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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1098.PDF
392 FLIGHT. APRIL 21, 1938. PRIVATE FLYING Topics of the Day Forced LandingsW ITH all these Reserve aeroplanes hurtling through the sky in the vicinity of nearly every aerodrome in the country the chances of practising aerodrome forced landings become fewer and fewer. For some reason or other—perhaps because in the very early days I was firmly told that such practice must not on any agcount be carried out without an instructor:—it rarely occurs to me to go and find a large field well away from all this activity. Possibly I imagine, quite reasonably, that some large and prickly obstruction might suddenly appear just as the hedge is being crossed; certainly, the average aeroplane is peculiarly blind in many directions. However, a week or two ago I attempted an imaginary forced landing (following all the rules) into an aerodrome which was no larger than a normally big field. I made it without using the engine and withont using more than 150 yards of the field, but any instructor would have described the performance as " rather unorthodox." After S-turning my way down I found that if one more turn was made I should then have lost too much height, while if I flew straight in it would not quite be possible to slip off all the excess height. So I made the last turn while skidding away from the field and completed the approach with a more or less conventional, but decidedly unpretty, piece of crazy flying. During all this unorthodoxy, which, nevertheless, did the trick, it occurred to me that it is possible to waste a tremendous lot of physical and nervous energy in this busi- ness of a forced landing approach. With a machine which does not sideslip too satisfactorily it is difficult to keep the speed down, and the whole thing may become rather melodramatic. In four cases out of five there is probably no need for all these violent manoeuvres if proper use is made of any wind which is blowing. If you find that you are tending to overshoot, it is only necessary to slow down the glide, and you will find that the excess height is lost very rapidly. Not only is the still-air glide-path actually steeper, but one is thereby taking the greatest possible advantage of the wind effect. The surest way to overshoot at any time is to glide too quickly. The modern machine is very safe indeed wbe flying at a low speed provided that no violent control mov< ments are made, and the risk of dropping the machine i probably a good deal less than that of hitting some ur seen tree while executing a steep turn or a violent crat sideslip when fifty feet off the ground. And I am not foi getting that it is more dangerous to undershoot than t overshoot. Common sense must obviously come into ii All I say is that there is often no need for all this violence The New Technique I ORIGINALLY learnt just how important gliding speecould be when flying a very lightly loaded low-win monoplane for the first time. This machine was renowne for its safety at the stall, and it was possible on a reasoi ably smooth day to adjust the approach entirely by lettin the machine fly quickly or slowly according to the circun stances, putting the nose down to stretch the glide an pulling it up to shorten it. This technique, in fact, is that used by Autogiro pilots who usually make the first part of the approach a vertic* descent with the stick back and then put the nose down t gather the necessary speed for landing. Once one become accustomed to this rather reversed order of the proceedio| it seems quite natural. • An alternative method of making an engineless approac without recourse to steep turns and sideslips can be applie in the case of a machine with strong air brakes or flaps With one or two types it is possible to glide almost at diving angle without exceeding a certain quite reasonabl air speed, and all that is necessary is to point the machil at the boundary hedge and then find some means of gettin rid of the excess speed* In any case it is not a seriou matter (except to the underwriters) if the outfit rolls on inl the opposite hedge ; at least one is on the ground. Needless to say, the flap fittings must be strong, and always think that it is an admission of failure somewhei if there is a large notice on the dashboard to say ths '' this machine must not be flown at speeds in excess < x miles an hour with the flaps down." The flaps shoui
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