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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2170.PDF
86 FLIGHT. JULY 28, 1938. PRJ Topics of the Day Spoon-feeding W ELL, the clubs really are^to be State-fed out of a very large spoon; there will be little need for them to worry their collec tive heads about ways and means of obtaining new novitiates and of inducing the just " A "-licenced pilots to continue their flying—up to the somewhat feeble maximum of ten hours. Very nice, too. But it is a pity, per haps, that the clubs have found it necessary to pay for their continuance by losing at least some of their freedom. From now on there is the risk that they will become little military organisations with the accent right off whatever there ever was of "private flying." Needless to say, clubs deserved and needed more assistance for their very survival, and they have, in any case, been partly dependent on Government subsidy during the past thirteen years. The awful part about it, though, is the realisation that private flying, as such, has proved incapable of being self-supporting, and nearly everything to do with aviation is now roped in under State control. There remains the six-hundred-odd private owners, who will continue, pre sumably, to pay through the nose for freedom. They are not likely to be encouraged to give up their aeroplanes merely for the sake of ten hours' virtually free flying every year, and I have always considered that ownership is the best means of finding out all about real flying. Encouraging Manufacture I N the meantime, it remains to be seen which way the clubs will turn for the kind of machine which, while having useful training characteristics, will be really cheap to operate. The scheme allows for different rates of pay ment for larger and smaller types, so that each will have an equal chance, but previously there has been no direct encouragement for the manufacturers of the little fellows. There are now two or three really good British light weights, in the true sense of the word, either in active production or coming along, and if it does nothing else, the subsidy may help a few patient manufacturers who have been struggling along during the last year or two. The initial ultra-light mania has faded out and those machines which still remain on the market are both safe and useful. With the fillip provided by the new assist ance, manufacturers will have an opportunity of getting down to the business of designing and producing even better light aeroplanes at a low price, and in the end we may, after all, see a new era of private ownership. Un fortunately, and for the moment, foreign light aeroplanes will be allowed to compete—but that is the fault of our manufacturers. The position is not quite so rosy in the matter of power units. At the moment there is only one British engine of 50 to 60 h.p. available, and, of two useful machines now to be bought in the smaller class, one is fitted with a Czechoslovakian engine and the other with a converted car engine. Both are excellent in their way, but the first has to be imported from abroad (for the present at any rate) and the second is not an aero engine within the meaning of the Act—and the Air Guard machines must have a C. of A. Next year we should see something really good in the 80 h.p. class. matter, and, unless a firm considers that there is a guaran teed sale in hundreds or even thousands, its manufacture is obviously not worth while. Not only are development costs quite high, but the business of preparing for produc tion is even more expensive. One ox two manufacturers may now consider that the expenditure is worth while and, once the engines in the smaller sizes have proved their worth, there should be quite a useful sale abroad. Afterwards I N the midst of all these good tidings, it is worth remem bering that only ten hours' flying is subsidised and secretaries will still be worrying about ways and means of keeping people in the air beyond this figure. Some quite useful suggestions were put to me recently. My in formant was an instructor at a club which, in spite of what might be considered as an unproductive locality, has been slowly increasing its hourage figures and its member ship since it started operations a year or two ago. This instructor's idea was to make things difficult, but not too difficult, for the "A" licensees. For instance, before members are allowed to go on cross-country flights they must pass quite a stiff general flying test and have flown for three hours under the hood. You might reasonably ask whether it is a good thing thus to encourage novices in the idea of plunging into bad weather, but the district concerned has some very queer weather characteristics and there are times when it is safer to go up (and fly towards the sea) than to come down. Furthermore, most of the cross-countries from this locality must be made over stretches of water, and anybody who has tried to fly straight and level in poor visibility over water will have appreciated the advantage of blind-flying training. Even when the visibility is such that no diffi culty would be experienced when flying over land, its effect on over-sea flying is to remove all vestige of horizon and the only alternative for the non-blind-flying pilot— if he is not to suffer the occasional appearance of a per fectly good ship apparently sitting at an absurd angle in quite the wrong place—is to fly at a dangerously low altitude. With a turn indicator, and the ability to use it, most of these difficulties disappear. At this club, too, there is a " performance " board which is hung for all to see, and on this board are the names of the members against columns which are headed according to their varying proficiencies. So that no member is able to shoot a line about his capabilities unless these capa bilities are real and true. The idea of insisting on refresher dual after every hour or two of solo flying is not new and is standard practice at the Reserve schools n demanded in the right way, while dangling before the member the hope of new freedom in the future, it is not difficult to get him to suffer this dual without feeling While conventionally constructed aeroplanes can still be that he is wasting his time and money. So much depends built one at a time, a power unit is rather a different on the instructor himself. INDICATOR.
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