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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1432.PDF
88 FLIGHT JULY «B5TH, 1946 ALL STATIONS EAST The control buildings at Jodhpur (above) and Baigachi (Calcutta).(Right) Air Vice-Marshal H.H. The Maharajah of Jodhpur, G.C.S.I.,G.C.I.E., K.C.V.O. During the war His Highness devoted a great deal of time to the welfare of the 1,500 R.A.F. personnel inJodhpur, giving parties at which"each guest received a present. were experienced and more than sixty landings were made onevery kind of runway and airstrip. On his return to London Air Comdre. Sharp praised theD.H. Mosquito and its flying qualities highly and found scarcely anything to criticise. Of the minor troubles experi-enced with airframe and engines, three are of interest. The first, which occurred between jodhpur and Karachi on theway home, was most unusual—the breaking of a sparking plug ; possibly due ta excessive tightening, the whole body crackedabove the threads, causing very rough running, which responded somewhat to reduced boost and increased r.p.m.Another fault, which might have proved more serious, was the discovery at Wadi Haifa that the tailplane had become looseenough to move visibly. The third trouble was the need to select undercarriage "up" or "down" two or three timesto make sure both wheels were locked in position. The out- going Mediterranean leg was flown with one wheel down as aresult of the selector lever returning to neutral before the second wheel had retracted. Weather Troubles The weather was, on the whole, the greatest trouble duringthe flight. Although most of the legs were quite short, the meteorological information was often unreliable. The firstexample of this was experienced almost immediately after leav- ing Northolt. As a result of a mistral, Istres, in the South ofFrance, was unserviceable, and it was necessary to overfly to Elmas, on Sardinia. Conditions forecast for this section were3-5/ioths cloud at 3,000 feet, and wind 030 deg 30 m.p.h. The conditions actually experienced were wind 320 deg. 25 m.p.h.and cloud»io/ioths at 1,500 feet. A more serious example of inaccurate weather forecastingoccurred later at Hong Kong, where four to six miles' visibility and a cloud base of 1,800 feet were "reliably" predicted. Onarrival in the area, surrounded by 2,000-ft hills, the conditions existing were rain, cloud base under 500 ft and deterioratingvisibility of about half a mile. Much could be written of the experiences and incidentsrecalled by both pilot and navigator, but the story must be confined to useful information gathered during the few weeksof the mission. Credit must be given to the authorities at Castel Benito and Lydda in particular for their lively effici-ency. All stations are operating under considerable difficulties at the present time. Mingaladon was also remembered asbeing rough at present, but having the makings of a first- class airfield. At Palembang it seems that Japanese pilots arebeing employed to do useful work with trainer aircraft and have been helping with evacuations from Indonesia. At Nagumbo the wisdom of taking a Mosquito wasmomentarily in question when an American crew arriving in a Douglas C.54 drove out of its portly fuselage on a jeep, thussolving in an»effective and nonchalant manner the local trans- port problems. Sixty-two stations and twenty-two H.Q. were visited. The majority of the inter-station legs involved flights of between\\ and z\ hours' duration, but the longest, from Nairobi to Khartoum, some 1,150 miles, was covered in 4 hr 35 min.One eight-hundred-mile hop was completed in 1 hr 52 min. Summarising his conclusions as to the causes of high acci-dent rates overseas, the Director of Accident Prevention indi- cated that everyone on an R.A.F. s'tation can be to some extentresponsible. The whole position is aggravated greatly by the present unstable transition period between war and peacetimeestablishments. The majority of the experienced ground staff, particularlythose from the technical and flying control branches, have been demobilised or repatriated after long periods out East,and replacements are not only difficult to find but take some time to gain experience of the new conditions. Coupled withthis, the remainder are anxious to return home, and many are jjjj overdue for demobilization. This has almost unavoidably 1resulted in dissatisfaction and the lowering of standards of discipline among all ranks and trades concerned. It is prob-able that good discipline, as reflected in the little bit of extra care and trouble put into every job, helps to reduce the acci-dent rate mo-re than any other single factor. The converse is equally true. Whether it is the pilot who takes moretrouble over his drills and flying discipline, or the fitter who puts in the ounce more care and thoroughness during main-tenance, it is true that this sort of attention can go a long way towards accident prevention. Every time a pilot says he"couldn't care less" he tempts Providence in a big way. Airfield Organization Another contributory factor, besides under-establishment, isairfield organization. Many of the airfields are rather rough and ill-equipped, and even on those which only comprise asingle strip, the ground control is just as essential. Small and large obstructions or bad ground, if not marked correctly, arehazards. Lack of controllers, vans, runway tees, numbers Of white lines, and taxi tracks, all make the pilot's job utim&difficult and should be remedied. """^ Lastly, one of the most important causes of accidents isweather. The met. staff who do the reporting are in no way to blame; it is the lack of staff, equipment and informationand the poor communications which severely handicap them. From the navigator's point of view the long flight was alsoof special interest. Navigation with the sole aid of W/T proved satisfactory, and weather did not interfere too muchwith radio reception. The chief additional complaint was that maps, particularly of the Far East, were in a number ofcases inaccurate and contours unreliable. Misleading weather forecasts also provided complications. It is to be hoped that conditions will soon be such that allbranches, at least on our main air routes, will be up to estab- lishment, and that with the return of stabilized conditions andregular engagements for the men concerned, the high pre-war standards of discipline will return.
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