PACIFIC FLIGHTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 177, 28 July 1944, Page 6

PACIFIC FLIGHTS

CAREFUL CONTROL

"PLOTTING" IN AUCKLAND

The songwriter's thought "Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer" may have its sentimental value, but in wartime, to an Air Force, it is not good business. Something rather more concrete in the form of an approach plan is needed when an aircraft, valued perhaps at £70,000, is coming into land in soupy weather. Between Auckland and the forward area in the South Pacific these '-lays there very often are as many as 3y aircraft, both R.N.Z.A.F. and American, in the air at one time. In hara cash, those machines would be wortn roughly £2,000,000, and they may be carrying anything over 350 airmen. There is too much at stake here foi wing-and-a-prayer methods, rne position of each aircraft must be known at all times in case of accident, and the state of the weather must be anticipated at each stage of the m o n • This is the responsibility of the R.N.Z.A.F. Flying Control centre in Auckland. Chief function of this centre is to act as an air tiaffic centie and to control the destinies of all aircraft flying between New Zealand and the Islands.

Complicated Organisation

Such a control, to be all-embracing reouires a somewhat complicated, organisation, to the non-technical eye at least, but one which is capable of carrying on smoothly with routine work during the full 24 hours and capable also of swinging swiftly into action to meet possible emergencies. A careful check is kept on the progress of all aircraft flying to and from the Islands. Navigators compute their positions hourly or half-hourly and these positions are coded and sent down to Auckland by radio. The position of each aircraft is kept up-to-date on a huge plotting board in Auckland, and positions are constantly checked by a correlation of all information received. Should an aircraft be forced down, therefore, an accurate idea of its position will be in the possession of the Air Force flying control officers, who can call the air-sea rescue service out and dispatch assistance to the spot at a moment's notice. For instance, a squadron of P4O fighter aircraft may be returning from the Pacific, led, say, by two Hudson troop carriers,which are responsible for the navigation. One of the fighter aircraft might get into difficulties and be forced to crash-land in the sea. The procedure is automatic. One of the Hudsons would remain to circle over the crashed aircraft, while the remainder of the squadron would continue on its way, led by the second Hudson. Meanwhile a radio distress signal would have been sent out. The signal would be picked up by radio stations in New Zealand and in the Islands, where a listening watch is kept on aircraft radio frequencies during the whole time any flight is in progress—which means the whole 24 hours of the day.

Explicit Instructions

These stations would immediately proceed to "D.F." the signal—that is, to take a bearing on the direction of the signal. The intersection or "cut of two or more of these bearings shows with surprising accuracy the position of the aircraft in distress — and aid can be sent with explicit instructions for finding the pilot. The latter will have been attended to in the meantime by the escorting aircraft, which would continue to circle above to the limit of its fuel. If fuel was running low a second aircraft could be sent out to take over. The welfare of the pilot in the water is guarded by the dropping of a large rubber dinghy stocked with emergency equipment and rations. In addition to this aid each pilot carries as a normal item of equipment a one-man rubber dinghy which is incorporated in his parachute harness. That is one side of the story. Another is the control of aircraft arriving and taking off in bad visibility. No two aircraft are allowed to take off for the north in bad weather at the same time. Otherwise the case might arise, for instance, of a flying-boat taking off from Mechanics' Bay simultaneously with a land plane from an airfield in the vicinity. The two could easily converge and become a danger to each other, to say nothing of traffic from the north.

To avoid such a contingency, no aircraft takes off in poor visibility without obtaining the permission of Flying Control.

Guiding in of Aircraft

Similar precautions are taken with incoming aircraft. Pilots approaching in murky weather may be uncertain of their exact position. This can be given to them by means of radio "fixes," or other radio aids. Again, several machines may all be wishing to land at an airfield at one time. In that event they are directed into a safe area, there to circle at varying heights and wait while each aircraft in turn is brought over the airfield. Aircraft can be brought in either by "radio range" or "standard beam approach" equipment. The first consists of four radio beams intersecting over Auckland. These can be picked up by normal radio equipment carried by aircraft, and can guide the incoming machine to a point beneath the cloud ceiling where the remainder of the approach can be made by normal visual means.

The standard beam approach requires special equipment to be carried by the aircraft, and this equipment is being introduced extensively. Although this beam has a comparatively short range, it is extremely accurate, and pilots making an approach by this method can come down through the clouds in "ceiling zero" weather in perfect confidence that when their wheels touch down it will be on the landing strip. An organisation giving such a service cannot be built in a day. Expert meteorologists are required to interpret weather reports from near and far; cypher officers must be at hand to decode and encode signals; radio stations must be set up in New Zealand and to the north; direct lines of communication must be established with vital points.

All these things have been attended to long since. There was a time when the services which have now been brought under the Air Control centre might have had to plot the positions and trace the courses of aircraft other than their own. Had the need arisen, the men —and women—working unostentatiously in an Auckland building would have carried out the task with the same efficiency with which they are to-day guiding New Zealand and Allied airmen along the skylines between the Dominion and where a war is being fought in the Pacific.