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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1124.PDF
July loth, 1947 Flight Captain t McLean, as directing offi- cer, lowers "Boojum" for o sea take-off. The tele- phone Captain McLean is using goes direct to the crane driver. Captain Collyer and Captain McLean took it in turn to direct operations when the other was flying. Air-Whaling ice, but kept themselves out in the open sea. Mr. Jahre added that he believed aircraft were more of an advertise- ment than of use." Several interesting points arise from the above newspaper report. The first is that the Cosmos Company did in fact use a Gypsy Moth seaplane as far back as 1929. The air- craft was carried on the deck of the whaling ship and slung overboard when the weather was fine enough to do so. The machine had no wireless whatever, or emergency equipment of the kind or on the scale which we would consider essential to-day. Consequently it was not very surprising that after two or three flights the machine dis- appeared into the blue and was never seen again. There were, therefore,, no data of any conclusive type available as a result of the very small amount of flying done. Another point is that if one is to accept as one's gospel that the whaler's personal ability and experience give the best results, then the door to science and all possible im- provements in whaling is closed. Finally, the statement that at the present time expeditions keep themselves out in the open sea is quite contrary to our own experience. We worked along the ice edge for at least 90 per cent of A typical whale-boat or catcher of 350 tons, lying astern of Balaena and about to pass a bull finwhale to the factory ship. ' The loaded harpoon gun is in the bows. the time while we were whaling, and I understand that the majority of other whaling ships did so too. How far our experience with aircraft proved that the theories of Mr. Jahre and his supporters were at variance with fact is illustrated by our ability to see whales under the water from 10,000 feet—a result which we had never expected ourselves and which was discovered accidentally as a result of a climb to obtain upper-air temperatures. Also we could see whales very easily, and follow them when they were beneath the surface, from 1,000 feet. Many of the problems of operation turned out as we had expected them in kind, but varied considerably in degree. For instance, the weather was local and change- able, the magnetic compasses suffered in performance, but far less than we had expected because of the proximity of the Southern Magnetic Pole. The presence of small particles of ice in the sea proved a hazard, but a very much less important one than we had supposed, and special measures had to be taken to keep the aircrew adequately warm on flights ranging up to 5^ hours in duration. Some Amphibious Problems Above all, the correlation of flying with the normal prac- tices and customs of an old-established business like whaling introduced a string of knotty problems. Weather affects seaplane flying more than landplane flying, because with the seaplane not only must the air conditions be suitable but also those of the sea. By using a catapult we could carry out our launches almost regardless of the roughness of the sea, but of course our sea limitation was still imposed by the conditions required for landing. The Walrus can alight in a sea with i5-2oft waves when flown by a skilled pilot. But there may be another limitation imposed by the rolling of the ship making the necessary cranework for the recovery of the machine impossible without risk of damage. However, such is the steadiness of a modern floating factory, and so skilled was our crane-driver, Lead- ing Seaman Rogerson (on loan from the Navy), that we had few anxieties in this respect. In the air, icing of wings and windscreens was encoun- tered to a slight extent but never approached dangerous proportions. We had heard in England that Antarctic weather could change from sunshine to fog and falling snow within 20 minutes, and this proved no idle fallacy Moreover, icebergs ranging in height up to 350ft provided a hazard never encountered over the sea in milder climes when flying low in bad visibility. The greatest care in
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