OCEAN FLYING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1937, Page 27

OCEAN FLYING

PAN-AMERICAN PLANS

SOUTH PACIFIC SERVICE

VITAL FORECASTS

A general • statement of the plans of Pan-American Airways for the opera-, tion of flying-boats over the South Pacific from Honolulu to Auckland .and of the vital importance of the meteorological service to regular flying was given by Mr. Harold Gatty, the company's New Zealand representative.

Mr. Gatty said^that he was not a meteorologist,. but he was keenly interested in the .application to the delegates attending the meteorological, conference at present sitting in Wellington. ' "In the beginning .of these flights ■which the Pan-American Airways will make down here, they will connect at Honolulu with ithe through service to China. They will not be running from San Francisco to New, Zealand, but from Honolulu; connecting with the service to China. The reason for that is that we will be using the Sikorsky plane, which is not capable of making the flight from Honolulu to San Francisco carrying a pay-load, and until we

get the Boeings on the run the service will be a connection from Honolulu to Auckland. That means we will have to tie in with a schedule of the North Pacific. That is our first problem.

"The second factor is when'we come on to Kingman Reef. We have no real difficulties there from the - point of view of weather unless we get any violent westerly . winds, which are fairly rare in that locality, but which may arise occasionally in the three months,. December, January, and February. The next stage is .Pago -Pago, which is not the easiest place to get in and out of. It is-safe, and there are bayy on the other sides of the island which can be used in an emergency, but there are certainly difficulties in that we cannot land or take off in a north-westerly direction—that is, up. the harbour, because we have an 800 ft ridge to clear. The weather forecast is very important, because it means that in three months of the year, if we are liable to get north-westerly winds, we will have to go outside the harbour to take off. These are examples of local things that affect our operations. NO NIGHT FLYING. "With reference to Auckland, we will not fly at night in this area. That is a definite rule the company has laid down. My company considers this' a .hurricane area, and it means we will, have to make our flights in daylight between Pago Pago and Auckland. It is a 1850-mile flight. We have to. take off before dawn in Pago Pago and land at Auckland around 5 o'clock in the afternoon. That time will be definitely within an hour or two of the time of landing in Auckland, because we will not fly at night until more and better reports are available. "With the lack of shipping and the lack of reports in these areas, it is possible for a hurricane to get through without being definitely located, as happened when we were waiting for the last survey flight. This hurricane nearly-wiped out-Nukualofa, which is right on our track. If it is a daylight flight, a pilot can more or less spot anything like that approaching. That will perhaps give some idea of the problems we have to contend with, and the same thing will apply on the return flight. "We have to stay about two days in Auckland for checking and minor overhaul, and then start back, taking off from Auckland before dawn to enable a landing to be made in Pago Pago harbour before dark. There will be no difficulties about the take-off, as lights will be strung out on the harbour in the direction of the wind. "We plan to use Russell as an emergency base and to have a wireless station at Russell purely for the purpose of guiding the plane into the coast by direction finding. The reason for that is that the high islands outside Auckland are hazardous. It would be dangerous to come in by directionfinding in bad weather past Rangitoto, Great Barrier, and the other islands. We put in moorings at Russell so that, in case Auckland is closed in, we can hang on to moorings at Russell until it clears at "Auckland, or until daylight; ROUND TRIP EVERY TWO WEEKS. . "Although we do not know yet what day of the week we ■ will .be running we will run a' round trip' every two weeks atthe-start,' leaving "San Fran-~ cisco on the 15th and- getting down here abotft "the 19th, and' thereafter every two weeks.' We expect to be running every week... within a • few, months after, starting. It will settle down to a weekly "service, and by April we hope to have the Boeing (the 50-pass'enger'boa't)' on the job and running a weekly, service. "The weather problem is a very serious one for' us in timing ,'the services. Assuming ,we get a bad report, we are held up on the other end; and it puts our schedule*; out and makes problems for us at Pago Pago. There are so many things to contend with that it will be. a very difficult period until the service settles down. During the conference, ;we will endeavour to point j out some of the difficulties we have experienced during the last survey flight. The, problem is not quite bo bad as it was then, but there are etill many problems confronting us, and we think they are rather serious. Any British, service through the Pacific and

across the Tasman will have the same problems confronting it; and now is a very opportune time for us to settle these questions and try to overcome the difficulties.

"I might also refer to our method of procedure. The company has a meteorologist, whose function is to obtain all the information he can from the services that are available. The meteorologists are trained, as tar as the company is concerned, in what the pilots can get through and what they cannot get through, and what they should not get through. They more or less adapt that information to the company's needs and in that way build up i confidence on the part of the pilots. The operations manager takes the iorccast and makes a flight analysis, which works out amazingly accurately. We have three courses from San Francisco to Honolulu, a northern course, a middle course, and a southern one. "The operations manager calculates from the forecast by means of computers, and so works out the time which the various routes will occupy, and chooses the route to be followed. They may not follow the same route each time. They choose the best altitudes to fly and the best route to take —northern, middle, or southern— and work it out in zones. The pilot takes the flight analysis and check's it against the operations manager's calculations. They are getting very surprising results with, those methods, and have built up a great deal of confidence on the part of the pilots in their operations.

( "The same thing will be done in ! Auckland. " We have-an airport man- ' ager who will act as operations manager, and Mr. Buxton, the meteorologist, will furnish the airport manager with that information. He will make up the flight analysis, and it will be turned over to the pilot. "We have radio stations at Auckland, Pago Pago, Kingman Reef, and Honolulu, so that the plane is in constant .communication, and is furnished with information of all. the. changes in weather that may occur. The pilots send, back information of-their weather in flight, so that the operations manager has it all at his finger 'tips. The pilot is allowed a certain amount of leeway, and is the deciding author-, ity> once he is in flight.- It is very hard for us to modify schedules to fit in with other requirements, such as days of the week, holidays, and so on. We have so many things to contend with now, such as local weather at Pago Pago, Kingman Reef, arid | Auckland, and .the-time-table of .other services. The same thing'will happen when the trans-Tasman service gets I under way. There will be a definite advantage in our planes arriving in- ' Auckland to fit in with the departure of the plane from Auckland to Australia."

Mr. F. Entwistle, head of the Overseas Division, Meteorological Office, London, gave a description of ; the meteorological organisation for flights across the Atlantic. •