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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0640.PDF
228 FLIGHT. MARCH IO, T938. PRIVATEFLYING A striking impression of the Fair- child " 24 " in action. This machine is dealt with on pp. 230 and 231. "Flight" photograph. Topics of the Day This SuperiorityI T always seems to me that experienced pilots are often very bad examples to the novice, especially in the matter of cross-country methods. They fly from here to there without obvious preparation, sometimes with- out even opening a map, and usually without any attempt to make use of a C.D.C. or other navigational gadget. The novice who travels with one of them may obtain quite wrong impressions of the whole business, and will, perhaps, rush away by himself on the first available oppor- tunity and get himself hopelessly lost. The experienced pilot is much too fond of laughing aside the newcomer's energy and patience with track lines and calculators, yet for a start all this work with vector diagrams, and so forth, is absolutely essential. Even the expert, when flying a new and much faster type4 can, by promptly losing himself, provide a realistic example of the difficulties which are constantly met by the so often despised novice. His mind has become accus- tomed to guessing drift and approximate times of arrival on a basic ground speed of, perhaps, no or 120 m.p..h. Just as soon as he finds himself flying a machine, with a cruising speed of, say, 180 m.p.h., all his guessing goes to pieces, and if the visibility is poor he will probably over- shoot his destination. After hundreds of hours of cross-country flying in all weathers it is certainly true to say that guessed correc- tions are at least as accurate as any that.may be obtained from previous calculations, since the upper-air speed on which such calculations are based is very rarely correct. But without experience and practice any such guessing can be extremely wild. Only a week or two ago I was flying dual with a pilot who had done very little cross-country work, and on one occasion his estimated correction was less than 5 deg., wtiereas I knew quite well that this should have been at least 15 deg. Only continuous and meticu- lous work with a pencil and paper, or with a C.D.C., can possibly provide the novice with any foundations for assessments of this kind. Useful HomeworkW HEN I was first taught to fly across country my instructor not only made me draw with pencil and paper innumerable vector diagrams, but he also made me check them with care, and permitted the use of a C.D.C. only after the principle of the triangle of velocities had been thoroughly instilled. Furthermore, when giving me dual, he persistently asked at the most awkward moments whether I was on the right or left of my track, and which way corrections should be applied. Usually, what with engine noise and bump correction, my mind was a complete blank, and all I could do was to turn the machine slightly towards the track which I had left and look at the compass to see which way the needle had moved, and, consequently, which way the verge ring should be moved for the course change. At the same time I was encouraged to amuse my- self by planning long flights, which I certainly couldn't afford to carry out, in all manner of changing wind conditions. The direct result was that my guesses became reasonably accurate, and I suggest this sort of homework as an inexpensive and amusing method of becoming accus- tomed to the effect on different tracks of winds blowing from varying directions and at varying speeds. There is a good psychological result, too, in all this homework. If, on the evening before the day on which a cross-country flight has been planned, the tracks ore all drawn on the maps and the bearings measured, it is only necessary in the morning to ring up the Air Ministry or to listen to the 8.45 a.m. weather broadcast in order to apply the necessary corrections. Everything is then leady, and a start can be made with a feeling of consider- able confidence. Landmarks AS for map reading, only actual practice in the air isof any real use, though a novice who is interested in maps and who always examines the country in the vicinity of his track lines before starting off is far less likely to miss those landmarks which are really important. At least half the trouble with beginners is that they waste their time and nervous energy in examining prac- tically everything that passes underneath. In due time they discover that, generally speaking, only railways, larger towns and stretches of water are of any real value. Advance calculation of the approximate time at which any really distinctive and monumental landmark is due to be passed is worth more than all the casual scrutiny which can possibly be carried out. If the selected landmark does not appear at the right moment, then, knowing the approximate ground speed, one's position can only be somewhere on a short radius having its centre at the last checking point. A moment's examination of the area concerned—viewed, of course, from the angle at which it is being approached—will show that, say, only one arrangement of railway lines can pos- sibly be that at which one is looking. Another useful point is to notice that a particular rail- way line or river must sooner or later be crossed unless one has set off in an absurdly incorrect direction. Suit- able landmarks of this kind can be previously marked on the map, so that along the track there are a number 01 what are sometimes called "bags," out of which it is impossible to fly by accident unless one is quite blind or fast asleep. Such continuous and unmistakable landmarks as the Manchester Ship Canal, the Thames Estuary or the open sea are outstanding examples, but there is no need for them to be quite so obvious. An arrangement oj railway lines is quite sufficient, and if the line is crossed at some momentarily unrecognisable point then one ca ^ fly up and down the "fence " until one's position is finally verified. INDICATOR.
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