FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1788.PDF
6T6 FLIGHT. JUNE 23, 1938. PRIVATE FLYING Topics of the Day *' Flight " photograph ComfortI N searching for the possible reasons, apart from the obvious effect of Reserve and V.R. flying, for the un- doubted general decline in useful club membership, it suddenly occurred to me the other day that the type of machine generally used by the clubs might at least have a strong bearing on the matter. Whatever advantages the conventional open two-seater machine may have for train- ing purposes, this type is undoubtedly a very displeasing one for normal travel—except, of course, in fine and warm weather. More recently I have been fairly lucky either in my weather with open machines or in the mere obtaining, in other conditions, of closed machines. ' A week or two ago I was, however, compelled to fly the odd 250 miles in an open machine, and I appreciated then the reason why so many once enthusiastic amateurs had given up the at- tempt to use such aeroplanes for serious travel. In -the first place, it is necessary to cover oneself with the most extraordinary selection of clothes if one is to be even reasonably warm, and in the second the entire busi- ness of attaching Sutton harness and so forth is too much like hard work. Furthermore, there is rarely any niche suitable for maps and incidentals, and if a selection of these is, by any chance, placed in the little locker which is sometimes found at the top of the dashboard, the entire paraphernalia usually comes out of its hiding place and is blown away as the throttle is opened for the take-off— acceleration and slipstream each doing its worst. When I first started cross-country flying in the type— which was the only one available at that time—I used to stuff the maps into the front of my coat and then have the greatest possible difficulty in finding the one I wanted. That in actual use was generally held in the throttle hand, so that when some adjustment was required to normalise the engine revolutions, the map was promptly dropped and blown away down the fuselage. Statistical I NSPIRED with this sudden belief that the predominance * of the open type of machine was largely to blame for the fact that people tend to give up flying after they have obtained their licences, I made a study of the fleets which are actually in use by the different clubs in this country. As it happened, the results of this investigation tended rather to cause the collapse of my thesis. Out of sixty- five-odd clubs thirty of them own and use cabin machines (some of the lightweight type), and there are no fewer than fifty of such machines, of different shapes and sizes, in active use. Nevertheless, only twelve of the clubs—at least at the time of the census—possessed more than one comfortable aeroplane each, so it is always possible that my suggestion does hold. Everybody knows how difficult it is to obtain the use of a club's one and only much-prized Hornet, Straight or Leopard ; you are lucky if this machine can be spared on normal occasions for more than a couple of hours, and not at the week-end. There is another point about the cabin type. One can go right up as high as one likes in it without dying of cold. On two trips last week I flew the major part of the dis- tances at an altitude of 8,000ft.—in each case above the cloud layer, and, consequently, in air which was unbeliev- ably smooth. On the second of these trips the wind speed was of the 40 m.p.h. order, and the conditions from 3,000ft. • downwards were exceptionally uncomfortable ; higher than that one entered the area of thermal currents, and it was only above the clouds that the machine finally settled down. And settle down it did ; for nearly twenty minutes my machine last Sunday (a Hornet) flew entirely by itself on a reasonably accurate compass course while I busied myself working out E.T.A.s, unpacking my bag, taking photographs (evidence above) and changing films. Transport Technique ONE of the more amusing points about this semistratosphere flying is that the correct moment for the start of descent can be worked out quite accurately in order to arrive at the terminal aerodrome with just a thousand feet in hand and no more. In order to save your ear drums, this descent is carried out on what the trans- port people call "power glide" lines, keeping the revo- lutions at the normal figure while the speed is, say, 20 m.p.h. higher than that of level flight. The principle involved is that, in the first place, of estimating the dis- tance covered while losing the first few thousand feet; but, after doing it once or twice with the same machine, the moment can be gauged with reasonable accuracy. Needless to say, this sort of flying is only to be recom- mended when there are good, large breaks in the cloud layer, otherwise you will find yourself contravening all the regulations that were ever made, and, incidentally, but not unimportantly, frightening yourself out of your wits. Such tactics certainly add to the interest of a long cross- country, and teach one something about the use of the mixture control. When nearing the 10,000ft. mark you will find that full throttle and almost full mixture can be used, while the fuel consumption over the whole trip is, if anything, less than that of a similar flight made at the usual levels. INDICATOR-
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
