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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1108.PDF
FLIGHT " Indicator " Discusses Topics of the Day JUNE jm, 1945 A Pilot's Job is No Sinecure Teaching a Better Understanding Between Qround and Flying Staffs : The Need for Patience and Confidence on Both Sides : Some Earthbound Misconceptions PEOPLE in their judgments and ideals have alwaystended to jump from one extreme to another. In. our particular world of flying people the haloed, be- goggled, moustachioed, heroic and all-knowing aeronaut, who at one time could do no wrong, is tending to slip down into the" category of a mere Airframe Driver Mark One. Because it has been found, that Smith, Jones, and Robinson can all be taught to fly in much the same way as they can be taught to drive cars, there is a distinct tendency amongst laymen to think that there is nothing in this flying business. There isn't, as far as the mere conditioned reflexes of aircraft control are concerned. But there is, and will always be, something very special about the man or woman who can fly anything anywhere with absolute safety. Flying of a serious nature—whether on transport runs, operations or testing—involves a pilot in a series of judgment balances and a degree of almost subconscious concentration which are needed in few other professions. Some of the "automatic" skill in judging such things as weather, approach conditions and innate serviceability is the direct result of experience, but the capacity for quick, calm thinking must also be there. Not that I would suggest for a moment that there anything miraculous about it, or that the good pilots in any possible way a superman. Far from it. ^ is a speechless gap between the pilot who knowX m^rst of the answers and the however-clever technician/ or organiser to whom flying seems to be merely the reflex control of a mechanical contrivaj that this gap must be filled if the delays caused by what can only be called dumt are to be avoided. Very considerable amour and labour are wasted at factories and in mainijbnS tions because insufficient attention is sometiriies pilots' -reports or impressions. It isn't suggested thiS expert judgments of professional test pilots ard doi " though flight shed foremen will occasionally Vtiy* 10 re- think for them—but that the often vague reports of cast pilots tend to be treated as mere temperamental imaginings. Ground Crew's Opinions It seems to be impossible for the average member of a ground staff to get the idea out of his head that pilots are, by their very nature, addle-brained and tempera- mental. Why, since they have been drawn from all sec- tions of the community and were once, presumably, normal citizens, should they be? The nature of their work tends to make them, at times, somewhat short-tempered and impatient with people who seem, at the time, to be lacking in understanding. The flying of an aircraft doesn't begin with the take-off and end with the landing. While walk- ing towards his aircraft and organising himself therein, a pilot is already mentally involved in the flight, and for some time afterwards he is re-living the various incidents during the trip so that he can add to the sum-total of his useful experience. With large and complicated air- craft, especially, the captain has a very great deal on his mind while preparing for the take-off, and the entire safety of the crew and/or passengers depends on the accuracy of his judgment and the reliability of his memory. A simple, safe rule for ground staff could be: Never talk to tine driver except on matters of urgency while he is preparing for a flighi. during the flight, or for a period walk away and' later he coul polite and re; of ten minuses or so afterwards. The expert amateur psychologist will see quite easily when that '' inner-life look has left the pilot, and he is prepared to discuss the aircraft or the weather, or even to explain patiently some point which cannot be easily grasped by those who do not spend most of their working time in the air. In his turn the" pilot should know when not to discuss his particular problems with technicians and others who have their own difficulties. One doesn't barge into a drawing office to buttonhole the chief designer while he is in the middle of some abstruse calculations ja^order to tell him that there is a bad oil-leak from Number Three motor; or into the managing director's-office to say that a passenger has been sick. Why, then, be surprised when a pilot is a little short-tempered if silly theories are expounded to him just as he climbs out of a/i unserviceable aircraft? Tolerating Tolerances And some very aflly theories are expounded at just such unfortunate momapts. Let me give some examples from my own limited sfore of-experience. Once, after struggling back*4»<rnTe~»<an dhe engine of a twin, an otherwise quite elligent engineer seriously suggested that the trouble might merely tf|ve b^n a faulty boost gauge. I had to over myself before speaking ; ten minutes ,ve made that suggestion and received a ed reply. Then there is the "tolerance" read all the gen. books. You bring back rfa very low oil pressure and a very high When you have given him the figures :s up as he explains that, according to the i these figures is within the permitted toler-r ely they are—for five minutes only, for one "a time, and for abnormal conditions. All you is that it is possible for a huma^ being to have a temperature of 105 deg. and still live-^fut that he wouldn't considered to be in the best of health. You may report Ehe fact that the c.s. stop-controlled engine revolutions are a hundred low. He will then ask you for the boost reading' at the time, and will discover somewhere in his books that the run-up revolutions should be between this and that. Constant-speed airscrews are still a source of fantastic mis-' understandings among engine fitters. There is the Senior Wrangler who still insists on think- ing of the wind-effects as if an aircraft behaved like a kite on the end of a piece of string. When asking for more rudder bias, one way or the other, I've been asked in all seriousness whether I had allowed for the cros^Xvind, and the story about the high-ranking officer who put a high radiator temperature down to the fact that the pilot had been climbing "down-wind" is by no means apocryphal in basis. Very similar explanations have been offered at one time or another to nearly all pilots, and I wonder how many riggers have attempted to correct a lateral trim defect by adjusting the relative lengths of the aileron cables ? Finally, there are the weather experts who have come quietly, through their own unaided observations of cause and effect, to the conviction that all pilots judge the suit- ability of the weather on a basis of their own desire, or lack of a desire, to fly. How else can it be explained that a pilot will go off happily to do a job of work on one day when it its pouring cats and dogs, yet will* refuse adam- antly to take the air on another day when the sun is brightly shining? To him, rain may be "bad" weather
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