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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0808.PDF
FLIGHT. MARCH 24, 1938. free *\ Miss M. Blake, an official of the Redhill Club. Arthur Wood, oi Warner Brothers—a member of Brooklands and owner of the most ornamental Gipsy Moth with chromium-plated engine cowling. Pilots queued up for the privilege of giving joy-rides to film stars and only tore them- selves away in time to reach their home aerodromes by sun- down. Arrival competi- tions are one of the greatest " draws of the summer meet- ings. The prospect of carrying home a prize of twenty-five or fifty pounds simply for making any sort of landing at the right moment will lead the nervous novice to attempt a first " cross- country " and crowd the aerodrome with every machine within range that can boast a C. of A. The three generous prizes offered by Cardifl at their meeting last summer probably accounted to some extent for the really enormous attendance at such a comparatively remote aerodrome. The Concours d'Elegance is essentially the private owner's pigeon, and, not coming into that enviable category, I simply stand and gape with the crowd at the rows of immaculately " spitted and polished " machines and envy the proud but anxious owners. The system of handicapping on total flying hours seems an excellent one, justly reward- ing maintenance rather than lavish expenditure. The International Air Rally at Lympne, held towards the end of the season, has always been the high-spot of ' Flight'' photograph. Though doing less strenuous flying nowadays, Miss Amy Johnson has an unforgetable record of fine flights to her name. •holograph. flying club entertain- ments, lasting two days and attended by pilots from all over Europe. The display last year consisted of some ex- cellent aerobatics, including the most lightning flick rolls we had ever seen, some very prettv threesome evolutions of the tied-together variety by No. 111 (F.) Squadron, a highly original pre- historic dragon cap- tured and aerodrome- trained by Lympne, and a beautifully finished and graceful exhibition of aero- batics by Mrs. Hutton-Rudolph. The Ratcliffe parties stand alone. They must strike a tremendous blow against England's reputation for inhos- pitality, judging by the number of machines on Mr. Lindsay-Everard's private aerodrome bearing strange continental registrations and the hubbub of mixed tongues in the marquee where pilots and passengers enjoy a tremendous lunch. No flying club can afford to entertain on this lavish scale, but those of us who are fortunate enough to be numbered among the guests are heartily glad that somebody can, and will. Competition Women pilots have a trophy all of their own. The Northesk Cup, which, for some reason, has not been com- peted for since 1936, when it was won by Mrs. Fisher on a Gipsy Moth. The cup is awarded for general flying, finishing up with a '' forced landing " on to the aerodrome from 2,000ft. Mrs. Fisher, who had only done ten hours' solo at the time, tied for the first place with Miss Roily Moore, and played it off on a couple of spot landings. The competition was held at Reading, and it was one of the last meetings at the old clubhouse. As club houses went it hadn't really very much to recommend it except the sheltered verandah from which one could take a leisurely view of the aerodrome while having tea, and when they proceeded to build an enormous new hangar plumb in front of it, it very wisely sank into the ground and tunnelled its way down to the other end of the aerodrome, where it recently sprang up again triumph- antly, much bigger and far better than ever. If the Northesk Cup is held again this year I presume it will be at Bournemouth, whence it was carried by the victorious Mrs. Fisher. I foresee that the number of entrants will be at least double what they were in 1936. as an enormous number of female " ^ licences have been issued since them, and quite a few " Bs." One recently acquired " B " is well on her way to a Second-class Navigator's Certifi- cate. She is a constant source of regret to (Left) Mrs. Pearse (ne'e Miss Dorothy Spicer) holds several ground engineer's licences, and now has a technical post at the Air Ministry. (Right) Miss Jean Batten has achieved world-wide fame by her record flights during the last few years. "Flight" photograph.
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