AIR ACCIDENTS

Southland Times, Issue 22497, 6 December 1934, Page 5

AIR ACCIDENTS

AUSTRALIAN TRAGEDIES REPORTS BY COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY NO CAUSE GIVEN (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) Canberra, December 5. Interim reports by the Air Accidents Committee regarding the loss recently of two de Havilland 86 aeroplanes, namely, the Miss Hobart and the Longreach machine, have been furnished to the Minister of Defence, Mr R. A. Parkhill. The reports declare that no cause was ascertainable for either accident. Dealing with the Longreach crash on November 15, the committee states that the controls were intact and there was no evidence that any part of the machine failed. The committee recommended that a similar type of aircraft with similar loading should be tested as to controlability in a yaw, particularly where the yaw is allowed to develop to considerable magnitude. Regarding the loss of the Miss Hobart, the committee referred to evidence that pilots were in the habit of changing positions in the air which it described as particularly dangerous in the case of single controlled aircraft such as the Miss Hobart. The evidence disclosed that the change-over would normally occur about the position where the machine apparently disappeared. The committee also expressed the opinion that the petrol tankage had not provided a sufficient margin of safety in the event of adverse weather. The committee added: “There is evidence showing that the D.H.86 type of aircraft is sensitive in a yaw and is inclined to accelerate rapidly in a yaw. It was also most inadvisable in the case of the Longreach machine that F. Charlton, who was unlicensed, should have been in sole charge at the time of the accident.”

A message from Canberra states that the Minister of Defence is making arrangements for a test of a DHB6 plane with similar loadings to that which crashed near Longreach before the overseas air mail services begin from Brisbane next week.

Yawing is the movement of a machine on its vertical axis. In the front of the machine it is the turning of the nose. It is possible for a machine to turn so that it cannot be righted by rudder control if the construction does not obviate that dangerous tendency. Yawing, if not checked, will end in a spin.