FLYING CONTROL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23143, 15 September 1938, Page 18

FLYING CONTROL

RONGOTAI AERODROME NEW-SYSTEM TO BE USED SIGNAL APPARATUS IN TOWER [by telegraph—own coil respondent] WELLINGTON, Wednesday A. new system of control is soon to be introduced at the Rongotai aerodrome to deal effectively with the increasing amount of flying of passenger services, aero club and training aeroplanes, and, particularly during weekends, of Territorial Air Force flying. For a time Rongotai managed well enough with no control system at all beyond a general look aiotmd by pilots about to take oil' or to land, but, when tho passenger services settled down to regular operation, a system of flag signalling was introduced to warn club and other pilots clear of the landing runs and approaches when a passenger machino was about to como in or to take off. Within its limitations the system worked, but never satisfactorily, because of the difficulty of distinguishing flog signals with certainty from any distance.

The new system will use a special small searchlight with colour screens, which is trained by a control officer at ail aeroplane to he signalled and which is visible only within a narrow arc, so that there is little likelihood of a message > intended for one pilot being taken up in error by another. The light, shaded by a hood, is clearly visible in daylight over a considerable distance and the system has been amply proved by use on Air Force fields and civil aerodromes overseas.

The control officer Avill be stationed in a tower erected just to tho -west of the main hangar and on days when there is a good deal of flying he will have highly responsible duties. Certain gcueral rules as to approach., take-off and taxi-ing have ii common application to.jill aeroplanes, but the giving of final directions will rest with tho control officer.