concerned. Later on I watched a machine landing one way while three or four other machines were either taking off or landing right across its track. Number one was right—but in the amended words of the old piece of doggerel "He was right, dead right, as he flew along, but he was just as dead as if he'd been wrong." The ground control—or lack of it—was at fault. Some body should have covered up that tee just as soon as the wind velocity increased and the direction changed so mark edly that the pilots of machines with low landing speeds were forced for their safety to take the law into their own hands. The fact is that there was nobody on the aerodrome with the plain gumption or the authority to do it. I made the necessary suggestion but there was nobody to act on it —and the aerodrome does not belong to me! Dotvn'wind and So On SINCE the thing which serves me for a brain is still fuzzy with Manx air, I shall make no attempt to deal with the various correspondents who have done their best to make me eat last week's words. Probably, in the end and to remove the possibility of any free fights, 1 shall have to retain a stony silence about the whole thing. We shall see. But there is one point about which a good many people appear to be struggling. They will insist on thinking about turns as if the machine comes to a stop like a piston at the top of its travel. The fact is that the wretched machine is travelling at a certain air speed all the time—like an unworried fly in a railway carriage or a rowing-boat making circles in a smooth, ten-knot tide. INDICATOR.
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