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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0191.PDF
THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY 1962 Number 2761 Volume 81 Editor-in- Chief IAURICE A. SMITH DFC Editor H. F. KING MBE Technical Editor W. T. G U NSTON Air Transport Editor J. M. RAMSDEN Production Editor ROY CASEY Official Organ of the Royal Aero Club First Aeronautical Weekly in the World Founded in 1909 Managing Director H. N. PRIAULX MBE BOAC's Shopping List f£\N page 197 of this issue it is suggested that BOAC's biggest problem today—over-capacity—may be a problem in the future also. No one doubts that the corporation will continue always to give the high quality service for which it is reputed; on the other hand there is serious concern about its financial future. A loss of £10m in the current year, bringing the accumulated deficit to £25m, is a situation which, as the Minister of Aviation has said, simply cannot be ignored. Six years must elapse before disputed estimates become incontrovert ible actuals, and before any suggestion that BOAC have over-ordered can be sustained. The corporation will be doing a job of national importance in introducing and route-developing the VC10; and if BOAC find them selves with too many aircraft there should be a better resale market for 707s than there has been for DC-7Cs. But the achievement of profitability is what matters above all. and it is this which has prompted our look at BOAC's shopping list. In this issue World News 194 Air Commerce 19 7 Airline Profile 204 TFX 207 Safety, Economy, Comfort 209 Westland Belvedere in the Air 211 Sport and Business 215 Straight and Level 216 748 Takes a Mud-bath 217 Dr Hooker Speaks 218 Letters 219 Missiles and Spaceflight 221 Service Aviation 22 7 Industry International 228 lliffe Transport Publications Ltd, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1. telephoue Waterloo 3333 (Telex 25137). Telegrams Flightpres London Telex; Annual subscriptions: Home £4 15s Overseas £5. Canada and USA $15.00. Second Class Mail privileges authorized at New York, N.Y. Branch Offices Coventry: 8-10 Corpora tion Street; telephone Coventry 25210. Birmingham: King Edward House, New Street, 2; telephone Midland 7191. Man chester: 260 Deansgate 3; telephone Blackfriars 4412 or Deansgate 3595. Glasgow: 62 Buchanan Street CI; tele phone Central 1265-6. New York, NY: Thomas Skinner & Co (Publishers) Ltd, 111 Broadway 6; telephone Digby 9-1197. © Iliffe Transport Publications Ltd, 1962. Permission to reproduce illustra tions and letterpress can be granted only under written agreement. Brief extracts or comments may be made with due acknowledgement." Light Aircraft Accidents A RECENT theme of our contributor P.P.O. (issue of January 18) was accidents to light aircraft. P.P.O. remarked that CAP 176. thte Ministry of Aviation's Survey of Accidents to Aircraft of the United Kingdom, "lost something of its value" because, although issued in December 1961, it surveyed the accidents of 1960. In the private flying category—aircraft of under 5,0001b gross weight—110 accidents were listed, a figure which alarms not so much by its mortality rate (eight deaths) as by the substantial damage to the aircraft in every case. Prompted by P.P.O.'s remarks, a reader has submitted some findings and observations of his own concerning light aircraft accidents in 1961. These we consider to be so disquieting, and deserving of such urgent scrutiny, that we present them on this page. The reader—Mr D. C. Perch, ACIS—has qualifications which are possibly unique. A former RAF flying instructor, he has also been engaged in accident prevention work at the Air Ministry and in recent years has been employed as a club instructor. At the beginning of the year just ended he started to compile his own lists of accidents from initial reports to the Ministry and to underwriters. These reports, he explains, are not so detailed as those produced subse quently; but the lessons to be learned from them are usually sufficiently clear. And what is lacking in detail is made up in topicality. The stark facts are as follows. During 1961 over 160 accidents to British- registered light aircraft were reported. Of these, ten involved two or more aircraft. This means that about 20percent of the light aircraft on the Regis ter were in trouble and, with the addition of the many minor accidents about which no details are published, the cost to club and private flying must have been extremely heavy. The expenses would be not oniy in respect of labour and materials, but also in loss of utilization and the adverse effect on insurance rates. There were eight fatal accidents. It is recognized, of course, that accidents during the instructional phase must always be expected. But club and private pilots are paying a very heavy price for carelessness, poor airmanship and flying discipline, lack of planning, and in a few cases sheer stupidity. Mr Perch has some practical advice for them, which is fully endorsed by the pilots on the staff of Flight International, two of whom are themselves former instructors. We shall. print Mr Perch's observations in our next issue as an immediate contribu tion to the safety of private flying, at a time when there is very real cause for concern.
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