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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1995.PDF
OCTOBER 3RD, 1946 FLIGHT 373 FROM THE FLYING CLUBS A LTHOUGH the official opening of the clubhouse has beenx\ postponed until next spring, when full facilities will be available, the Wolverhampton Aero Club has been in activeoperation since March this year. Starting with a single Auster —which has now put in more than 400 hours' flying—the clubhas now, in addition, two ex-R.A.F. Magisters. Four initial " A " licences and fourteen renewals have so far been obtained. * * ' • The Gloucester Flying Club, whose headquarters are atStaverton airfield, have at last managed to obtain a Tiger Moth, which is now being overhauled for its C. of A. Untilnow the club members have had to be satisfied with ground instruction only. The Gloucester Club is holding its firstanniversary dinner on October 9th at Mercer's Hall, Gloucester. • • • Since May 1st, when it re-opened, the Wiltshire Flying Clubhas been exceptionally busy and the instructional fleet now consists of seven Austers and one Magister. This club, inci-dentally, also provides instruction for the Royal Artillery Aero, the Royal Air Force Netheravon Flying and the ParachuteRegiment Flying Clubs. Up to September 1st a total of forty-two "A" licences had been obtained, and the dual and solo flying for the period amounted to 1,267 hours. There arethree instructors, led by Fit. Lt. K. W. Birt, D.F.C. and Bar, all of whom, interestingly enough, were C.A.G. pupils at HighPost before the war. • # *The air display put up by Marshall's Flying School at Manea a fortnight ago was a very considerable success, especiallyas the village is a comparatively small one in the Fen District. Three of the school instructors, led by Mr. L. V. Worsdell,gave a flying display with Tiger Moths, and there was a long queue for short flights. On the previous day Marshalls"had collaborated with the R.A.F. to provide an "at home" at Cambridge. A Gloster Meteor and an Avro York providedby the R.A.F. were available for inspection. • » • The Aero Club oi South Africa has requested the Johannes-burg City Council to stage a King's Cup Air Race, with Johannesburg as the starting and finishing point. In order toattract international competition the club proposes that a prize of £j,ooo should be offered. It is understood that FieldMarshal Smuts has already been advised and was not averse to the proposals Decca Demonstration, P.LC.A.O. Delegates Make Air Trial : Automatic Standby Systems : World Plans Ready REGULAR readers of this journal will be well aware ofthe efforts made by the Decca Navigator Company instriving to achieve an efficient, safe and comprehensivesystem of navigational aid, the developments made in the company's work in this field having been fully reported in these pages from time to time. It must be appreciated that this is very much an interim period in air navigation. There exist many diverse systems, each with a tenable claim for international adoption,' which it is the unenviable task of the various international com- missions, particularly P.I.C.A.O., to weed-out until the best of all is found. Suffice for us to say at this point that, whilst each and every system advanced must necessarily be explored to the full, the Decca system would seem to offer unique advantages, not the least of which are its simplicity, reliability, and unrivalled accuracy. Together with delegates of P.I.C.A.O., we recently had the Charles Bovil, of the Decca Navigator Co., points out the"green" deccometer reading to P.I.C.A.O. delegates during the demonstration flight. cpportunity to experience- an actual flight demonstration ofnavigation by the Decca system, and a most convincing ex- perience it was. We flew in a Bristol Wayfarer from Croydouto Shoreham, not a great distance, but sufficient to show the very efficient qualities of this new navigational system. The three deccometers, one each for the red, green andpurple signal lanes, were mounted on the front bulkhead of the Wayfarer's cabin,; and each passenger had a miniature charton wh'ich the hyperbolic red and green lanes were overprinted; the purple lanes were not given since, in this region of thecountry, they are not necessary for accurate fixing. By reading the meters and finding the co-ordinates on the chart, position-fixing was ch'id's play. The steady, unfluctuating progress of the needles made meter reading positive, without need forpersonal assessment, and when the chart told one that, at the intersection of red x with green y, an east-west railwayvanished into a tunnel, one watched the leadings coming up on the meters; then, at the appropriate moment,looked out of the window and, sure enough, the railway be- neath the aircraft could be seen entering the tunnel. At 300miles range, the fix given is accurate to 30 feet. From Shoreham, we visited the company's slave trans-mitter station at East Hoathley, Nr. Lewes. This station is the "green" transmitter, the "red" station being at Stoke HolyCross, Norfolk, the "purple" at Wormleighton, Warwickshire, and the master station at Buntingford, Herts. Safety Measures Transmission is continuous throughout the twenty-four hours, and as a very sensible (and essential) safety measure, the station embodies triplicated transmitters: one on duty, one at standby, and one on maintenance. The duty transmitter is powered by mains supply, and the standby transmitter powered by sets of diesel-electric generators which are run- ning the whole time. Should any fault develop in the duty transmitter the stand- by is automatically brought in to take over transmission. Chaneeover is jpade in less than a second, and a warning bell 13 automatically rung as an alarm. In this event the third transmitter is then brought to standby, the faulty transmitter put on maintenance and the trouble found and rectified. Similarly, should a power failure of mains supply occur, the diesel-electric generators on standby automatically fill the breach. Such a system is very reassuring indeed. The Decca company have made plans for a world chain of stations. The whole project is virtually cut and dried so that, should the international planning authorities now in- vestigating the air navigation position give the word, the whok scheme could be put into operation throughout the world without further delay. A consideration which should be given due weight in the assessment is that the same system is equally applicable to the world's shipping.
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