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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1970.PDF
FLIGHT, 8 December 1949 PACIFIC MOUNTAIN TIMEZONE CFN'TRAL MANITOBA^" COLLECTING A STRATOCRUISER . . under training (this procedure was also observed for the Constellations). The very first service will be flown by Captain Alan Andrew, who has gained his Stratocruiser hours on delivery-cum-proving flights in lieu of experience on services. He it was who brought back Caledonia, with which this narrative is chiefly concerned. Captain W. S. May and Capt. J. W. Burgess delivered the first two machines—Cathay and Champion. Ex-Constellation flight engineers (Mr. Eric Draper flew in Caledonia) will have passed the ground course and exams; done 30 hours' on the Dehmel trainer—15 u/t and 15 as chief; 10 hours' flying, of which five were u/t and five in charge; and, finally, 50 hours as second engineer on services. After this their licences are endorsed appropriately. One home- and return service across the North Atlantic will entail about 20 hours' flying. Dehmel Synthetic Trainer It would be wrong to think of the Dehmel as anything in the nature of a glorified Link, although the flying con- trols might be regarded as similar to those of a Link which had been specially adjusted to reproduce the feel and Captain Burgess turns to survey the engineer's panel in the Stratocruiser. The First Officer reaches his seat by walking behind this panel. The navigator sits beside the radio operator. reactions of one specific aircraft type. It is named after a Dr. Dehmel, who devised it. Although the Dehmel at La Guardia is concerned with the Stratocruiser, others could be built to represent any other aircraft. In fact, one of the attractions of this elaborate machine seems to be that the majority of its components can be salvaged for use on a new layout after it has ceased to be of use as a whole. For the example in question, and for the duplicate which is to be built in this country, a complete Stratocruiser crew layout for captain, 1st officer and en- gineer is taken off the production line. Controls and instrument panels and seats arc required to be correct in every detail, and the fuselage nose is mocked up accurately around this equipment. Instruments and con- trols, together with an additional panel for the instructor at the rear, are linked up with electronic devices which are designed to make them reproduce exactly the reactions of their counterparts in a Stratocruiser in flight. Addi- tionally, also at the rear, are stations for instruction in navigation and approach procedures and so forth, equipped to trace out on maps or charts the course flown, in much the same manner as does the crab on a Link. In every essential, except for the physical sensations, the crew receive ** flying" experience on the ground. From personal experience at the controls of both the Dehmel and a Stratocruiser the close similarity of the two can be confirmed. On the instructor's panel is a large number of switches which enable him, by "causing" en- gine cuts, firps, fuel shortage, instrument failures, carbon monoxide in the luggage com- partments, and other unpleasant- nesses, to exercise the crew in all routine and emergency pro- cedures. All B.O.A.C. crews who have experience on the Dehmel confirm that it offers everything in the way of training that the aircraft itself would provide. The writer sampled the controls and felt the effect of one and then two engines .*' out" on one side. An approach was also made, and the speed, power and trim changes noted as flaps and wheels were lowered. The squeak as the tyres touched the runway on landing—for this, too, is faithfully reproduced— might well have been followed by other noises, for an observer at the instructor's board unkindly cut out the artificial horizon on
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