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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0443.PDF
FLIGHT, 6 April 1961 451 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 The names and addresses of the writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Comet Crew Workload YOUR comment "Three Pilots, Four Sectors" (Air Commerce,March 10) seemed to me a masterpiece of innuendo. For theuninformed it conjured up an impression of overpaid, overcrewed but underworked BEA pilots refusing through sheer laziness to flyfour sectors a day in the Comet. What these pilots have been resisting has been the unsafeguardedapplication of the scheduled four-sector day, which is quite a different matter. Remember that the four-sector schedule willsometimes result in a five-sector day. A jet landing is far more critical, in terms of alertness required, than was the case in propelleraircraft, and it is the safety of that last landing of the day or night that must be the main consideration. Your comment implies that the issue is affected by the fact ofthere being three pilots on board, without mentioning that this third man is at the engineer's panel. It also implies that the increase inBEA's cost-level is mainly attributed to pilot pay increases, a sugges- tion open to dispute. It is even wrong in implying that good flyingweather should improve utilization; by eliminating holding and let- down procedures it actually has the opposite effect, although theplan must be for the worst likely weather. BEA are, of course, right to try for high utilization, but theirpilots are equally right in resisting attempts if they feel they border on the dangerous. Hong Kong ANOTHER JET PILOT [We did remark that: "The upward trend in BEA's cost level is ofcourse not wholly attributable to increases in the pay of their pilots." As we go to press it is learned that the disputed working conditions areto be examined by the Flying Personnel Research Committee of the Air Ministry—Ed.] Export Opportunity WITH the disbanding of the East German aircraft industry, theLOT (Polish Airlines) order for the VEB-152 jet transporthas fallen through. I am a layman, both in aviation economics and Iron Curtainpolitics, but I seem to remember the old maxim "Where there's a will, there's a way." Therefore, an export drive on Poland's airline(and other East European carriers), by Vickers and de Havilland might result in big orders for the Vanguard and Comet. Besidesearning cash for Britain, the sight of our aircraft in unusual colours would warm the hearts of all true Britons interested in the sales ofhome-made goods to overseas markets. London NW6 ROBERT CARR [Although the LOT order for the VEB-152 was never firm, our corre-spondent's proposal for an export drive in East European countries is a timely one. We can assure him that this market is not being overlookedby British manufacturers.—Ed.] Private Flyers' Seventh Heaven I HAVE just bought my first copy of your excellent publicationFlight, dated February 17. The first thing that caught my eyewhen I opened it was your leading article, "Freedom Under Control." You say: "The problems of sharing aerodromes andairspace between commercial and private users are too complex to be solved without a generous helping of imagination from thebran-barrel of new ideas." Balderdash! I thought your leader-writer and the poor unfortunate privatepilots in the British Isles would be interested in an experience I had here in the USA this past winter. A friend wanted to pick up anairline ticket at Greater Buffalo International airport, which is about 20 miles by road from here through heavy traffic. It takesabout two hours for the round trip by car, but less than ten minutes by Tri-Pacer from Niagara Falls Municipal airport—each way, thatis: and as the Tri-Pacer was parked only a hundred yards from where we live we elected to fly. After a thorough pre-flight checkI called Niagara Falls tower and received take-off instructions. The wind was out of the west at lOkt, the time was 8 p.m., and a coldfront was expected through about midnight. After an uneventful take-off, and after leaving the NF tower-frequency, the conver-sation went something like this:— "Buffalo tower, this is Tri-Pacer nine three seven Alpha over NorthTonawanda [ten miles out] landing Buffalo International." "Three seven Alpha, contact approach control on one one nine pointeight." "Buffalo approach control, this is Tri-Pacer nine three seven Alphaover Tonawanda, landing Buffalo International." "Tri-Pacer nine three seven Alpha, this is Buffalo approach control. How would you like to do a radar surveillance approach tonight?""We'd be glad to do a practice radar approach." "We think we have you on radar; turn to a heading of nine zerodegrees for positive identification." "Heading nine zero degrees. Altitude three thousand.""Turn to a heading of one four zero degrees." "Heading one four zero degrees.""Turn to a heading of two three zero degrees, descend to two thou- sand five hundred . . ."You are now seven miles from touchdown, complete your final cockpit check at this time, altimeter two niner niner zero, wind westsouth west gusting twenty-five. Field elevation seven one one." "Understand.""You are now five miles from touchdown. Start your descent, do not acknowledge any further transmissions, if there is a break in transmissionof more than thirty seconds execute a missed approach and proceed to make a normal instrument approach . . . Your altitude should be twothousand feet, you are now three-and-one-half miles from touchdown, change your heading to two hundred and twenty-five degrees . . . Youare now two miles from touchdown. Your altitude should be one thousand five hundred, heading two two seven degrees . . . You are nowhalf-a-mile and five hundred feet off the end of the runway. Take over visually from this point. Thank you for your patience, and if you boyswould care to see how we operate come on up to the tower." This invitation we gratefully accepted after getting taxi instruc-tions from ground control and parking next to the American Air- lines DC-6, My friend got his ticket and we went to see how theradar boys were doing. They told me that if it were not for the little fellows like me they would have a hard time staying active, asthey have to do a required number of practice approaches each month and the big ones are usually too busy to be bothered. Whenthe operator showed us how the 50-mile radar screen looked we could see that that cold front would be here long before midnight,so we decided to waste no more time in getting home. Incidentally, there were never less than eight aircraft within a ten-mile radius ofthe field, and sometimes as many as 12, mostly commercial airliners. We got taxi instructions to follow a Capital Airlines Viscount tothe active runway as we had no landing light, only navigation lights (this being an older model Tri-Pacer). Keeping a respectful distancebehind the big bird we heard him get take-off clearance, then came take-off clearance for an American Airlines Electra that had snuckup behind us. We heard the Electra pilot say: "How about this little fellow upfront here, it's kinda stormy for him out tonight, isn't it?" We wholeheartedly agreed by this time, for it was gusting 45kt. We gotour clearance and the Tri-Pacer fairly wanted to jump into the air. I held her down until the airspeed hit 80 before easing her off. Thewind was tossing us around like a cork and the next thing we hit was the rain. We had got clearance to the inner marker, where radarwas supposed to take over again, but as soon as we had cleared the runway radar took over and gave us a steer direct to Niagara Falls.What a wonderful way to travel! Or take the night I called my good friend the airport manager inMassena, New York. I had already checked the weather, intending to fly to Massena the next day. It was clear all over the wholeeastern United States. That conversation went like this (it was 8 p.m. Saturday):— "Hello, Stan, what are you up to?""Hey man, what are you doing? Your old buddy Gordon just flew in from Philadelphia.""Well, what are you going to do tonight?" "Why, we're going out.""Well, hold on, I'll be right there, See you at the airport at about eleven.""Okay, we'll wait for you." It's almost 300 miles to Massena from here. After the usual pre-flight 1 was ready to go. Incidentally, if there had been anything I had needed, like petrol, this would have been no problem asNiagara Falls Municipal is open 24 hours a day, as are most other major airports. Take-off clearance at 8.15 and I filed a flight-planby radio. The Tri-Pacer was climbing like a homesick angel tonight, and I reached my cruising altitude of 5,500ft in a fewminutes. Soon I was within reach of Rochester radio and gave them a position report. Rochester VOR was out of order, but that was no sweat. I couldsee for 60 miles or more; the only thing that worried me was ground fog, and I asked for a report on the latest temperature anddew-point figures from Massena as soon as they came in. I was 40 miles out of Rochester when I got the information that there wasonly two degrees between temperature and dew-point at Massena and that surface wind was only four. As this added up to possibleground fog I started to plan an alternative airport. I decided that if
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