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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 0234.PDF
January 1959 109 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns.The names and addresses of the writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. "Flight's" Jubilee MY sincere congratulations to Flight on attaining its goldenjubilee. As a schoolboy of 15 I well remember seeing Flightfor the first time, and buying my first copy for one penny at a book- stall in the Court of Honour in the Franco-British Exhibition atthe White City during my school holiday in August 1909, just after Bleriot had flown the Strait of Dover. I seem to remember thata Bleriot monoplane—it may have been the actual one— was on show at the White City.I bought Flight eagerly every weekend after that, and had a subscription, so it was sent to me at Tonbridge School. There wasa feature then, "From the British Flying Grounds," where I first read of pilots who later became famous, such as Tommy Sopwith,Frank McClean, Gustav Hamel and many more. And I loved the full-page g.a. drawings of current aeroplanes. I had my first flightat Farnborough in 1912 with Mr. (now Sir) Geoffrey de Havilland in the pusher biplane of which a photograph appeared in the D.H.advertisement in your jubilee issue, when I was an O.T.C. (not A.T.C.!) cadet in camp where the runway now starts. In those days we boys devoured Flight with the same zest asboys of today read space travel fiction. Flying was just beginning to emerge from fiction into fact.London, S.W.5. GEOFFREY DORMAN. [Our thanks to Mr. Dorman for his appreciation, and to other readerswho have written in similar vein—Ed.] Speed and the Airline Passenger HOW right J. R. Howard is in his letter on this subject in yourissue of January 2. I have flown, or been flown in, some hundreds of aircraft types—from Moths in 1930 to Friendshipslast month; and, of all, from a passenger angle, I have nostalgic memories of flying-boats—particularly the Solent. Unfortunatelythe day of the boat is behind us at present, but similar charac- teristics on wheels are within reach and would, I am sure, havea wide appeal. I do not think that less time exposed to boredom is the onlyparameter in favour of jets. The finest, fastest and firstest has a tremendous appeal—much of it snob value!—and this will,I suppose, always attract its habitues, be they film stars or first- timers. The traveller to whom such snob-value has no appealwould be more than satisfied with the type of operations your correspondent describes. On the Atlantic, or other long oceanroutes, he wants a sleeper, and, if he gets that at the right price, would probably prefer a ten-hour crossing to a six. In busy trafficareas he has got to fly Airways anyhow, but the time through these areas is short and he avoids boredom; even though his speed is nomore than, say, 260 knots. For the rest of world routes, as your correspondent suggests, there are fifty passengers who wouldprefer the "scenic" way for every one in a blind hurry. But why not a bar? It passes the time and pays the wages. The Argosy looks ideal for this short-haul role, provided it isquiet; and what about the Britannia—fully sleeperized—for the long-haul? Liverpool, 17. W. M. HARGREAVES. Memories of Hindustan TN his article "Around Hindustan Aircraft" (December 19) Mr.*- Pugh refers in para. 4 to the methods used in obtaining spares, etc., for the reconditioning of war-surplus C-47s in the immediatepost-war period at Hindustan; and, as he so rightly says, there is a really intriguing story behind the bald statement. At this time,as a Government of India Officer, I was seconded to Hindustan and served for a time as commercial manager. In this post I hadto explore all ways of procuring spares, raw materials, etc., to enable the C-47 conversion line to carry on. One of our manydifficulties was the fact that Bangalore, being a semi-hill station, was served only by a narrow-gauge railway up from the plains, andall materials had to be off-loaded from main-line trucks and reloaded for the narrow gauge. Then, again, I soon found that thestores of spares and raw materials were located throughout the length and breadth of India and Pakistan—for example: radioand electrical instruments, Calcutta area; airframe spares and propeller spares, Cawnpore; dopes, varnishes, lubricants, Bombay;i 'ger Moth spares, etc., Karachi. During the period 1946-47 the only way we could keep goingwas to send representatives or go personally and process these various "dumps," and most trips meant journeys of up to 1,200"^les. I flew myself on many of these journeys. It became commonplace to leave Bangalore at 0330 hr, arrive CawnporeJ900 hr, load up with spares and leave again at 1230 hr, back home for dinner at 1800 hr—2,400 miles often under monsoon con-ditions, with few, if any, aids to navigation, and maps that showed a thin blue line for a river which in fact might be ten miles wideduring the monsoon. There were, too, large drums of dopes and thinners, gassing at 7,000ft, and other hazards. Still, it was worthit, and the 1,500-odd operatives were in the main kept busy, although sometimes it was a question of immediate unloadingspares, quick inspection and release to the shops. Why did we airlift? Because, after ordering parts, etc., it wouldmean anything up to three or four months before they would arrive by rail or road. Our most difficult time was from May 1947to November of that year, due mainly to communal difficulties prior to, and subsequent to, partition. In this period I myself flewsome 346 hours (usually acting as second pilot). The best of fortune to Hindustan; we who have returned toEngland still remember the teething days and admire them for the steady progress they have made and are making.Corby, Northants. W. P. TYRRELL. Cockpit Conservatism T WAS delighted to read Cdr. Goodhart's article "Conservatism*• in the Cockpit," in Flight for December 26. It brought back memories of days just after the war when I cycled out from Cam-bridge to Bourn to attempt my first ground slides in a Cadet glider. The confusion between my bicycle handlebars and the Cadet'srudder bar was very real and brought near-disaster to both means of transport in turn. I felt that I received less than my share ofsympathy from the ex-bomber types with "thousands of hours in," and was left to work out my own salvation.So long as I regarded the thing in the Cadet as a rudder bar I remained incapable of operating it in the correct sense withouta preliminary period of unhurried, undistracted thought. One day I realized that a tracked vehicle is steered (in some cases) byputting on either a left brake or a right brake and looked forward anxiously to trying out this new approach on the Cadet. It worked perfectly. My delight at being able to ground-slidethe whole length of the runway under "natural" directional con- trol, using my "left brake" or "right brake" as required, is a veryhappy memory. I have often wondered whether other people found the same difficulty and whether my solution would suit anyof them. Farnborough, Hants. LAURIE VANDOME. A.T.C.O. Employment ConditionsT HE article by L. F. E. Coombs, "The Traffic Control Problem"(December 26) I found very interesting, although I think the present staffing difficulties in Air Traffic Control, caused in mostcases by conditions of service and lack of secure future, are a major problem. M.T.C.A., M.o.S., and all other reasonably paid jobs have agelimits of 35. M.T.C.A. have at least 100 vacancies at the present time. In practice this means a man can no longer seek promotionelsewhere after 35, and this leaves a lot of frustrated individuals in the prime of their working life. How many other professionsconsider a man too old at 35? Normally he is just maturing in experience and becoming most valuable to his employers. Further,it seems absurd to employ (as M.T.C.A. do) a person of up to 35 without any A.T.C. experience, spend heaven knows how manyhundreds of pounds, and hours, on training him to proficiency, when an experienced A.T.C.O., of say, ten years' experience, at36 years of age cannot be employed. Surely some form of age reduction for experience would bring many more A.T.C.O.s intoGovernment appointments. If the employers are worried about pensions, an offer of reduced pension or permanent un-establishedappointments will still produce results. I am over 35, and in the last two years have applied for about 25appointments and received only one interview. In some cases I have checked the selected candidates' qualifications and foundthem much less than mine. It would appear that in some cases I am too well qualified. After 18 years in aviation (13 in Control)I am seeking employment elsewhere because there simply isn't the scope or future in Air Traffic Control there ought to be. A.T.C.can be a thankless job, often in very poor working conditions (i.e., in radar units) on shift hours through 24 hours, weekends, nightsand Bank Holidays. Medical examinations every year can be very worrying, as a failure can mean unemployment and a severe dropin one's living standards and salary. I sincerely believe that an independent committee should beset up immediately to investigate Air Traffic Control in the United Kingdom, including employment and conditions of service. Civil
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