BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

Evening Star, Issue 21723, 18 May 1934, Page 3

BENEATH THE WINDSOCK

[By UrrfiT Moth ] PILOTS AND PLANES. Unfortunately the weather at Invercargill last Saturday was bad, and the competitions . organised by tbe Southland Aero Club bad to be postponed. The Otago Club was notified in time to prevent tho planes from leaving. Tlio instructor immediately communicated with as many pilots as possible to let them 'know planes would be available at the Taien, and several pdot.s came out, including two from Aiiddlcmareh and two from Baldutha. Two planes visited Baldntba on Sunday, pjloted by Flight-lieutenant Olson and T. Martin. Dual instruction and solo practice was carried on till 12J5 p.rn., when the machines returned to tho Taicri.

Air G.-.■Ranton, of Baldntba, now has an endorsed A license, and carried his first passenger on Sunday. Tho beautiful weather on Sunday attracted a laim; crowd to the drome, and as all machines were busy till dusk, visitors had no dull moments. Flightlieutenant Olson gave a display of aerobatics in his usual Ihiisbecl maimer, and the glider built by Air W. M. Angus, with Air Cro.sbie at tbe controls, made one or two good flights, causing some excitement among the visitors, several of whom had never before seen a glider in flight. With a favourable breeze this machine will maintain 150 ft to 200 ft on a towed flight. Several passengers made their first flight on Sunday, and quite a few expressed their intentions of taking longer flights later. Even on a short flight quite a variety of country can be seen from the Taiori, including Lake Waihola, the Rock and Pillar Range, and the Pacific Ocean. Piloted by Flight-lieutenant Olson, tbe Waco cabin plane, carrying three passengers, left for the north on Tuesday, and is expected to return to the Taien on Friday.

Air CJ. Bingham has joined the club as a Hying member, and had his first lesson during the week-end. Weather permitting, a field day will lie held at Tapanui to-morrow. Pilots should communicate with the secretary if they desire to fly a plane down. Through the courtesy of the Royal .Naval Reserve wireless weather reports are now exchanged daily at U9JU hours between the Taiori and Sockburn aerodromes Afr D. Alills, the. New Zealand representative of tbe I)e Havillaud Aircraft Company, arrived at the drome on Monday in Puss Alotb ZK-ABR, and left for the north on Tuesday.

Pilots N Patterson and V. Viehey, of tbe Southland Aero Club, called at .the drome on Wednesday to refuel. Both were on their way to Christchurch to undergo a flying test for a B license. Pilot N. Patterson has also -to sit an examination for his B ground engineer’s license. Pilots entering for the landing competition are reminded that only two week-ends remain of the current month, and to make their attempts at the circle at their first opportunity. There is no entrance fee, and tbe prize is two hours free flying. • On several occasions lately hanger space has been taxed'to capacity, and it is worthy of note that nearly all tbe planes that arrive at the drome nowadays Carry passengers who are using the aeroplane purely as a means of rapid transport, usually for business purposes. This is in contrast to conditions three years ago, when almost all visitors were pupils gaining cross-coun-try experience.

CAPTAIN JONES. A widow makes a parachute jump, a young man Hies from Patagonia to Portugal, a novice airman bits a lullside; they arc news, for they have done something unusual. Every day hundreds of large aeroplanes land sedately on aerodromes throughout the world, the passengers that they have carried over half a continent are passed through the Customs to waiting motor buses, and the pilots, having done their normal daily work, go home untroubled by publicity to do a little digging in their suburban vegetable gardens (states the Christchurch ‘ Press ’ editorially). They are no more news then the captain of the ship just arrived from Valparaiso, but they are the founders of a new tradition. Last week, for a moment, and probably much to his surprise, one of them became news. Captain 0. P. Jones—captain not because he may have once icld that rank in a fighting force, hut because be commands an air liner, and aas the responsibility, for the lives of the forty passengers it carries—marked m bis Jog a journey from Paris to Croydon that brought his flying time to 10,000 hours, in which he had covered about 1,000,000 miles. The fact was worth cabling even to New Zealand, and that round figure, 1,000,000 jn iles, must have made many people realise for the ’first time that this Captain Jones, of whom they had never heard before, and dozens more like him in every big country of the world, are as remarkable for the work they do as for the consistency with which they keep out of the limelight. There may nut be much romance in the arrival at Croydon of the Paris aeroplane at the exact minute the timetable lays down, of the Zurich or Mahno machines, of another that lias come from Capo Town, or still another that has gathered its passengers and mails at various stopping places between Singapore and Rntbali Wells; but there is romance in tho task of their pilots. They are not playboys of the air or daredevils of the sky or anything else that the fiction writer would make them; they are commanders who, with 0n1y,.-their own experience, judgment, and amazing skill to help them, bring in their craft on time, or, when the elements light too hard against them, as near to it as possible. They arc setting for commercial flying standards as high and as jealously guarded as those of the mercantile marine. Captain Jones has

come into the ncivs only once; but many an ocean flyer will take off his bat to him. EASTER A 111 TRAVEL. It is probably true to say that the new outlook for air transport in Great Britain may be explained by tiic difference between air travel and fast air travel (says the aeronautical correspondent of ‘The Times’). The experimental Manchester service of 19,'J0 was operated by aircraft which had a cruising speed of 00 miles an hour. The aeroplanes chosen by Commercial Airways for the East Coast route to Scotland and by its competitor on the west cruise at 143 miles an hour, and still faster machines arc likely to be used by the railway companies. The same need is being felt at the moment on the shorter runs, not simply to save a few more minutes ou the journey, but to impress the conservative businessman with the advantages of air transport. Mr Norman Edgar, whoso .Severn ferry needs only a quarter of an hour on the journey between Bristol and Cardiff, believes be may have to use .a dOO-milcs-an-hour machine. before long in order to cut tiie time in half and so bo able to offer a spectacular as well as a useful service.