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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0369.PDF
FEBRUARY 9, 1939 FLIGHT. 141 COMMERCIAL AVIATION K.LM. IN THE WEST INDIES : Hato aerodrome, Curacao, with two K.L.M. Lockheed 14s and one of the Fokker F.i8s which have been used by the company since the services started after the first F.18 had been flown across the South Atlantic. THE WEEK AT CROYDON " A. Viator's " Critical Commentary on Airport and Airline Affairs BRITISH AIRWAYS, LTD., were still operating to and from Croydon last week (Heston having been waterlogged), and towards the end of that period practically all signs of sogginess had disappeared, thanks to the rapid natural drainage of our chalk soil at Croydon. It was never really bad, in spite of the odd machine getting bogged in a fairly well-known swampy corner; and to deduce a shockingly soft surface from one wet patch is typical of the modern newspaper reporter, who frequently writes before he thinks. As well walk into the Thornton Heath pond on the way home from a party and then, despite the good, dry highway, announce that Thornton Heath is flooded. It is curious how, on some damp, misty days, the Croydon smoke smudge lays a trail of thick, white fog right across the landing area from one side to the other. From the ground it looks like a formidable fog bank, but pilots say that it looks worse than it is and does not interfere with landing. Up North Someone was telling me about the internal airlines, especially up North, and of the amazing regularity of the services in every sort of unfavourable weather and in spite of lack of essential radio and navigational assistance. Pilots not only put -up a wonderful show on some of these lines, of which we rarely hear much, but they are not above ticket-collecting, giving a hand with the bag gage, heaving a fat farmer or market woman up the steps into the cabin, and so forth. Three gold cuff-bands up North do not necessarily mean "Touch me not, damme: I'm the Captain. Can't you see my shammy leather gloves? " Mind you, I think a little of that attitude, coupled with a really smart, well- groomed appearance, is an asset on the London Con tinent lines, but where your clients are farmers in muddy leggings, drovers, dairymaids a-marketing, and so forth, it would not be sense. The farming folk very sensibly treat the aeroplane ride like a bus ride themselves, and they would not expect to find the Captain of the Queen Mary- driving their market bus. One or two newspapers begin to wax enthusiastic about Fairlop and Lullingstone already. Neither of these airports is supposed to be ready until 1942, when Croydon is to be temporarily put out of action for renovation. Meanwhile, new hangars are being put up at Croydon by the better-late-than-never boys, to whom we went on our bended knees for such accommodation about ten years ago. What seems likely to happen now is that these hangars will just about be ready in 1942 when both they and the rest of the buildings here will be pulled down and new ones erected in a more suitable position. Perpetual Motion It will be a bit awkward if the last roofing tiles are being placed in position on the new hangars on the very day the gang comes along to start tearing them down. You get something closely resembling perpetual motion (allowing time off for meals, of course) if A removes the last tile under instructions from the Directorate of Demolition every time B, taking his orders from the Directorate of Con struction, solemnly lays it in place. A newspaper describes the present derelict state of the Lullingstone site in the following picturesque words : -— " A scarecrow, drying its tattered jacket in the afternoon sunshine, still stood on the site where one day a traffic controller may greet a flying liner from some far corner of the Empire." That would not be a scarecrow, laddie, but an advance party of Works and Bricks brooding over the possibility of digging a series of holes in an otherwise excellent landing area and marking them with obstruction boards. W. and B. are firmly convinced that awkwardly placed excavations are as essential to an airport as bunkers are to a golf course. Last Thursday the English ice hockey team flew from Croydon to Zurich, where (and at Basle) the world cham pionship is being played. They travelled by Swissair. TRAINING FOR TO-DAY ALTHOUGH Air Service Training activities have, during ** the past year, been largely concerned with turning out Reserve pilots at Hamble and Anstey, the ordinary commercial training courses continue as usual. At the end of last year twenty-seven students were engaged on the three years' com mercial pilots course and thirty-two on the two years' ground engineering course. The work in transport training is now con siderably assisted by the fact that the Hamble fleet includes no fewer than seven multi-engined machines of different types, including an Avro Avalon and one Airspeed Envoy, and that, during the year, an Adcock type of D/F receiver was installed at Hamble for instructional purposes. Altogether, far from easing up on the commercial side, A.S.T. are expanding and are making a special point of providing really adequate blind- flying and blind-approach training to suit modern transport conditions.
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