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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2377.PDF
AUGUST 25, 1938. FLIGHT. J6T noticed before the engines were opened up for the take-off. The habit in each case is now so firmly embedded that it is difficult to know what to suggest to remedy this state of affairs, since to turn off the petrol of some Service and a few civil machines is a necessity—in some cases this must even be done before switching off in order to prevent the risk of fire. It might seem that the obvious solution is to insist that the " off " rule is made universal. On the other hand no Notice to Airmen or other warning will possibly prevent errors of oversight, and the risks involved in this rule would be far more numerous than the few which it would be in tended to reduce. It can only be suggested, therefore, that every pilot should be taught to make a special point of examining the position of trie petrol tap before taxying out for the take-off. That, at least, is a habit which, once in grained, should prevent any possibility of error. Precautions O NE of the chief reasons for air raid precautions is the prevention of panic. If air raids ever take place it may well happen that no gas will be dropped, for gas warfare would be a breach of an international con vention, and the most unscrupulous belligerent is likely to have some regard for neutral opinion and likewise a healthy fear of reprisals. A population which was unpre pared and undrilled in air raid precautions might be such a tempting bait as to over-ride these considerations, but a people equipped and disciplined will not be suscepti ble to the panic which is the only military object that ruthless bombing can hope to effect. Therefore, it is a good thing to distribute gas masks and take all the other precautions in large towns and all industrial centres, even though one feels inclined to sympathise with the opinion of the senior R.A.F. officer who does not think much of such things but puts his trust in the Fighter Command. None the less, common sense ought to put a limit to efforts which may do little good and certainly cost money and use up energy. In remote country villages and small towns with no expansion factories one sees advertisements calling on the inhabitants to roll up and volunteer for A.R.P. Not even the most besotted enemy is going to bomb such places with deliberation. Bombs might be dropped on some of them by accident, but the chances against any single one being hit are so small as to be un worthy of consideration. Why should the A.R.P. enthusiasts worry the people of such places ? The villagers can do far better work by joining the Observer Corps. Fire Over England M ANY must have scratched their heads over the recent statement by Gen. Sir Walter Kirke, Director-General of the Territorial Army, that the initial cost of putting one man behind a searchlight was £300. Searchlights must be cheap enough, as defence armament goes, and presumably this figure alludes to the overheads of the A.A. branch of the Territorial Army, such as drill halls and instruction staff. It seems that it costs just as much to put a non-existent man behind a search light, for the cost is reckoned by authorised establishment, not by figures of effectives in the battalions. So every man who enlists in one of these battalions saves the country from wasting ^300 on nothing. The General went on to say that if the country were to be invaded by air the searchlights would play the part of the beacons on the hill-tops which aroused England on the night when news came that the Armada had been sighted. Many will remember Macaulay's stirring poem on the subject, ending with the line, "And the red glare on Skiddaw roused the burgers of Carlisle," and probably still more have seen the film, "Fire Over England." But Sir Walter, doubtless in ignorance, when he made this claim for the searchlights trespassed on someone else's ground. The beacon fire on the hill-top is the badge of the Observer Corps, and it is that corps which will spread the news of the approach of raiding bombers. No search light beam will be exposed until after the Observer posts have sent in their warning reports. They work in dark ness, and their warnings are not blazoned abroad, but to them will belong the honour of wakening the defences. Nuisance Value J UDGING from the opinions expressed by a correspondent in one of our leading daily newspapers, it might be imagined that aeroplane private owners are almost as numerous as car owners. He has been complaining some what bitterly about the noise nuisance caused by civil pilots in particular, and in his latest effusion he modifies the word ' civil '' to become '' private ''—the suggestion being that he will put up with all the noise in the world from Service and transport but not from private machines. At the end of this letter he even suggests that '' there should be no time or machines for civil aviation other than that which is purely and essentially for commercial transit." This, surely, is carrying the idea of regimentation to a ridiculous extreme. And how would he care to have his car ordered off the road? But the real point is that if all civil machines other than those used for serious commercial work were suddenly taken out of the sky one doubts very much if he would notice any difference. The proportion between the number of such machines and those used for Service, Reserve and commercial flying must be something like fifty to one. In general and in short, this correspondent's letters remind one very much of those, couched in exactly the same words, which were sent to the papers in the very early days of motoring. Noise is a nuisance, and people living in the vicinity of Reserve schools probably suffer a good deal, but to blame private pilots for it all is nothing less than fatuous. There are many features of civilisation which are mildly unpleasant, but the flying machine has merely appeared alongside the automobile, the wireless, the cinema and the provision of adequate sanitation. The only alternative to these advances (or otherwise) is a return to the cave and the tree-top. We must take them or leave them. Personal Licensing I F the reactions to the Civil Air Guard scheme have done nothing else, they have at least brought into prominence the distinctly anomalous situation in the matter of in structors' licences and of pilots' licences in general. Various people who have previously taken no particular interest in the legal position have found it necessary to search through a mass of official literature to discover whether or not "A " licence pilots may carry out instruc tion. In the course of this search they have realised that the regulations concerned are most unsatisfactorily worded, and that, in fact, only a first-class lawyer can be expected to understand the present situation. Anyone who has seen the American regulations concerning pilots' licences will appreciate the need, in our own case, for a complete revision of the entire series of regulations. Not the least depressing feature of our own documents dealing with the licensing question is that the " B " licence is apparently considered not so much as a standard of efficiency, and even a professional diploma, for a pilot, as a necessary operating attribute of a machine used for the carriage of goods and passengers for hire or reward. Flying has now become a serious profession for a great many people, and it is entirely necessary that this profession should have its standards of efficiency. The idea of dealing with this standard merely as part and parcel of transport licensing is bureaucratic in the extreme. In the meantime, we might ask what is being done about the long-considered suggestion that there should be two or more grades in the "B" licence category?^ Briefly, that there should be an initial licence to permit suitably experi enced pilots to fly professionally in certain work and another for those pilots who are experienced enough to be considered as capable of being in full charge of transport aeroplanes in regular service. Some two years ago the G. A.P.A.N. worked out a scheme on these lines, but soon afterwards, for political reasons or otherwise, the whole matter was handed over to the Air Registration Beard, who are now responsible for any change which .may be made. Two years is a long period, and it is time that some workable scheme was put into action. DIARY OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS—PAGE 174. A 13
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