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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0185.PDF
JANUARY 1945 FLIGHT IOX "Indicator" Discusses Topics of the Day 'Passenger-coDscioiis99 Pilots Making Transport Flying Feel Safe : Considering the ((Eggs in the Basket" t The Necessity for Smooth Flying and Unworried "Drill" ONE of the many things that must be grafted intothe perfect transport pilot is something that I canonly describe as a "passenger-consciousness." For some time before the war attempts were made to disciplineairline pilots by way of obtaining the same result, but no discipline or nagging in the world can really produce thedesired effect. This must grow in, and be thoroughly appreciated by, the pilots themselves. It is very largely a question of putting oneself in theother person's place.. The transport pilot must never for- The scene was set at a comfortably large airfield with-—'a very adequate series of aids and guides of all kinds. • Visibility was of the order of 500 to 1,000 yards ;• there wasa broken cloud layer at 200ft. A.G.L. ; and there appeared to be a main base at about 800ft. Improvement waspromised, and, in- fact, within a couple of hours conditions were reasonably flyable for any sort of aircraft; further-more, the crew had been informed that another airfield some distance away was offering six miles' visibility and a1,500ft. cloud base. We will give the pilot the benefit get the passengers and crew; he must never do his job— of the doubt and forget that he may have had a date nearin the way in which he-wants to do it; he must never his base, while we may even take it for granted, too, that—** forget, even in the most harassing moments, that he is his fuel reserves were inadequate for further flying. Wenot alone in the aircraft. The cardinal error can best will forget, too, that his terminal Met. report should have be described as that, inevitably developed by almogt^HRy Gausei_him, in any case, to cancel the run. We will pro-single-seater pilot and, more particularly, by a»yfest pilot. tend iSSfhsJiad. to get through, and that L once through,The latter offers the extreme example; he is necessarily interested only in the aircraft and himself. Ultimately, no amount of lecturing or talking or readingcan make a pilot "passenger-conscious," and no, amount of discipline will do more than prevent the mc^re glaringexamples of self-sufficiency; Both can be a re set the pilot's habits so that he is never, at any'standingly inconsiderate, but the real thing naturally in the pilot's way of unconscious thithat he never imagines himself, even for a m> be alone or to be the solely interested party i:ment he cares to make. The eggs are always in and the basket is always full; furthermore, the eggs arevery easily broken. „. If I hadn't, time and again, seen examples of.appallingairmanship from the passengers' point of view—and if I hadn't several times been a very worried egg myself—I wouldn't consider the point worth stressing. Maybe the— majority of the passengers sit back somnolently and accepteverything—but I very much doubt it. And year by year the passengers will become more and more" educated," and will expect better and more accurate and "bookish" flying from their crews. Pilot Preference I won't labour the point by citing all the moments ina flight when smooth and unworried "drill" is vitally necessary, or when any sign of raggedness in the procedurewill be noticed by the least air-conscious of passengers. But I will say that, even in the ignorant years, a surpris-ingly large number of ordinary persons had very definite— preferences and prejudices where companies and even in-dividual crews were concerned. After this war is over they are likely to have even more preferences and prejudices,and there will be quite a fair proportion of passengers who have that unpleasant itch of the driver-being-driven. Take-off technique is vital, and approach technique inbad conditions is doubly vital. Anything that happens between the two is largely a matter of indifference exceptto passengers with unstable interiors. The most moronic and ignorant passengers will know quite well whether or he had to land-a| his particular airfield. Conditions werenot, in fact, imp everything went re1 Since I was sible^-Snd were almost safe, provided5nably according to plan. ! the aircraft I will not attempt to giveIry on the whole performance. After comparatively dignified circuits andies,ythe efforts culminated in what can only.—" 'a succession of wild stabs. The circuits'low-level beat-ups with their centre about from the end of the runway in use. Inas soon as the pilot saw the field he started a tujpr^reparatory to another attempt, and on each Guess-F-God attack the aircraft's altitude became lower and lower. One spectator described the whole thing quite adequately as "an approach by brute force and ignorance."Finally, he crossed the airfield boundary at approxi- mately the right place but a hundred feet too high andabout fifty miles an hour too fast, closed the throttles after— a considerable pause of apparent hesitation, executed aseries of minor turns to put the outfit in line with and over the runway, touched down about halfway down, and ground-looped to a standstill. That last I admit to be pure hear- say—with the allegation that he hit something "lightly"in the end. Maybe he didn't do either, but there must have been very little room to spare. I don't even knowwhether he had any passengers aboard ; if he had they'll be cured of air travel for all time. But merely to fly and makedecisions in such a way while in control of £? 0,000-worth of aircraft is almost a capital offence. —"""""' Arrivals of that kind should surely be made to a pat-tern. The airfield in question had V.H.F. transmitters, and its up-to-date approach lighting system was in action atthe time. Even if the aircraft's.own V.H.F. equipment had been unserviceable, the series of approaches shouldhave been made according to the old well-tried plan which, with accurate flying, will produce an approximately correctarrival to the point where the approach lighting can be seen and used. Meanwhile, the little voice in the pilot'shead should have been saying: " There's no panic ; plenty of time. If the first, second and third attempts don't bring not a pilot understands his business when it comes to a»-~ me to the right place, then the fourth will do it—and, in approach in really bad conditions. That is the final testof calm confidence as well as of " passenger-consciousness.'' By way of emphasis and explanation, let me describeone incident (or series of incidents) at the termination of a transport run with which I was vaguely concerned. Thisdescription should really carry a separate heading: '' How Not to Do It," and experienced film operators shouldhave been placed with cameras at various vantage points on the ground and in the aircraft so that special educa-tional shows could be given to all transport crews. any case, there's a good-weather airfield an hour's flyingaway. Above all, I must fly smoothly, maintain height in cloud until the right moment arrives, and give my pas-sengers no cause for alarm. ..." There may have been people who breathed '' Goodshow! " when the expensive outfit was safely grounded at ninety-odd. So it would have been if the aircraft had beena fighter with five gallons of petrol in its tanks and if the pilot had merely had the choice of "having a try " and/orgoing up to bale out. "INDICATOR."
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