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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2214.PDF
ber of cross-country flights in formation were carried out at week-ends, and visits were made to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Weather, however, prevented two formations of Tutors from reaching Aldergrove. Less ex perienced pilots made the round flight Bircham Newton- Martlesham-Hawkinge-Tangmere-Abingdon. Two mem bers had to make forced landings, which were both successfully carried out. One Audax with a faulty car buretter was very cleverly put down over some trees into a small field by a pilot who is also a member of the Cambridge Gliding Club. There are actually seven members of the Cambridge b FLIGHT. AUGUST 4, 1938. Very pretty formation : The leading Cadet was flown by one of the instructors, but all the other eight were piloted by members of the squadron. Gliding Club in the squad ron, and they are all good pilots. That club made quite a name for itself at the recent gliding meeting at Dunstable. The Chief In structor, Wing Cdr. C. E. W. Lockyer, highly approves of gliding as an auxiliary to power flying. One glider pilot went solo on a Cadet on his second day of instruction. Though Cecil Rhodes had nothing to do with Cambridge, that University has quite a strong connection with the Dominions, and the C.U.A.S. includes two Canadians, two Australians, one New Zealander and nine South Africans. No fewer than thirty-five members are leaving the squadron this year, but there will not be the least difficulty in filling the vacancies with men just as good as those who have gone out to fly in the big open spaces of the world. " Flight " photoarank. "MUDDLING" in AUSTRALIA Some Caustic Comments H ' AMPERED at every step since the early days by the short-sighted and muddling control of the Defence Department, civil aviation in Australia is now in " greater need of divorce from such supervision than at any other time in its history. With the institution of the Empire flying-boat service and internal development at an advanced stage, it is now too important a branch of the public service to be juggled about by politicians possessing little knowledge of its importance or potentialities." So writes an Australian correspondent, whose views arrived after the Dar win affair. For long the public and airline operators have suffered, he goes on to say, from the pig-headedness of the Defence Depart ment, and the last straw is seen in the extraordinary muddle in which the Defence Department has left the Australian end of the Empire flying-boat service. Although the Department has known for months that the base would have to be con structed, Rose Bay, the Sydney terminal, will not be com pleted until September. At the moment it is but a primitive mixture of huts, galvanised iron and concrete, and has no repair facilities. Until it is finished, passengers from Europe by flying-boats will be able to contrast the higgledy-piggledy of the base with the new Singapore airport, and Australians will be able to console themselves with Mr. Thorby's assurance that "ground organisation has reached a sufficiently advanced stage." Also, Australians must continue paying fpd,, the highest air mail rate in the Empire, to write to England. Then, too, no concrete plan of distributing the mails when once they reach Australia has yet been formulated. Simul taneous delivery, utilising the inter-capital air services, would almost certainly require night flying—and Australian airports have not got the necessary equipment. At Essendon, the air port of Melbourne, for instance, the ultra-short-wave trans mitter has been installed for over a year and is not yet in operation. But it is not only in the air mail business that the Defence Department is showing its ignorance of civil aviation matters and remedies. It is hopelessly out of touch with the rest of the world in developing airports and air routes. For instance, not one major terminal in Australia has modern facilities for the public. Sydney and Melbourne airports, even, are still primitive in many respects. The only visible modern conveni ences specially provided for passengers have been the thought of the private companies Most of the country airports are hasty structures of rusty petrol tins, their surfaces pitted and covered with stones and mounds. No insurance company in Australia will grant policies to airlines for damages received to their machines on provincial landing grounds. Several of these aerodromes are not even fenced off and pilots have to '' shoot up '' the stock into a corner of the field before they can land. Even the maps issued by the Defence Department are inadequate for the needs of pilots and, in several instances lately, have been proved inaccurate. "Never at any time," concludes the writer, "has the De partment mapped out a concrete plan of progress. It has blun dered on and on. Everything which has been done to bring civil aviation to modern standards has been done by private airlines in the face of opposition from the Defence Ministers of the day. The sooner civil aviation is divorced from its control the better it will be." Forthcoming Events August 20. Eastbourne Flying Club; Garden Party and Opening of New Club-house. August 27-28. Southend Flying Club: Flying Meeting and Race. September 3. Cinque Ports Wakefield Cup Race, Lympne. September 10. Cardiff Aeroplane Club: London-Cardiff Race. September 11-18. Swedish Civil Aviation Week. September 21. Aero Golfing Society: Cellon Trophy, Richmond Golf Club. November 18-December 4. Paris Aero Show.
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