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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 2232.PDF
;82 FLIGHT DECEMBER 30TH, 1948 G1¥IL AVIATION NEWS " Flight " photograph. FIRST ARRIVAL: B.O.A.C. Constellation, "Balmoral" at Filton, Bristol, the prsi aircraft for servicing at the Corporation's new North Atlantic base. "Balmoral " was on course only 21 minutes from London Airport and normal chock to chock re-distribution flights are expected to take about 30 minutes. New Zealand Airlines' Profitable Year : Corporation's Figures for Half Year : Possible Third Airport for New York HAMBURG'S NEW RUNWAYF REEDOM from hills and natural obstacles for miles around makes Fuhlsbuttel airport, Hamburg, ideal for operations in all weather. In 1939 the airport was one of the busiest in Germany and at the outbreak of war it was requisitioned by the Luftwaffe. In 1945 the R.A.F. took over Fuhlsbuttel airfield and it became No. 104 Staging Post, Transport Com- mand, and it continued to be used mainly as a transport and communications base and R.A.F. master diversion airfield. On October 15th, 1947, the Civil Aviation Branch of the Control Commission Government (British Element) took over the air- field and its military status became that of a R.A.F. reserve airfield. During the past year many improvements have been introduced and in August this year 4,234 passengers and 152 tons of freight and mail were handled. With this increase in traffic it became clear that the pierced steel planking runway laid down three years earlier was inadequate for the task, and on April 6th this year construction of a new 2,000-yd. con- crete runway was started by No. 5352 (Airfield Construction) Wing of the R.A.F. On December 15th the new runway was opened in the presence of the Deputy Regional Commissioner and the Oberburgermeister of Hamburg, by G/C. C. E. Loveridge, Deputy Director of Works Service. The new runway was then formally "handed over" to Mr. Maurice Banks, Director of Civil Aviation in the British Zone of Germany. It is the first civil concrete runway built in Germany since the. cessation of hostilities and the approach lighting is of the Calvert type, similar to the installation at London Airport. Another innovation is a centre line of green lights down the entire length of the runway in addition to contact lights at either side. This has been done to assist take-off in bad visibility. Construction of the runway and equipment for the airfield, especially the approach lighting, was on a high priority owing to the importance of Fuhlsbuttel to the Berlin air lift. ALTIMETER SETTINGS OUBSEQUENT to references in the article published in Flight, +J December 16th, on the introduction of a standard setting for altimeters in the R.A.F., further decisions on policy have been made known. The use of QFE, the prevailing station pressure in jnillibars has been dispensed with for all flying by the R.A.F., and the policy now is that for take-off and landing and for flights in Flight Information Regions below 3,000 feet above sea level and nights in the Control Zones below 1,500 feet, altimeters should be set to QNH. This is the standard setting and is the prevailing station pressure reduced'to mean sea level by the ICAN formula. The altimeter will thus read the height of the airfield on landing. Regional QFE, which is the lowest pressure forecast for the whole of the Flight Information Region for the ensuing hour, is used for flights above 3,000 feet in Flight Information Regions and above 1,500 feet in Control Zones'. It will therefore be seen from these statements of Air Ministry policy that the R.A.F. does not use the standard setting for all flying, and that the Regional QFF is used for traffic separation purposes in Flight Informa- tion Regions. A recent Notice to Airmen states that each Air Traffic Control centre will broadcast the value of the current Regional QFF for its Flight Information Region on all air- ground W/T channels twice hourly, on the hour, and at 30 minutes past the hour. In Meteorological Sub-Area broad- casts QNH will be the only altimeter setting appended to the Station's reports. That in no way affects the availability of QFF or QNH for landing settings however, either of which may be obtained upon request from Air Traffic Control. • NEW ZEALAND BALANCE SHEET A REPORT of the New Zealand National Airways Corpora-tion for the year ended March 31st, 1948, shows a surplus over operating expenses of £17,757 and a net surplus of £3,426after deducting interest on capital advanced from the Govern- ment. The year represented a transitional period maintainedpartly by Union Airways of New Zealand, Ltd., and partly by the Corporation. During the year, Regional (South-WestPacific) services were taken over from the Royal New Zealand Air Force and new routes were opened through Auckland,Norfolk Island, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Cook Islands and also through Auckland through Suva to Labasa. Internal routemileage was 2,201 and in the Pacific region 5,573 miles. There B IS
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