"DRUNK" CAN FLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 79, 4 April 1938, Page 5

"DRUNK" CAN FLY.

NO REAL CONTROL.

N.S.W. CIVIL AVIAiiuN.

"DRASTIC STEPS NECESSARY." SYDNEY, April 1. A man whose sight is imperfect, whose heart is weak, who ie under the influence of liquor, who has no pilot'e license, who perhaps has never piloted a machine in his life, can take up a 'plane, which has no certificate of airworthiness, and many passengers as the machine will hold. There i 3 no authority whatever that can prevent him from doing this, Bays the aviation correspondent of the Sydney "Sun." The Civil Aviation Department, a Commonwealth concern, is nominally in charge of all civil flying, but in actual fact its control is entirely negligible. The State Government's failure to ratify proposals for civil aviation control made by the Federal Government some time ago has given rise to this extraordinary anomaly in New South Wales. Proposals submitted ifl representatives of each State were in the form of statutory rules. It was made clear at the conference that each State, having accepted them, had to bring down legislation making the rules law. All States except New South Wales have done this, but gazettal of the regulations is held up pending uniform approval in all States. Civil Aviation authorities in other parts of the Commonwealth, except Canberra and parts of the Northern Territory and New Guinea, can exercise singularly little control over flying within a State. That control is. in fact, limited to minor thing*, dealing with light* and signals, observance of certain rules of the air and aerodrome fees.

Companies Observe Rules. Although this is so, every company flying passengers and mails in and out] of New South Wales voluntarily i observes all the safety regulations as! if they were law. ! There is no compulsion on a private I citizen who has a 'plane built here to paint on it the usual nationality andj registration marks. He need not apply) for or obtain a certificate of airworthiness for the machine. It can be tied together with pieces of string and no action can be taken to prevent its being flown. While in flight, articles of any description may be dropped from it. Nor is there any control over the height at which it flies. In the proposed statutory rules there is provision that no aircraft shall flyover any city, town or populous area at a lower altitude than that which would enable it to land safely on the outskirts of the area in the event of engine failure. A sub-section prohibits machines from flying lower than 1000 feet over populous areas, cr 500 feet over other areas "unless, through stress of weather or other unavoidable cause, it is essential that a lower altitude shall be maintained." As these rules have not been ratified, a pilot may fly as low as he likes over any area at any time. There is no age limit for pilots. A I person is justly entitled to fly a 'plane at 16 or 60. His or her physical condition is governed by no regulation whatever. The proposed rules say that an applicant for a private pilot's license shall be at least 17 and must pass medical tests, practical flying and theoretical examinations, and produce evidence of satisfactory recent flying experience in the type of aircraft for which the license is required. In actual fact, 99 per cent of the pilots in this State fit those requirements since they have applied for and obtained licenses." There is no regulation, however, which compels a pilot to obtain a license. « Suggestions that foreigners be barred from taking aerial photographs of important State undertakings (apart from defence works), carry no weight; since any person admitted to the State ran take up his own machine and do I much pictorial work as he pleases. Neither he nor his 'plane need be licensed.

If a pilot obeys the elementary land-j ing and take-off regulations applying to recognised aerodromes, he may do as he wishes in any kind of machine. Regretting that there was no official j control Captain }•'. W. Follett, managing! director of a well known airways company, said it had not made the slightest i difference at Mascot. ; ■'Everybody out there carries on as if the Commonwealth proposals were law," ho said. "There is a. very strict self-imposed control of which every airline company is extremely jealous. "Perhaps realising that since there is no central authority, it is up to them to see that the highest standards of efficiency and safety are maintained. they actually aspire to greater safeguards than even the regulations would require of them." Sir Keith Smith said: "One can hardly understand any responsible fJnvernment allowing such a state of affairs to exist. Very drastic steps should be taken immediately. "Civil aviation should he under one unit of control. Action in that direction is the next obvious step." Squadron-Leader A. W. L. Ellis, president of the Flying Corps Association. declared: "The authorities should be given all necessary backing to earrv out their job and there should be no loopholes such as now apparently exist. "Lack of control is a serious deterrent to civil aviation and I am surprised and shocked at its existence."