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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0815.PDF
MARCH 24, 1938. FLIGHT. ENGINEER Ready Marked and Learned by All Those uth Rejuelling and Ends with Prop-swinging (Berts and Essex Aero Club) to learn little differences between each, because that is not what he has paid for. Also, he is learning to base his judgment on what certain pointers indicate on certain dials—e.g., air speed and engine speed—and so these must be accurate to a hair, in spite of daily handling by novices and amateurs. Add to this the old club member of many flying hours and long experience who, after his usual cross-country or aerobatic practice at a nice, safe height, lands, gets out, and remarks, "Thanks—she stills handles beautifully," and one begins to realise the G.E. has his hands full. The private owner also looks to the G.E. for advice and help, and the advice must be correct. Club members often roll over in ones and twos to ask questions about both engines and airframes, which the G.E. must be able to answer clearly and lucidly. The control office too, sometimes arranges lectures to be given in various subjects of interest to pilots, and the club G.E. may be called on to give a talk on the engines, airframes and accessories under his care. Members thus come to look on their G.E. as a friend and a mine of information, now and then even asking him to diagnose troubles on their cars. The aerodrome manager usually puts a lot of responsi- bility into the hands of his G.E., over and above his own special work. If the G.E. is capable and willing, it is quite possible that the control office will agree to let him handle the whole of the hangar work, i.e., stores of petrol, oil, stocks of spares, equipment, etc., and all the other odd business, such as staff control. Even then, there are many other things which a club engineer must tackle, among them the vital responsibility of seeing that the emergency fire truck is always ready and fully equipped. He must see, too, that the aerodrome personnel know their duties in the fortunately rare event of accident. Safety precautions are obviously worth tak- ing efficiently, and, after all, who knows better than the G.E. how this kind of thing should be carried out? - Official Visit :-T In the afternoon, perhaps, there is a visit by a repre- sentative of the Air Registration Board, which has taken over certain functions of the A.I.D. The actual work of the G.E. is thus supervised by an authority of great power, and the standard of workmanship is kept to a stan- dard of high grade. All phases of his work are checked over and helpful suggestions are made where possible. One does come across a touch of humour at times. There was the chap who was doing circuits and landings in a Moth, and concentration on his landings was very marked. In his own words, immediately afterwards, this is what happcnd: — " I took off, made a circuit, judged my distance about right, throttled back, and held the glide. Then I realised, when nearly there, that I was undershooting badly. I opened up a bit. Nothing happened. Horrors ! I pushed it wide open and still nothing happened—the engine just ticked over, and the machine was sailing swiftly in the direction of the hedge, when the instructor said, 'O.K., I've got it'—and opened up the engine! Then I realised I had been ' opening' the this queer instrument, he calmly indi- cated the oil pressure gauge and said, '' There you are—but I suppose you can't expect these little clocks to be absolutely dead right." Pilots are often very interested in workshop practice. On a day when the G.E. is teaching apprentices the use and application of precision instruments and gauges in engine overhauls, he may start with two apprentices, but by the time he has finished there may be eight or nine pilots as well, all asking questions together; but it is very good for them and shows them something of the inside of the job and the care and attention to detail needed on a modern flying school. Flying for the day is nearly over, the reports of the flight attendant are read, anything extraordinary reported to the control office, and steps are taken to deal with anything which concerns the G.E. or his machines. Petrol and oil consumptions of the day are checked against flying times from the office, pumps are locked up, and on the O.K. from the control office or chief in- structor the machines are put away until to-morrow. In our day's work there is nothing very exciting, but per- haps I shall not be accused of "shooting a line" if I go so far as to say that much of the sound- ness of British aviation depends on the ground engineer, whether his charge be a fleet of club air- craft or of Empire flying boats; and it is only by his fullest co- operation that the day will dawn when civil aviation will fly by itself. enginetail trimmer. Another would-be pilot, after one or two lessons, swore the machine would only do 45 on the A.S.I, in straight and level flight, dive, or climb. On being asked to point out
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