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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0691.PDF
MAY IST, 1947 FLIGHT 403 FAIREY FLYING CLUB OPENS Low Rates for Employees : Display of Service AircraftB LUSTERING weather at White Waltham on Sundaydid not dampen the enthusiasm of the many specta- tors at the opening of Fairey's flying club, but itmade flying in the small aircraft a little uncomfortable. The company have had in mind for some time the forma-tion of a flying club for its employees, and three Magisters have now been purchased and presented to the club, acharge of only 25s is being made per hour for dual and 15s per hour solo for the first ten hours' flying, after that thefcharge is to be 47s 6d and 25s 6d respectively. Sir Richard TaTrey is president, arid all directors of the company arevice-presidents. Mr. Hollis-Williams, who has put a great deal of work into the scheme, is the committee chairman,and G/C. Gordon Slade, Fairey's chief test pilot, is going to supervise flying training. Soon after 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon the airfieldbegan to fill with people and private owners were landing every few minutes. There was a prize for the visitor wholanded nearest to 2.30 p.m. At 3 o'clock Sir Richard Fairey officially opened the club. He considered, he said,that all aircraft manufacturers should provide facilities for their employees to fly, for it was never more necessary,in the history of the country, that we should be a nation of pilots. Controlled missiles, he thought, did not obviatethe necessity for having pilots, and learning to fly was a national duty. It was rather interesting to hear from SirRichard that twenty-five years ago he was the first pas- senger to be flown by Mr. Chichester Smith, now managingdirector of the company, in a IIIC seaplane. There were at the time a small number being built for the Dutch. Theclub had received a telegram from Mr. Winston Churchill wishing them good luck. There were already sixty mem-bers, Sir Richard said, and since April ist forty hours had been flown. Immediately after the opening ceremony Mr. Dixonstarted the flying display with a fly-past, low down, in a Swordfish, while at about 1,oooft a Spearfish led a Fulmar,Firefly Mark IV and a Barracuda in very good formation. The Swordfish careered about over the onlookers for severalminutes and then the formation of four broke up and indi- vidually each aircraft was demonstrated. G/C. Sladebrought the Spearfish down very low, and as he flew past you could see what a bumpy time he was having. He thenflew very slowly with all flaps down, so giving an excel- lent impression of the speed range of this aircraft. Hedelighted the crowd by folding his wings soon after touch- down, and as he taxied in they were completely foldedback. Sam Moseley showed the manoeuvrability of the Barracuda, and Duncan Menzies showed what the Fulmarcould do, incidentally he was flying the aircraft in which he carried out the original flight tests, and it is thoughtto be the only one still flying. One could not help feeling what a pity it was that the Fulmar was always under-powered. Peter Twiss gave the crowd some thrills in a very goodhigh-speed aerobatic and low-flying display. Then fol- lowed an extraordinarily clever display of formation fly-ing by the three Magisters, flown by the instructors. At times it looked rather dicey, as they made very low andwhat looked like very slow turns into wind over the crowd. The inside man seemed to be battling very hard to keepstation. While this was going on a Belfair nipped smartly out of one turn into another over the crowd. Basil Arkclldid some low flying and hovering in a Sikorsky heliroptor and showed off its flying characteristics to the delight ofeveryone. There, was much interest as it hovered just a few feet above the ground. A Gemini towned a sailplaneto several thousand feet, where it cast off and circled the airfield. Mr Philip Wills took his own sailplane up anddefied gravity and amused us all when he found some lift from the tarmac, hangar and all the parked cars. Hepersisted in doing tight turns around that area and refused to lose any height except when he purposely stalled. Itwas most refreshing to see his noiseless performance. In the interval Lady Fairey christened one of the Magisters,naming it very aptly " Fairey." Joy-riding was started after tea with a free flight for theholder of a lucky programme, and from then onwards North Sea Air Transport did great business at 10s a time. It wasa most enjoyable afternoon, for if there was nothing flying there was plenty to see on the ground. B.E.A. had aViking on the tarmac which proved a great source of inter est, and, in addition to the other Fairey aircraft whictialways had a large crowd round them, there was a pleasant little static show in the hangar, in which was a model of aGyrodine, Fairey's own helicopter. Fairey's staff are very fortunate in having such a pleasant club organized for themat such convenient distance from the factory. SIMPLIFIED FLYINGI N a paper on the subject of " Simplifying the Airplane forthe Private Owner," presented before the S.A.E., Mr. J. M. ••Gwinn, Jnr., of the Consolidated Vultee Corporation, saidthat the safe operation of personal aircraft will result not 'rorn a simplified design but from a simplified method of•operation. Paradoxically such simplification might well be the product of a more complicated mechanism. He added that one obstacle preventing the earlier accept-ance of the aids to safer flying was the now dying tradition of heroism in aviation; another had been the tradition ofuseless precision in flight manoeuvres. In the early days oi flying, precision was a necessity since top speed was not muchabove stalling speed and a small lack of precision in a turn could produce a stall, spin and crash. This period haddefinitely ended. Perhaps the greatest resistance to simplified, control, however, was found among the distributors of theaircraft who made their profits not out of distribution but out of charter services and training. Stall-proof, spin-proofaircraft were not much good when Government regulations required pilots to have training in spinning... Following an analysis of aircraft movement and control, and a discussion of errors in technique and judgment, which wereresponsible for approximately 51 per cent of all accidents, Mr. Gwinn said that the simplification problem could be approachedalong five lines. We must: (1) reduce the necessity for co- ordination and skilful technique; (2) make it more difficultto be careless; (3) reduce the hazard from faulty judgment; • (4) reduce hazards from low visibility; (5) reduce the prob-ability of catastrophe when accidents do happen. From various C.A.A. analyses for the years 1939 to 1943 hequoted the causes of fatal accidents as 50.8 per cent due to control (stall, spins, landing, take-off and taxying); 25 percent collisions in flight; 6.6 per cent structural failure; 6.1 per cent forced landings; and 1.5 per cent fire. Taking an aver-age over the five-year period and considering all accidents, poor technique caused 41.7 per cent; carelessness 16.7 percent;wrors in judgment 9.3 per cent; weather and darkness 4.5 per cent. After more discussion, the author proposed solutions lormost of the problerns and gave a specification in general terms for a private owner type aircraft. Among a large numberof features he specified were a tricycle landing gear with steerable nose wheel operated with aileron controls, and brakeson the rear wheels operated by a single pedal. Ho also speci- fied a large rolling radius on the iront wheel. Under theheading "stall-proof" he suggested restricted elevator con- trol and smaller e.g. travel. Under the heading " spin-proof"he suggested a two-control layout, i.e., no independent control in yaw, and low moments of inertia around all axes. Otherfeatures specified are • an airscrew location giving no assymetrical slipstream over fin areas, engine not in front, afuel system requiring no shut-off cock, 50 m.p.h. minimum flying speed with complete control and engine cooling, auto-matic flaps (down at low speeds, up at high), and an aircraft which flew in a substantially level attitude at all speeds.
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