AVIATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19854, 15 February 1930, Page 16

AVIATION.

VALUE TO NEW ZEALAND.

WING-COMMANDER S. GRANT DALTON'S ADDRESS.

It is safe to state that Wing-Oom-mander S. Grant Dalton, Director of Air Forces, never had a more attentive audience than he had last night on the occasion of an illustrated address given by him to the scholars of the Linwood school on aviation. Mr 6. W. Baker, chairman of the School Committee, said that the lecture was unique in that it was the first ever delivered on the subject to New Zealand school children. He stressed the value - of aviation to the Dominion, aiid drew attention to the services rendered by airmen to the people on the West Coast during the recent earthquake. The lecturer, after informing the children that he was in charge not only of the Air Forces in the Dominion, but of civil aviation, said that there were various reasons for flying not progressing rapidly in the Dominion. One was the lack of funds, and another was that the country was not particularly auited for flights. Canterbury was adapted for flying, but this much could not be said of Wellington, for instance, owing to the prevalence of winds. When an aeroplane was 100 feet or so in the air it was just as safe as being on the land, but the difficulty in such a hilly country as New Zealand mostly was, waß first of all to reach such a height. The distance between the various centres prevented profitable services from being established, especially when there were such good land services available. At the same time he thought that before the end of the present year an air service would be established between Auckland and Dunedin.

Speaking of Aero Clubs in the Dominion, the lecturer said that there was a great enthusiasm among members, in consequence of which new aviators were constantly being made. As a rule it cost about £3O to learn to fly, while to get an "A" ticket one had to fly «eolo for five hours. A great strain was put on club aeroplanes, for the reason that they were continuously making landings..

Alx Travel Best. He considered that New Zealand should inaugurate air services because, in his opinion, the best way to cover the country, owing to its hilly nature, was by aeroplano. On his way to Christchurch for instance, he left Blenheim at 9.45 a.m., while the sorvice cars took departure at 7.30, yet he had passed them before they had travelled halfway. To travel from Wellington to Nelson by steamer occupied about eleven hours, but by aeroplane the dietanoe could be done in under an hour. Flying-boats should be used for the purpose as they were of a type built for travelling over water. Chichester's Flight. Wing-Commander Grant Dalton paid a tribute to the effort of Chichester in flying from England to Australia, a distance of about 12,000 miles. Every time Chichester came down, he said, It was on land that he had never seen before, while he had also put up a splendid showing so far as navigating his machine was concerned, by no means an easy matter in strange country. To fly an aeroplane was a simple matter when one could see tho coastline, such as was the case in New Zealand, but Chichester had had to fly over deserts and the sea, having indeed flown over 500 miles of water before reaching Darwin.

Before the lecturer had left the Old Country the Director of Air Services (Sir Sefton Brancker) had 'suggested to him that the first thing for him to do was to join up New Zealand with Australia, but the position was that there was as yet no machine built for the purpose. The most suitable vessels for such a flight were either flyingboats or airships. The reason why aeroplanes were used on very long flights was because they were able to take off the ground with overloads of petrol, whioh were necessary to take them to; the end of their journey. To enable this to be done it was necessary for the aeroplane to make a big run. For the first hour of such a flight ftn aeroplane was unable to rise to any considerable height, and for this reason the flrtt stage was the most dangerous part of the journey. Reverting to' Chichester's flight, the lecturer said that it was accomplished in a Moth machine with a capacity of about 400 miles, but he had had to overload it so that it would carry him oyer stages of 800 to 900 miles; his performance was, therefore, a most meritorious on<\ Parachutes and Slotted Wings. Touching on the use of parachutes, the lecturer said that they should not be necessary in commercial flying. The most dangerous mishap in the air was a collision, and on such occasions there was no time for an aviator to jump. When an accident occurred it was usually due not to the machine itself, but to a personal error on the part of the pilot. Wing-Commander Grant Dalton, speaking on slotted wings, said that all Air Force machines in Britain were equipped with them. Usually when an aeroplane stalled, it made a' nose-dive, but when it was fitted with slotted wings the action of falling caused the wings to open, thus preventing nosediving.

At the olose of the address, the headmaster (Mr W. Rodger) thanked WingCommander Grant Dalton for hia presence, the youthful audience according him the heartiest of thanks by acclamation.