SERVICE AVIATORS ON THE AIR LINES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23365, 3 December 1937, Page 14

SERVICE AVIATORS ON THE AIR LINES

FOR “ALL WEATHER ” EXPERIENCE (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, Nov. 3. One hundred Royal Air Force pilots are to be attached to airliners of Imperial Airways and British Airways for individual out and home flights during the first stage of an important scheme to provide service pilots with experience in long flights outside the British Isles and in weather conditions that are seldom met in this country. Later, .the scheme may be extended to provide pilots with more comprehensive experience. Bomber pilots, whose task in war might be to make long journeys in difficult weather, will be the first to receive this new form of instruction, which in future may form part of the general training of all service aviators. They will study at first hand the methods of radio control and navigation that enable civil aircraft to maintain scheduled services nowadays in practically any kind of weather. Ability to take off and land in fog is an essential factor in modern flying; the blind-landing radio equipment installed at many civil aerodromes makes feasible the apparent miracle of safely landing a big airliner, which touches the earth at more than the speed of an express train, when the ground can scarcely be discerned from a height of 40 or 50 feet. Similar freedom to operate when low cloud and mist are prevalent is plainly essential if military formations are to attain maximum efficiency. In their daily journeys between England and airports on the Continent the crews of British airliners meet weather problems which differ widely from those that prevail over the British Isles, They must climb frequently to considerable heights to clear mountain peaks. In winter cloud flying is necessary for long periods. Avoidance of levels and areas where ice-forming conditions may prevail is another matter on which the airline pilots have acquired much knowledge; provision of even the most efficient ice-preventing device does not make it desirable to enter such zones unless they cannot be avoided. Installation of blind lat ding apparatus at R.A.F, stations is receiving close official attention. Flights in the commercial aircraft will fit the chosen pilots to use this new equipment efficiently. A big increase in the amount of flying done by service squadrons in cloud and mist will follow.