AVIATION NOTES.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20543, 11 May 1932, Page 14

AVIATION NOTES.

FIGHTING FOREST FIRES. HAMBLE AIR UNIVERSITY. (from ovm. own cokeesposdext.) LONDON, March 31. More than 70,000 miles of flying in the course of one of the most exacting tasks imposed on any aeroplane pilot have won for George Phillips, senior pilot to the Eastern Operating Division of the Ontario Provincial Air Service, the McKee Trophy for 1931. Like the Britannia Trophy in England, this award goes each year to the pilot who is considered to have done the most meritorious work for aviation. It is not necessarily given for any spectacular effort, but for consistent good work, and the Ontario Provincial Air Service, entrusted with the responsibility of checking the fire danger in the great forests, may fairly claim to do work that is not surpassed in usefulness by the activities of any other aerial organisation. v During the dangerous months from May to October, when the summer heat and the carelessness of prospectors and tourists combine to increase the hazard of flre, the air patrolmen are on the job continuously for ten and twelve hours a day. Each is allotted a "beat," above which he flies ceaselessly in a light seaplane ever on the watch for signs of a new fire . among the trees below. At the first hint of danger he summons bigger "suppression" aeroplanes, which carry fire-fighting equipment to the scene of action. Frequently the warning is given so quickly that checking the outbreak is simple, and each- year the air patrols save millions of dollars' worth of timber from destruction. During the summer the! work is strenuous indeed; at the end of the long day?s flying the pilot must see that his machine is ready for the next morning and any adjustments and routine inspection must be done before he leaves the job.

Small but Doughty Aeroplane. George Phillips is a king among these men. In 1931 he flew altogether for 770 hours 50 minutes," of which no fewer than 745$ h<rars were done in Moth seaplanes and 641 hours — equivalent to nearly 60,000 miles—in his own particular Gipsy Moth bearing the registration markings G-CAPC. This craft was delivered last April, and by the end of the year had piled up a mileage that few motor-cars reach in three years of steady running. During the height of the summer Phillips was Spe&ding more than 200 hours in the air, each month. Apart from his fire patrol, work, he made many special flights, especially noteworthy being a journey made one night with a doctor in the passenger's cockpit to a sum-< mer camp, on Lake Superior. Phillips took oft at 9.30 . p.m., flew to the camp after the sun had set, descending in a sheltered bay on the lake, and returned to his headquarters by midnight, making a perfect descent in the light of the acetylene plant which is locaj&d opposite the -Air Service base. Fourteen aeroplanes now constitute the fleet of the international "air university" at Hamble, on Southampton iWater, which was opened/ten months ago by Air Service Training, Limited. They comprise four powerful Atlas two-seater biplanes similar to the. craft used in the Eoyal Air Force for army co-operation work, a Siskin fighter,! three D.H. 9J two-seater craft, two Avro Tutor service training machines, and four Avian light aeroplanes. Some of the Avians have been J specially equipped for night flying in readiness for a group of pupils who will be taking this form of instruction during the next few weeks before going on to qualify for the Air Ministry's B, or commercial pilot's, license. Two well-known women aviators are studying at Hamble. Lady Bailey, famous for her lone "flights through Africa a year or two ago, recently obtained her B license and is preparing to take her second-class certificate in air navigation. Miss Winifred Spooner, who is in charge of Mr Lindsay Everard's landing ground at Leicester, and is probably the only woman,aerodrome manager in the World, has been accepted for courses in instrument flying and in the difficult technique of instruction. Among pupils now at the school six qualified' recently for the A certifi-. cate, which is the usual badge of proficiency sought by the amateur pilot, three gained ".blind" flying certificates and three their B licenses. • A new lecture room is furnished with an extremely ingenious apparatus which supplements the instruction given 1 in, flying by instruments alone, It am-

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