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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1040.PDF
APRIL 6, 1939 . FLIGHT. CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. THOSE LANDING FEES A Lympne Experience MAY I through the medium of your columns lodge a protest against the imposition of landing fees at certain aero dromes, notably those run by the Government? I recently had cause to land at Lympne on a trip on which I was in the air for i£ hours, using approximately 7 gallons of petrol on which the State gets a tax return of 4s. 8d. On landing I was promptly seized by upwards of half a dozen officials-and escorted to an office where I was made the richer, by one printed form (C.A. form 10) and the poorer by 3s. 6d. On taking off from the same aerodrome I was forced to start up my own machine without chocks and without anybody at the controls. Seeing that the Government is trying to encourage private and club flying by subsidies to bring down the cost to a few shillings an hour, the charge of such a landing fee, coupled with the utter lack of service, seems to be absurd. Ditchling, Sussex. F. FOSTER (Eastbourne F.C.). THE EMPIRE AIR DAY POSTER A Criticism T WONDERED if you had noticed that once again the -i. organisers of the Empire Air Day poster competition have accepted an unauthentic painting. The machines are presum ably Hurricanes, but the cocades on the underside of the wing are outlined with a yellow ring. Since the undersides of fighters are silver, the cocades should not be outlined at all. This is a common mistake amongst aeronautical artists, and I think the Air League of the British Empire should exercise more care to take authenticity into consideration when judging posters. Last year's effort, as Flight remarked, was a disgrace. Warrington, Lanes. O. G. THETFORD. [We feel that our correspondent is a little hypercritical of an otherwise very effective drawing. Incidentally, quite a number of R.A.F. fighters now have the underside of one wing painted black and the other white.—ED.] AERODROME SITES —And the Price of Them AS the British public's " airmindedness " increases, so, it seems, do the difficulties that beset the would-be aero drome-owner in his search for a suitable site! And even when he is fortunate enough to locate a ground both eligible for an Air Ministry licence and near to a promising centre (no easy task in these days of housing ex pansion), the price that owners demand for such land is usually exorbitant. I wonder whether there is no means of checking this ever- increasing '' racket " ? I should be only too glad to hear that there does exist some society to further the interests of the aerodrome-seeker, or to hear of any " non-racketeers " willing to sell. D. DAVIES. Wells, Somerset. MERELY A LINK The Ground Radio Operator Talks THERE is no doubt that many people have read Mr. •»• George F. Yuill's most interesting and instructive article, headed " QBI and Why," and published in Flight of March 16. Quite a number of them will thus have been introduced to little details of which they had no previous knowledge, or to which they had given very little thought. Of a certainty, the result will be that greater care is taken in future when QBI conditions prevail. There is reason to regret, however, that Mr. Yuill had not the time (or the space) to introduce one man to whom much greater consideration should be shown, not only in QBI, but at all times—the man who has to bear the brunt of the idiosyncrasies of inconsiderate aircraft commanders, of the thoughtlessness and carelessness of selfish air radio operators, and of the over-zealousness of highly strung A.T.C.O.s—the ; grmind-station radio operator. The first are apt, very often, to believe that they are the °nly people flying; the second seem, at times, to expect the ! ground man to read their minds rather than their morse; the third thinks he is not doing his work properly unless he is ensuring an unpunctuated " running commentary " from ground to air. Add to these difficulties the QRM conditions on the aircraft waves and the evil of bad static conditions, bearing in mind that the ground man cannot ask, " QAR? " The resultant gives the position without QBI. In QBI the bad static conditions are, fortunately, very rare, but they are replaced in full by the additional number of com munications, addressed not only to and from the ground station under consideration, but to and from perhaps half a dozen more, all willing and anxious to give their best possible service to the aircraft which they serve. It is not difficult to realise that if the ground-station operator were to " crack " under these conditions the highly organised Control department would become inoperative. He does not crack, of course; in fact, of all concerned, he is probably the coolest and most efficient man at his job. His is the hand on the " gonio " and his the responsibility for the accuracy of bearings, and, QRM or no, he must give bearings upon which a pilot can rely. QDMs at the rate of three a minute—no unusual figure—with the knowledge that several other machines are awaiting his assistance, is no joke. Can an operator be blamed for a little exasperation if, as Mr. Yuill says, someone asks " QTR? " in the middle of it, if he has to ask for a repetition of a " QGV QFG QAL " because of a careless trans mission of it, or if a Control chit is pushed under his nose requesting some irrelevant or, at the moment, unnecessary information ? A prominent official recently described the ground radio staff as " merely a link." A day in the radio office of an area station would show that it is the whole chain—a very efficient, conscientious, patient, courteous and ill-appreciated chain. In spite of the foregoing remarks, it must be admitted that many pilots, air operators and A.T.C.O.s think that the " Reglements " is quite a good idea. TELE. Lanes. FOR BALLOON ENTHUSIASTS A Chance to Get Together THE Air League of the British Empire, which exists for the advancement of British aeronautics, desires to form a lighter-than-air branch. The object of this branch is to band together in one organisation all those who have served, or who are serving, with airships or balloons, or whose interests lie in aerostation as distant from aviation. With the formation of the Balloon Barrage Squadrons of the Auxiliary Air Force, the time seems opportune for this move, and it is hoped that all lighter-than-air men will come forward to support this effort. All interested are invited to write to the Air League of the British Empire, Maxwell House, Arundel Street, London, W.C.2. Unity is strength, and it is quite possible that if such an organisation had been formed at the end of the war, British airships would still be flying and a larger reserve of experienced personnel would be in existence, which would have been of assistance to the Balloon Barrage. VENTRY, London, W.C.2. H. DELACOMBE, J. S. WHEELWRIGHT, J. G. HUDSON. CONTROL AXES An Author's Amendment I SHOULD like to amplify the reference I made to the American " slot-lip " aileron in my article in The Aircraft Engineer supplement to Flight of March 23. The general shape of the curve is similar to the spoiler curve, but the control does not suffer from " lag " to any serious extent, whereas the spoiler is spoilt bv this. The slot-lip aileron does suffer from a noticeable " sluggishness " in developing its full rolling power, however, and it also involves a serious drag due to the hole in the wing, which reduces the rate of climb very badly. For these reasons and because of its excessive vawing moment when used at high speed it falls far short of an ideal lateral control. I regret that I did not make this more clear. I must also correct some misleading wording in Fig. 3, where the inertia ratios are shown as being wing:body ratios; they are of course, body:wing ratios, as should be clear from the text. w- E- GRAY- Edgware.
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