The Aviation World

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 5 (Supplement)

The Aviation World

AUCLAND AERO CLUB NEWS BY AIXEBON Wet weather and bad flying conditions have resulted in there being comparatively littlo activity at the Auckland Aero Club's aerodrome at Mangere during the past week, although during the fine spells last Saturday and Sunday, the instructor, Flight-Lieutenant D. M. Allan, was busy making passenger flights in. tho Puss Moth. Another club-trained pilot, Mr. D. Robertson, qualified for his A licence last week, the examination being made by Squadron-Leader L. M. Isitt. A notice to airmen from the Director of Air Services, Squadron-Leader T. M. . Wilkes, in connection with night landings, has been received by the Auckland Club. , The notice states that aerodromes through. , out New Zealand are not at present , equipped for night landings, and pilots , are therefore responsible for arranging their itinerary so that the possibility of having to make a night landing will be avoided. < It is stated in the notice that as occasions may arise when night landings become necessary, it is desirable that a recognised method of placing flares for such emergency landings should be understood and adopted by all concerned. In the absence of the standard illuminated landing tees, tho following method will be adopted. A line of flares will mark the up-wind limit of safe landing, while another and longer line will bo arranged at right angles to tho first line, indicating the right-hand limit of the runway. At no point shall the first line of flares be closer to any obstruction outside the landing area than 15 times the height of the obstruction, and its minimum distance from the boundary line of the aerodrome shall be not less than 50 yards. Another flaro will be placed to mark the downwind limit of safe landing, and machines must not touch before reaching this flare. Under this arrangement pilots making a night landing will be able to pick up a long line of flares, with a shorter line at one end, indicating the landing area. A landing mado to the left of the long line, with the run finishing before reaching the shorter line, will thus bo in an unobstructed area, and in the correct direction, and the manoeuvre should not be found unduly difficult. A second notice to airmen, relating to flying instructors, has been received by the club from the Director of Air Services. Attention is drawn to the fact that no person shall give practical instruction in flying unless he or she lias- completed satisfactorily a course in flying instruction and hap been examined by an authorised representative of the Minister, and is licenced as a flying instructor. It is also provided that an applicant for an instructor's licence shall be in possession of pilot's licence for passenger-carrying aircraft and shall have held it for the preceding 12 months, and that he shall have carried out a minimum of 250 hours in sole charge of a machine. to observe the first regulation will be dealt with by the cancellation of the offending pilot's licence, the notice adds. The following new members have been elected: —Pupil, Messrs. 11. I. Montgomery, H. O'Connor and W. Passmore; associate, Messrs. B. Richards and M. J. Steel. INVERTED AERQBATICS The presence of German war " aces," men who fought in the air on the Western Front and are credited with many victories over Allied airmen, gave an unusual note to the garden party held by the Royal Aeronautical Society at Hanworth aerodrome, near London, recently. They met and chatted with English pilots whom they had encountered during the war, and together watched the evolutions of the present-day single-seater fighters, which in a few minutes would have swept the skies of every aircraft in sight during the war years. That the next war in the air will demand even higher qualities of quick decision and cool calculation than the last • was amply demonstrated when FlightLieutenant C. S. Staniland ascended in the Fairey " Firefly " fighter. Speeds have nearly doubled since 1918, not only when flying level, but in the dive. Modern British single-seater 'planes dive at around 400 miles an hour, a velocity perhaps easier to appreciate if it be expressed' as six hundred feet a second. Such stupendous speed means literally that the pilot must think and act in split-seconds. Staniland hurled his aeroplane through breathtaking rocket climbs which ended in two upward spins, the machine almost literally hanging on the propeller. He looped, rolled, dived and swept across the aerodrome at terrific speed. The enormous reserve of power in the super-charged " Kestrel " motor and the cleanness of design of the aeroplane were forcibly brought home when, after a steep dive, Staniland set the aeroplane in an almost vertical climb, half-rolled it on to its back and shut off the engine. So great had been the impetus of the dive under the urge of the mighty engine, and so small is the air resistance of this beautiful machine, that it continued to climb steeply upside down for somo seconds without tho engine. Entirely different, yet equally attractive, was Flight-Lieutenant Clarkson's displayin a " Moth" light aeroplane. Flying inverted, ho utilised tho magnificent control qualities of the machine to the full in a series ol lovely and perfectly-executed manoeuvres, including a number of figures of eight with vertically banked turns. ASSISTING THE PILOT An interesting device known as a " rudder bias gear," which saves the pilot of a multi-engined aircraft much fatiguing effort in certain emergency conditions, has recently appeared in England. When one outboard engine of a multiengined aircraft ceases to operate there is obviously an immediate change in tho trim of the machine. It will tend to swing toward tho side affected, urged by the power of tho motors still running on the other side, and to continue flying straight the pilot will bo obliged to maintain pressuro on tho rudder bar at his feet to hold tho rudder over at an angle sufficient to counteract tho swinging . tendency. , W':!i tho new Wcstland gear r.ll he . neeii do is to operate for a moment a ! sin. ! /C rank attached to tho mechanism, which is an affair of telescopic sliding ( tubes aided or restrained by springs. 5 Once the gear is set tho springs automatically apply the force necessary to ovor- ■ como tho turning movement of tho power i units which aro still running, and tho pilot is able to continue -flying with no moro ruddering effort than if all of tho motors were in operation. The device can also bo used to lessen the fatigue of normal flying, either in single-engined or multi-engined aircraft, and tho more an aeroplano can be built lo fly itself the I less is the strain on the human pilot and 1 the greater is the efficiency of the work he 1 does. I NEW NAPIER ENGINE ! The English firm of D. Napier and Son, , Limited, is now producing a 150h.p. sixcylinder inverted air-cooled engine, which is eminently suitable civil purposes. , This engine has obtained 1 its Air Ministry i air "Worthiness certificate and, during the last few months at Heston aerodrome successful flying tests have been earned , out with one of the new type fitted into a Spartan " Arrow " machine.