airisms

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 11 May 1935, Page 11

airisms

"bij

"Loop"

Blustering southerly winds and rain have again prevented much flying at the Bridge Pa ’drome during the past week. Total hours logged for the week ending yesterday only amounted to 15 hours 30 minutes. There were no crosscountry flights made although Pat Blundell was to have flown to Masteito yesterday to attend the Wairarapa Aero Ball but was prevented from doing so by particularly bad weather conditions. The only visitor by air was Pilot Stroud of Wanganui flying a Western Federated machine ZK-ACZ. Wairarapa Ball. Yesterday Teddy Barker and the club instructor, Flight-Lieutenant Gerrand both left for Masterton to attend the Aero Ball there which is usually about the best of the Aero Balls in the Dominion. Intructors’ Course. On Monday Flying Officer G. R. White commences an instructors’ course at Wigram Aerodrome. The course usually lasts about two weeks so that by the end of this month there will be a stand-by instructor available in Hawke’s Bay. Week-end Competition. Last week-end a competition was held at the Bridge Pa ’drome in which entrants had to submit to tests similar to those prescribed for the issue of a pilot’s “A” License. On the day’s showing Pat Blundell and Guy Field took the honours. The judge found it particularly interesting to Joto that many of the more experienced competitors had no little difficulty in answering the oral tests. The competition has not yet closed and competitors who were unable to attend last week-end may carry out their tests to-morrow afternoon. The contest is a handicap affair as usual, with R. M. Field as judge. Triangular Contest. Saturday, June Ist, has been fixed by the Wairarapa Aero Club as the date on which the return inter-club match wiil be flown off. The tests will be held at Dannevirke. There will be four competitions as follow:—(1) Bombing; (2) landing; (3) message dropping and (4) aerobatics. Teams of three from each club will compete in each of the first ■ three competitions, there being one “A” and two endorsed “A” pilots from each club in each event. The last event will be flown off by one representative from each club. The Manawatu Aero Club have also been asked to attend so that the contest will be a triangular one. The Dannevirke Airport Board will endeavour to arrange billeting for all competing pilots. Pilots who desire to make the trip should notify the instructor as soon as possible. Ted Harvie Depart*. Yesterday morning Ted Harvie sailed from Wellington for England where he is going to undergo an instructor’s course at Air Service Training, Hamble, Britain’s air university. Ted is also going to take an instrument course and obtain some experience on some “big stuff.” He is returning through America where he also hopes to gather information about commercial flying and its allied subjects. Before leaving Ted wired “Cherrio” to all Hawke’s Bay Aero Club members. The Thousandth Gipsy. Behind the sale of Gipsy Moth engine No. 5999 lies the story of an achievement in the history of British aviation for which the de Havilland Aircraft Company is responsible. Messrs. General Aircraft, Ltd., the well-known manufacturers of Monospar aircraft, were the purchasers of the thousandth Gipsy Moth engine. The production programme of the De Havilland Aircraft Company at Stag Lane, Edgware, is advancing month by month, and the present Gipsy engine programme is at the rate of thirteen 130 h.p. Gipsy Majors and seven 200 h.p. Gipsy Six per week; the production of the latter engine was increased to eight engines per week from the beginning of last month. The two hundredth Gipsy Six engine was delivered recently to Messrs. Jersey Airways as a spare

engine for one of their fleet of D.H. Express Air Liners. Since the production of the first Gipsy 1 engine in 1928, the total number of Gipsy engines manufactured to date has reached the neighbourhood of 4006. Aero Digests.

According to recent statistics there aro nearly 14,000 licensed pilots in the U.S.A. Licensed aircraft total almost 7000. More than half the pilots’ licenses aro transport and limited commercial. California has almost twice as many licensed pilots as any other State.

Civil aircraft in Great Britain totalled 1,174 registered machines, of which 937 were airworthy, as at the end of 1934. Different types total 101. De Havilland’s 547 machines headed the list. Next come Avros with 198. Incredible though it may seem, in view of the short time they have been on the market, Milos aircraft took third place with 49 machines, with Klemm (45) and Spartan (43) close on their heels. Then followed Blackburn (36), Airspeed (20), Couper (18), Short and Do Boulter (16 each) and Monospar (14). The De Havilland aggregate is chiefly split as follows:—D.H. 60 (all types of Moth), 241; D.H. 80A (Puss Moth), 80; D.H. 85 (Leopard Moth), 46; D.H. 84 (Dragon), 42; D.H. 82 (Tiger Moth), 33; and D.H. 83 (Fox Moth), 31. More than 80 aircraft, representing 20 types, were in service on regular air transport in England at the end of lasi, year. The highest number of any one type was 20 D.H. Dragons. Next came 9 D.H. Rapides, followed by 8 Handley Page 42's. The total of those used for taxi work, joy-riding, etc., was 190, the highest number of any one type in this category being 30 Avro 504 K’s, followed by 21 D.H. Fox Moths. Latest statistics disclose that in England there are-153 machines in use for school work and training. Of these, the clubs own 95. Private owners possess 478 aircraft.

From a total of under 60,000 miles flown in 1929, the China National Aviation Corporation, in 1934, flew 833,500 miles.

Canada has over 300 licensed commercial airplanes and some 40 privatelyowned machines. Commercial pilots total over 450; private pilots 391, and ground engineers 450. A commercial dirigible lino will be opened in the near future, in Russia, covering the 1000-mile route between Moscow and Sverdlovsk (Central Asia;. The dirigibles will be of the semi-rigid type, capable of transporting 18 passengers and mail. Operating a fleet composed chiefly of D.H. Dragons, Jersey Airways, Ltd., transported no less than 19,886 passengers in 1934. Their aircraft made nearly 4000 Channel crossings. Orders were recently placed for six new D.H. Rapides, to bo equipped with Standard twoway radio. The first of these was put in service last month.

Ships That Pass—and Others. Two new call signs have been authorised Tor wireless interchanges between aircraft and ships at sea. These mean, respectively, “aircraft overhead” and “ship below,” and thereby hangs a tale which was told to mo by one who knew.

"What with wireless,” he said, “and other gadgets, the Imperial Airways skippers on the Mediterranean Tun know whore they are to the nearest wave, but it is the done thing to speak to any ship they see and exchange notes ,of position. One day, after flying for the usual hour per trip with the curtains drawn, which is done to keep in blind flying practice, the crew pulled up the blinds, saw'a tramp steamer below and politely enquired for the position. The answer, also polite, named a spot some 70 miles from where the flying boat knew itself to be, so gome flippant remarks were made concerning the navigational methods of old salts to whom 70 miles of error was all in the day’s work. The steamer replied with regrettable asperity about aeronauts who rambled aimlessly, not knowing their whereabouts, and forced to depend on respectable . surface craft which did. At about this juncture the trajnp below chose to answer for the first time, and the blushing airmen realised that the ship to who they had been talking was really 70 miles away as reported.”