Pilots ask for weather radar

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33263, 28 June 1973, Page 3

Pilots ask for weather radar

Xc’ic Zealand Press Association

WELLINGTON, June 27. Airline pilots were concerned that

weather radar had not been fitted to turbinepowered aircraft, Captain J. W. Dickinson, secretary of the Airline Pilots Association, said.

He said that weatheiy .radar, which warns pilots ofi: thunderstorms and lightning,!; was compulsory on turbine- 1 : powered aircraft in Australia,j 1 the United Kingdom, and the!; United States. Regulations which made radar mandatory in over- 1 seas countries, such as Aust-11 ralia. had usually foll-j; owed the break-up of air-!i craft in flight. New Zealand!: pilots did not want to wail that long, said Captain Dick- . inson in a supplied state-:: ment. 1 He said N.A.C. Viscountsj] and Friendship aircraft had[i their noses painted black toil simulate the presence ofi I weather radar. This was to j allow them to blend with the!) colour scheme of the airline. All later aircraft, including!< N.A.C. Boeing 737’5, Mount Cook Airlines HS 748’s, and ! the Ministry of Transport 1 Friendships, were fitted with!) weather radar. The Pilots’ Association was I particularly concerned that I no action had been taken by 1

I the Ministry of Transport on | a proposed amendment to I regulations which would make weather radar compulisory on all turbine-powered (aircraft, he said. “N.A.C. Friendships and Viscounts are. in the opinion of the association, equally if I not more exposed to dangers! (and should be fitted with (this important safety aid,” said Captain Dickinson. The Director of Civil ( Aviation (Mr I. F. B. Walters) said proposed regulations making weather radar com-1 pulsory had not yet been circulated to the industry Tor comment, because the; final legal version of the l proposed changes was needed first. ‘‘This is established pro- j cedure,” he said. “However, this new regu-i lation is part of an amend- : i ment list which, because ofji pressure of work on they Ministry’s legal section,, has not yet been i forwarded to the law drafts-1 man.” u