MASTER AIR PILOTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22398, 20 October 1934, Page 14

MASTER AIR PILOTS

DISTINCTION FOR FOUR AIRMEN IMPERIAL AIRWAYS PILOTS. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.! LONDON, September 14. Four of the pilots of Imperial Airways —Captains A. L. Walters, F. D. Travers, J. Spafford, and E. S. Alcock—have gained certificates as master pilots. This new category for British commercial airmen was instituted in 1929, but it was not until this year that the first certificates were issued. The requirements are such that only pilots of exceptional flying experience, both by night and day, can hope to obtain one. The quahfications necessary include the holding of a current license issued to pilots entitled to fly for hire or reward; also a license authorising the pilot to act as an aircraft nagivator. Both these licenses must have been in force for at least five years. The applicant must also have flown for at least 1000 hours as a pilot of cm! aircraft during the five years prior to ms application: and, in addition, a considerable amount of night flying experience is called for, including a minimum of 20 night flights above land or sea, each to begin and end during the hours of darkness, and to last at least an hour. Captain Alcock is a younger brother of the late Sir John Alcock, who made the first non-stop Atlantic aeroplane flight in 1919. After a period of service in _ the Royal Air Force, Captain Alcock joined Imperial Airways in 1929, and is now piloting four-engined aircraft of the “ Hannibal ” type on the Empire route between Egypt and India. Since he first learned to pilot an aeroplane he has flown over 750,000 miles. Captain Spafford. the other recent recipient of a master pilot’s certificate, joined the Royal Air Force, after the war, and had done over 1000 hours of service flying when he joined Imperial Airways in 1928. He flew on the Continental routes until the end of 1931, when he was posted to the Near East division of Imperial Airways at Cairo. His hours spent in the air total over 6000. Captain Travers, one of the two earlier recipients of the certificate, learned to fly in 1917, and saw war service in Macedonia, Egypt, and South Russia. After the war lie became a pilot on the SalonkiConstantinople air-mail. Subsequently he operated his own private air-taxi service, and then joined Imperial Airways in 1926. Captain Walters, who has the distinction of holding master pilot’s certificate No. 1, began flying in 1918. and, prior to becoming an Imperial Airways pilot in 1924, had 1000 hours in the air to his credit. At the present time Captain Walters’s logbooks show that he has spent nearly 8000 hours in the air.