THE PILOT'S "EYE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 16

THE PILOT'S "EYE."

DIRECTION FINDING. BELL BLOCK FACILITIES. NEW PLANT TO BE BUILT. (By TelPiriiph.—Own Correspondent.! NEW PLYMOUTH, Friday. The installation of radio telegraph facilities and modern direction finding equipment at the Bell Block airport, Now Plymouth, has. been approved by the Hon. F. Jones, Minister in charge of Aviation. The work will he started almost immediately, and temporary plant will be in use early in June, to be replaced as soon as possible by a permanent transmitter. Tenders for the erection of the transmitting station building closed recently, and a contract will probably be let within a day or so. The Post and Telegraph Department has called for quotations for the plant. Two buildings will be put up, one fox the receiving station, which will not be*s>uilt immediately, and the other for the transmitting station. The complete transmitting equipment will not be installed in time for the opening of Union Airways' AucklandWellington service at the end of June, and temporary provision will be made by the installation of a radio telegraph transmitter. Mr. R. Green, radio engineer of the Public Works Department, visited the aerodrome with Messrs. P. E. Stainton and W. G. Watts, chairman and secretary of the Airport Board. Mr. J. Donaldson, telegraph engineer at New Plymouth, and Mr. C. Clarke, borough engineer, to select sites for the receiving and transmitting stations. Preferred to Beam System.

Radio direction finding apparatus is preferred by the Government to the beam system because it enables pilots to detour from the direct course to avoid unfavourable local weather conditions, and yet still obtain accurate bearings at any point of the flight. Alternative courses are flown by Union Airways, for instance, between Palmerston North and Dunedin, inland or seaward, over the Blenheim-Christchurch stage, according to the cloud or weather conditions about the Kaikouras, but a beam system would be confined to a set route. Pan-American Airways uses radio direction, not the beam" system, with specialised equipment to cover the great range necessary for ocean flights. "Riding the Radio Rail." The adoption of the beam system was fully considered before the Aeradio Committee decided to recommend the directional system as-preferable, not only on account of physical conditions, but also because there are definite disadvantages in pilots becoming accustomed to "riding the radio rail," with the inevitable tendency to rely less and less upon usual navigational methods. The radio guide is not intended to relieve the pilot and his assistant from the responsibility of competent navigation under all conditions (including the possible failure of the radio guide), but is merely an aid to navigation and safe flyii". Given adequate knowledge and experience in navigational practice, and aided by the bearings which can be obtained by radio, the pilots of machines equipped for radio reception and instruments for cloud flying (as, all modern passenger aeroplanes are) may fly steadily and confidently towards their destinations. Eadio telephony operating on 900 metres will be used for communication between aerodromes and aeroplanes in flight, and between aeroplane and aeroplane. Short-wave telegraphy will be employed for the transmission of weather and other special reports to and between aerodromes for the guidance of pilots before they leave the ground, and particularly for those whose machines have not receiving equipment.