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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0117.PDF
FLIGHT, 24 January 19b8 119 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. I he names and addresses of the writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Restrictions on the Private PilotI T would seem that after several weeks, and sundry red herrings,such as one-eyed pilots, etc., that "Airline Pilot" Qanuary 10) is still defending M.T.C.A. air traffic control staff "who do notinvoke the law lightly." I believe this correspondence started after the prosecution—atEastleigh—of a Mr. Harris, who entered Southampton Zone after diversion and force-landed at Eastleigh due to weather conditions.How would "Airline Pilot" feel, after losing all gyro instruments and radio in I.M.C. with a load of passengers? His first thought—and duty to his passengers—would be to land at the first avail- able airfield, "to keep himself alive"—as Mr. Harris did. No doubthe would look pleasant when fined £25 plus £10 costs later on. Surely the purpose of A.T.C. is to promote the safety of allwho fly. Every year the Survey of Accidents counts the skulls of those killed "continuing flight in unsuitable weather or beyondpilot's experience." Things have come to a pretty pass if the Reaper can countamong his allies A.T.C., an inflexible traffic control system, and M.T.C.A. Legal Branch! Arundel, Sussex. Fox ECHO. Clubs and Commercial Pilot Training REFERRING to the correspondence about restrictions on theprivate pilot I would like to enlarge on "Airline Pilot's" remarks (November 29 and January 10). He hits the nail righton the head when he criticizes the average private pilot's ignor- ance of, and contempt for, the non-flying aspects of piloting. No one minds if the aforesaid P.P.'s ignorance of ControlZones, etc., leads him to fly strictly within the limits of his knowledge. This is what the average P.P. does anyway. Thedanger arises when flying clubs which have up till now catered exclusively for the private pilot try to cash in on the growingdemand for commercial pilots and offer "cheap" facilities for obtaining licences without a very clear idea themselves of whatcommercial flying involves. Thus we have the rather frightening aspect of flying instructors who themselves have only a PrivatePilot's Licence and no R.A.F. training as instructors—in other words, a "cheap" instructor's course attempting to train the futuregeneration of airline pilots. Many years of training R.A.F. pilots, private pilots, commercialpilots and instrument-rating candidates has clearly demonstrated to me the tremendous difference in approach necessary in all theseaspect of instruction. There are clubs, of course, whose training is founded on sound lines and with all due regard to the laws ofthe land 1 myself have been associated with such a one and this type of club will not come unstuck as it becomes more ambitious. The fact that the products of clubs of the type I am criticizingmight be able to pass the M.T.C.A. tests at the umpteenth attempt is beside the point. We all know that the ability to pass the drivingtest does not make a safe driver. Incidentally, how does it happen that the clubs who enjoy apetrol-tax rebate because they cater for the purely private club member are now able to advertise themselves as "schools" andcater for the members of the public who wish to obtain a Com- mercial Pilot's Licence? Warsash, Hants. ;_ _•,. PERTURBED. The First Trans-Antarctic Flight : ^ IT is not often that Flight slips up in aeronautical history, but aslip in your issue of January 10 was no doubt due to the mis- leading information given out by the B.B.C., who repeatedly statedthat S/L. Lewis's magnificent flight with three other aircrew in a de Havilland Otter from South Ice to Scott Base was "the firstflight of a single-engined aircraft across Antarctica." I yield to none in my admiration of this 1,300-mile flight acrossthe Pole, which shows how the Royal Air Force can navigate across vast uncharted areas when all the usual radio aids are missing.I believe the range of the American beacon at the Pole is only 30 miles, so it would be of strictly local significance. But remembering what we feel when the Americans talk ofLindbergh making the first flight across the North Atlantic one can imagine their reaction when we push out publicity whichignores the considerable achievement of their great explorer Lincoln Ellsworth. He flew in a single-engined Northrop Gammaof 600 h.p, with the Canadian Hollick-Kenyon as his pilot, from Dundee Island across the Antarctic basin to Little America in14 hours' flying time in \-J>5. They made no fewer than four intermediate landings for survey purposes, and ran out ot petrol 16 miles short of Little America, so that they had to walk the lastpart of the journey. It would almost certainly be true to describe S/L. Lewis's flightas the first single-engined one across the South Pole, but in talking about trans-Antarctic single-engined flights, Lincoln Ellsworth'smust receive pride of place as the first ever. London, W.I. JOHN GRIERSON. Aeronautical Historical Society ^ATURALLYI am delighted to see that my letter (December 6)x^ has provoked response and I can assure Mr. Andrews Qanuary 10) that I am fully aware of what I am starting in mysuggestion for an aeronautical historical society. My very reason for its formation is that posterity will have, once and for all time,checked and cross-checked authenticity. We would not, for instance, have any argument as to when Cody first flew, and Isuspect that an argument will break out on that subject this very year. Otherwise, why does Gibbs-Smith say "5th October, 1908"(A History of Flying, page 246) and Broomfield (and the tree at Farnborough) "16th May"? I am fully aware of the existence ofthe Brookses, the Bruces, the Jacksons, the Gibbs-Smiths, the Senrabs, the Cowleys and the rest of the movement; and it isthey—together with the rest of them—that I would see foregather to listen to papers of the calibre of Pritchard's papers to the RoyalAeronautical Society. A further object would be to try to ensure that any historicalmaterial that is still left in private archives will not be destroyed. The writer has experience of invaluable documents and photo-graphs having been destroyed simply because executors and widows have no idea of their value. An aeronautical group wouldhave far greater chance of hearing of odd collections than does the individual with only one pair of ears to the ground and onepair of eyes to keep skinned. As long as people go on saying "What is there to discuss?" or "What's the use?" we shall get nowhere,but even if these people with a common interest met once or twice a year just to drink coffee, something would arise from it. London, W.I. BELTANE. East is East . . . A QUICK comment on the article on page 668 of your**• November 1 issue. The photograph at the top of the page shows what appear to be large and elaborate buildings at Beirut'sairport. Your caption says that these five buildings must be expanded to cope with the expansion of traffic there. You thencite 1,000 aircraft movements a month (12,000 a year) as the reason for this needed expansion. The folks over there must have some extra money lying aroundthat they want to justify spending. Over here, our C.A.A. won't even consider installing a control tower at an airport until itaverages 24,000 movements a year. The little towns of Pocatello, Idaho, and Wheeling, West Virginia, each average well overBeirut's present traffic volume—and their buildings would hardly compare with Beirut's present palatial facilities.Washington, D.C. MAX KARANT, Vice-President, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Technicians' Status in North America ONE of the most human failings is to look back to the "goodold days." It seems that the human mind has a powerful filter which rejects unpleasant memories of any "past" whichcan be separately packaged as "in the Old Country" or "before the war." Even so, most of the expatriates who write hometo Britain about life in North America (the engineer sink of most interest to me personally) seem to be in the small minority ofmalcontents and social misfits, so that as far as I can judge from English publications, a most unfair picture of an immigrant'slot is given. The 98 per cent who wouldn't go back for any con- sideration are almost never heard from, possibly because theyhave no incentive to stand up and be counted; they are too busy enjoying themselves in the present!My friend Ted Weiss has provided me with such an incentive, however, in his letter (Flight, November 15, page 787) describingthe harrowing lot of the North American engineer. It would be boring to particularize over such trivial points, but at mypresent company all his comments are completely refuted, except that we have no official tea breaks—and who, saving old womenand Civil Servants, wants a tea break anyway? During the past two years I have travelled fairly extensively in the United Statesand again I must say that at none of the companies I visited was there the slightest confirmation of his remarks, or of his implied
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