FLYING ALONG A BEAM

Taranaki Daily News, 20 January 1933, Page 4

FLYING ALONG A BEAM

PILOTS’ WIRELESS EYES MORSE A' SURE PATHFINDER. LATEST AMERICAN NETWORK. Blanketed between clouds and fog, with no glean!, of guidance from earth or, sky, the up-to-date air pilot “rides on a radio beam” —to safety! With his, telephone headpiece ticking into his Oar the identifying signal pouring in a steady stream from the next landing station, he finds his way “blind” as surely as if his eyes were glancing over a well-known landscape in broad daylight. Something of it has beeh told before, but now we £ave more details, and interesting ones. It is one of the latest triumphs of practical-aviation, and “it is being done every day, every night, and right over our heads,” Says, Allan A. Barrie , in Western Flying. . . ‘ - , The Federal Airways System, according to; Mr. Barrie, “represents the nerves of American aviation, • a network of approximately - 19,000 miles Of lighted and radio-equipped airways that makes flying by day or night almost as certain as following the glistening steel of a railway or the marked and fenced border of a highway.” The entire set-up of. radio beams, revolving beacons, airways weatherbroadcasting stations, and intermediate landing fields is staggering in its entirety, he adds. Each of the nation’s sixty radio-range beacons shoots a guiding finger in four directions at the same time. Here Mr. Barrie invites us to take a ride on th. beam: —

Suppose we are flying at 8000 feet from Los Angeles toward the radiorange/ station at Fontana, at the south end of Cajon Pass. We put on the headphones and hear from Fontana a dashdot, an “N” in Morse code. It shows that we are too far to the right of the centre of the beam. A STEADY SIGNAL. As we swing to the left, the dash-dot slides into a steady dash, or a,continue ous monotone signal of about twelve seconds’ duration. This signal is interrupted five times a minute by ; the station-identifying signal, dot-dash-dot. When the dash or buzz is, continuous we know we, are headed right for the beacon station and a Department of Commerce landing field. The beam is approximately seven to ten. miles wide, 100 miles from the station, and narrows down to a few feet as we approach the field. .. Now, inclining to the left, we hear the steady signal break, this time to a dot-dash, letter “A” in Mbrse code. The signal gets louder as we approach the beacon; then breaks off. The interruption tells us that we have flown into the cone of silence above the station, and that the station is directly below. In the event that we cannot see the ground but know that the ceiling and visibility are sufficient, we can glide down through the fog and land at the field; But instead of landing, let us continue through Cajon Pass by turning to the left and picking up the beam that leads out toward the desert. As we go out on this beam with the station now behind us, the dash-dot will again be on the right and the dotdash, A, on the left side, with the continuous . buzz, as always, in the centre. This north beam' suggests a southwest beam from Daggett in the vicinity of the Baldy Mesa intermediate field, located at the top of the Cajon Pass.. CHANGED COURSE. The course here changes from , northwest to north-east toward Daggett. The change in direction is indicated by what is known as a marker beacon, which gives out a signal of three sharp dots and can be heard for a distance of three to six miles , from the station. A radio-marker beacon is operated on the same frequency as that of the radiorange course on which it is located. This simplifies beam flying by 1 indicating the exact intersection of two beams. Here our radio can. be tuned to the next station and the compass changed to the new beam, all without losing a moment’s time and without wandering a mile off the course. “The mail has actually been ..fibwh through rain and clouds, blind, for more than two hundred miles,” Mr. Barrie tells us, pointing out that “radio-beam and instrument flying are the most recent additions to airline flying, and high hopes are held for the future.” And he reminds us that “at night, we also use revolving. airway beacons. They are especially helpful in bad weather when it is necessary to fly close to thft ground with limited visibility.