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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1204.PDF
FLIGHT JULY 24TH, 1947 Air Rally—Deauville Style able to go on fot lunch to the delightful Hotel du Golf on the hills behind Deauville. Between meals and receptions the members ot the Aero Club party amused themselves variously with swimming, shopping and the casino tables. Some visited the races (au trot attele or monte). Trotting horses, while looking attractive, appear somewhat frus- trated. One might as well have an air race in fine pitch ! A word of praise must be said about the organization, which was chiefly in the able and long-suffering hands of Colonel R. L. Preston. Lymprie and Gatwick authorities also cheerfully put in some overtime to cope with the un- usual flow of private aircraft. St. Gatien airfield, which is a mile or two outside Deau- ville, has two metal-strip runways. On arrival, the recep- tion committee was very helpful, and first impressions on landing at Deauville were recorded as part of an arrival competition. A trophy, the figure of an airman, was pre- sented to Mr. Alex Duncan during the first evening's ball, for the impression judged to be best. On landing in a Proctor he said that '' his aeroplane always seemed to go best when heading for Deauville." The Shell, B.P. and Intava authorities were most helpful and efficient as always, and refuelling and parking, as well as the checking of passports, were all dealt with quickly and efficiently. It was not clear what the French Customs official thought English airborne visitors might wish to smuggle into France, but one gained the impression that the tiresome poking around in every suitcase and small bag was prompted as much by inquisitiveness as by efficiency. In contrast, the British Customs on return completed their work pleasantly and quickly, and the Customs 'procedure, control and refuelling at Lympne were all very well organized. ' Apart from the week-end entertainments, those who went to Deauville undoubtedly enjoyed the flight in fine weather down the French coast, and the miles of deserted sand dunes provided an ideal opportunity for some legal low- flying practice. Take»off for return on Monday morning was delayed by a blanket of low cloud, which persisted ov&U the whole coast line until midday. However, by evening* almost everyone was back at their home airfield, and only one mishap—a forced landing, fortunately without injury- was reported. Air Accident Investigation The Views of the Guild of W E have received from the Court of G.A.P.A.X. the followingstatement: A great deal of publicity has recently beengiven to (inquiries into a series of aircraft accidents. It is well kinmn that, as a result of general disquiet, the Ministerof Civil A\iutkm instructed that certain enquiries should be held in public I nfortunately, tht results even of public hearings havenot been greetid with general enthusiasm. It is felt, therefore, that the time has come for a pronouncement of the Guild's positionin this matter. Considerable popular tribute has been paid to the B.A.L.P.A.(or publication ol a criticism of the findings of certain enquiries. As a corollary, a certain amount of displeasure has .been ventedon the Guild for its apparent inactivity. The jacl is that the, Guild has been far /row idle. It did not consider that a publicpronouncement which, in the nature of things, could not be authoritative would serve any useful purpose. It was felt thata better plan would be to make a private approach to the various authorities concerned in an attempt to clarify the position and, ifpossible, to make recommendations for improvement. As a result, a great deal of information has been brought tolight which materially alters the first reaction to the published findings. In order that reasons for this may be properly under-stood it will be as well to give a brief outline of the procedure involved in accident investigation. There has been considerable clamour for judicial investigationsinto aircraft accidents. Let us examine the implications of such a course. In order that a judicial hearing may have any value,(acts which relate to the accident in question have to be collected •and related to each other in proper sequence. This is precisely thefunction being carried out by the Accidents Investigation Branch and in the belief of the Guild it is hieing thoroughly and com-petently carried out A judicial enquiry into a specific accident would, therefore, have to base its finding on the facts submittedby the Accidents Investigation" Branch. The additional powers vested in the Court by reason of its judicial authority would, it is^rue, enable witnesses to be subpoenaed but would involve the employment of counsel and in other respects would lead to a largeoutlay of public money. While such a procedure is justified under exceptional conditions—say when a difficult point of law is inquestion, 01 when legal powers are required to obtain essential "KNOW-HOW* FROM THE TRENT (Concluded from po^e 79) were fitted lor a start. The jet pipe diameter was also de-creased to raise the jet thrust component to 1,400 lb.- This near pure jet arrangement enabled flight trials to continue and a satis-factory single-lever control to be developed. The C.S.U. .isnow automatically res.;t to control at a lower speed when the turbinespeed is reduced. Over So fixing hours have- so far been completed by the Trent-Meteor. Mr. Kric Greenwood, of the Gloster Company, has flown it, and W/C. A. McDowell, late commander of No. 616 Squadron(first jet squadron to go into action) and now one of Rolls-Royce's test team, has recently taken over the flight development workThere is, ot course, no intention of putting the Trent power unit into production, but the practical experience gained at this veryearly stage, both on the test-bed and in flight, is being applied to -Rolls-Royce airscrew turbines which are now being developedand are scheduled for production. No.details of new Rolls-Royce airscrew turbines may be mentioned., but two units, the Dart andthe larger U> de, are known to have been running for some time Air Pilots and Navigators * evidence from unwilling witnesses—as a general rule it would berather like setting up a separate Ministry to deal with licensing of aircrews. In other words, the machinery is far too heavy forthe work to be done. While, therefore, the Guild considers the present fact-findingenquiries held by the Accidents Investigation Branch are entirely adequate in most cases, some modification in the composition ofthe Court and in the method of publishing findings would be an advantage In the first place, no matter what degree of integrityis possessed by the staff of a department, it is unfair to them and not conducive to public confidence to place them in the positionof possibly having to censure their da Jucta superiors. While it may be true that the Ministry of Civil Aviation only administersthe Accidents Investigation Branch and does not interfere in any way with its operation, there can be no doubt thut any connectionwhatever between the Air Ministry or Ministry of Civil Aviation on the one hand, and the Accidents Investigation Branch on theother, must lead to difficulty. The first point, therefore, is that the Accidents Investigation Branch should be entirely dissociatedfrom either ot the Ministries connected with the Air. It is suggested that it could best be placed directly under the Treasury.It is probable that results more readily understood by the layman would be obtained if the Chairman of an enquiry were an Officerwith legal training, qualified to assess evidence and handle witnesses. It cannot be too srrongly stressed that this suggestion is in no waya criticism of the present Director and his staff, but is designed to promote public confidence, and to relieve the. Director of dutieswhich are extraneous to his normal functions. For the same reason it should be at the discretion of the Court to take evidence onoath and powei should be given to the Chairman to subpeena witnesses • aThe report made out by the Director of Accident Investigations is compiled 'or submission to the Minister. When the Ministerdecides it should be published, this is done, but none of the evidence given at tht enquiry is available for public ix-msal. The onlytranscript is the much-abridged account published in the news- papers. For example, in a recent enquiry the first day's evidencefille^ 74 pages of foolscap. None of the daily papers "which were subsequently consulted gave more than one column of 4m to 5in toa report on the proceedings. The only points stressed dealt with a high-light from tlje dramatic point of view. ••One of the most fruitful sources of misunderstanding has been/ in the form of findings. This form has already been modified. X'i>till recently the practice has been to express the findings as a primary- cause, followed by secondary or contributory causes. Whenevolving the present procedure of fact-finding enquiries it was decided that for practical purposes the primary cause was not asatisfactory method of expression. Not infrequently the primary cause could be traced back through the years and the assumptionthat, if necessary, blame could be attributed to the originator of the primary cause, became legally untenable. For this reason itwas decided to state the "immediate cause." followed by secondary or contributory causes.As in og cases out of 100 the pilot must have something to do with the immediate cause, the general impression is that the pilotis almost always held to blame, because the "immediate cause" comes first in the findings. In fact this may be very far lrofflthe truth and very far from the intention of the finding. In many cases one of the contributory causes can be termed theprincipal cause. On occasion action has been taken by the Minister on this basis. It is suggested, therefore, that the possibility olstating the finding as a "principal cause," followed by contributory causes, should be examined.
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