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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1859.PDF
0 Airways, for instance, were operating the Paris sendee, its regularity figure during twelve months was 96 per cent., while that for the Stockholm service wa's 98 per cent. In the case of the regular night mail run to Berlin, greater freedom is allowed, since passengers' comfort need not be considered, the crew carry parachutes, and are prepared to attempt to get through whenever it is reasonably possible. During last year the night mail regularity figure was as high as 98 per cent. Until comparatively recently the whole of the opera tional side of British Airways, including the engineering department, was under the control of Mr. A. C. Campbell Orde, who has now gone over to Imperial Airways pre liminary to the merger. His place has been taken by Mr. J. V. Wood, Superintendent of Services, who is in charge of the routine work, which includes such small but im portant matters as the keeping of a complete record system of the pilots' monthly flying times and detailed qualifica tions. This information about every pilot's experience, recent work, and instructional flying is, incidentally, transferred every month to the school, so that Mr, A. R. O. McMillan, the chief instructor, can consult an ingenious index system, and each side knows exactly who is ready to fly on any particular service or charter flight and who requires certain specialised instructions. Before departing on any particular service the Com mander takes over from the operational department a case carrying a route instruction book, a specially laid-out page- by-page route map, and a larger-scale direction-finding map. The instruction books are made up by the map department and carry all the necessary flying information in quickly understandable form. There are actually seven different sections in each of these books. The first covers all the ordinary and essen tial information about the various aerodromes on the direct route, with plans of the landing areas showing the bad weather approach layout and, where this is available, the QDM of the blind-approach line. This first section is the only one normally consulted while making the run—though the pilots, of course, having had long previous experience on these different routes, need only make occasional searches for detailed information. Loading Calculators Following this main section of the book are others devoted to prohibited areas, airway lighting arrangements, wireless facilities, and meteorological codes. Finally, there is a section giving plans and necessary information about all the aerodromes, on and near the route, which may be used in cases of emergency, with a miscellaneous section for otherwise unclassifiable information, such as the loading details of the machines used on any particular service. The Lockheed 14, for instance, has four freight com partments with a special ballast hold, and in order to simplify the loading problems and at the same time to ensure that the 14, both at the take-off and during the journey, shall be comfortably and economically trimmed, British Airways have taken to the use of the Meredith Librascope. This is an American device which, after the freight loads in the various compartments and the pas senger seating positions have been "set-up " by means cf adjustment knobs, gives direct readings both of the total all-up weight and of the e.g. position. Suitable adjust ments of the freight, the passenger seating, or the ballast can then be made at once to give the desired e.g. position. The route instruction books are brought up to date month by month, but very recent or temporary information is available in the main operations office, where, also, are the company's own instructions, which are filed and are available so that pilots and others may drop in to learn of such matters as the existence of flooded areas at the differ ent airports on their prospective routes. Among the various forms which are filled up by the pilots, either during or after a particular trip, are ones describing ice accretion, with type, thickness, temperature, weather conditions and the action of the de-icing equip ment (this for the benefit of the research department); and [©CO? JUNE x5' T939 A Fokker F.12 is used by British Airways for navigational and blind approach instruction. Holding the bubble sextant is Mr. A. R. O. McMillan, ths chief instructor at the company's school a Lorenz blind-approach receiver performance record. Additionally, in order that the operations department may keep track of the experience of their new pilots, the Com mander fills in a form to explain exactly how much visual and blind-flying was done by his second pilot, with the num ber of take-offs and landings, on each trip. Before each week every pilot is given a clear summary of the duties which have been planned for him, and on the previous day the operations department sends a complete statement of a par ticular day's crews and stand-by crews on the different services to the traffic department; the operational depart ment is also responsible for advising pilots of the fact that their " B " licences, Second Class Navigators licences, or passports are about to expire. The Map Department Both the route map and D/F map are produced by Ray noil, though a special and well-equipped department at Heston has the work of drawing and redrawing the track lines, and of adding up-to-the-minute information about radio stations and prohibited areas. On the D/F map each radio station and/or light beacon has a press-stud fitting so that either the operator or one of the pilots can fit transparent arms, suitably marked in degrees and distances, on to two or three of these points in order to obtain a position. As far as possible, the crews of British Airways' machines endeavour to be self-supporting where navigation is concerned, and to obtain their own bearings, thus relieving the ground stations of the necessity of giving QDMs or QTEs when these are only required for interim position-finding purposes. The map department at Heston is concerned with the maintenance and, to some extent, with the actual produc tion of maps and charts used on the various routes. A complete file of reserve maps, covering the whole of Europe and a good deal of the rest of the world, is kept in this department and, when necessary, route maps for special charter or experimental flights can be produced at short
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