FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0017.PDF
JANUARY 6, 1938. FLIGHT. The position of the temporary base at Botwood in relationto that of the airport which is now in process of construction beside Gander Lake. This will probably be used as the flying-boat terminal, and the organisation will be centralised. mooring buoys and the refuelling barge. The result is an alighting area which is very nearly perfect. On the main- land, facing Killick Island and about one hundred yards from the water's edge, is the staff house. Originally the staff house was intended to include the control office, a wireless office and the meteorological office, as well as accommodation for the crews of the flying boats. But the plans failed to materialise, as subsequent arrangements meant that all services will eventually be transferred to the Newfoundland Airport, and the beautiful building that had been visualised degenerated into a rough frame structure which served only as living quarters. In spite of its external appearance, life within was , METEOROLOGY iindiand During Last Season's Atlantic difficulties : Forecasting Accuracy •••** ;••*> McTAGGART COWAN , Two of the boats which made history last year— Caledonia and Clipper III— being hauled on to the slip- way at Hythe (left). The .-. former was commanded by Capt. Wilcockson and the latter by Capt. Gray on all the Atlantic trips. - 7 reasonably comfortable. The permanent residents of the "Folly," as, for some obscure reason, it came to be Called, were the three meteorological officers. These numbers were swelled from time to time by visit- ing officials and the crews of the flying boats. The wire- less station is on the flat top of the ridge behind the vil- lage and about one hundred and sixty feet above sea level. It consists of a cen office space for control, wireless and meteorology, and living quarters for the operators; a transmitter building and masts some five hundred yards to the west of the central building; a receiving building and masts an equal distance to the east; and a short-wave D/F station a similar distance to the north. As already mentioned, the original plan was to have the meteorological office in the Folly. When this was - not forthcoming a small shop, situated about a quarter of a mile along the coast from the sea base, was rented for the purpose. Its internal dimensions were a bare ten by twelve feet, so that congestion was acute. This could have endured, but in the first week of operation the arrangement was found to be impractical, as the means of communication between the wireless receiving building and the meteoro- logical office was limited to a boy and The central building and transmitting station at Botwood. The little wing on the left is the meteorological office, the interior of which is shown on the opposite page. tral building providing NEWFOUNDLAND^ AIRPORT a bicycle. The boy was willing but the bicycle slow "and the distance two and a half miles. There was only one solution to this problem—a wing was added to the central wireless building, and there the maps were plotted and the forecasts issued for the first flight. This wing, having a floor space of only ten by fifteen feet, was found to be inadequate. Besides the six on the meteorological staff, it had to hold two ©r three operators, and with the tempera- ture in the eighties and nineties the result was conducive neither to harmony nor efficiency. Another wing of similar size was added, and that completed the construction of the present meteorological office. The staff of the meteorological office consisted ol three officers and three plotters. The station was well equipped, having the full complement of instruments for a first-class telegraphic reporting station, pilot balloon equipment and, by arrangement with the Air Ministry and the Newfound- land Government, a seaplane available for daily meteoro- logical ascents. If a digression is permitted, a word of praise for the pilots of this Fairchild seaplane is certainly warranted. Working under the disadvantage of having their hangar and accom- modation at Norris Arm, six miles away, while operating from Botwood, and with no blind-flying or homing equip- ment, they recorded a commendable series of ascents to a very fair altitude. Meteorographs were used on every
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
