THE AIR SERVICE

Evening Post, Issue 29, 3 August 1936, Page 10

THE AIR SERVICE

RADIO ASSISTANCE

INCREASING EFFICIENCY

SOUTHERN SECTION

s I The publication of a statement made :, by the Postmaster-General (the Hon. F. a Jones) regarding the Government's mii terest in the provision of radio beacons -, or other radio and navigational guides .-'.to aviation and of figures showing the s high percentage of regularity maintains ed on the Palmerston North-Dunedin .. airline, notwithstanding the present : : lack of these aids •in adequate form, • has revived interest in this vital aspsct I- of aviation development in the Domini ion. i, It has long been obvious that such 'provision must be made if fully safe 1 air services are to be maintained under i all reasonable weather conditions, but I not until last year was a move made, i- when an officer of the Post and Tele--1 graph Department left New Zealand to j f investigate radio communication prac-1 tice and the development of radio direce tional equipment in Great Britain and ;. on the Continent. This officer returne ed to New Zealand some months ago, c but the recommendations which he g made to the Department have not yet c , been made known. i- PRESENT DIVIDED CONTROL. 11 The provision of full radio communie catioii aids to aviation (telegraphy, telephony, directional' equipment in one form or another) and the development of special meteorological services and the means whereby weather advice may be conveyed to' pilots and operators of air services are bound up with the problem of control as a whole, for aviation has now run far ahead of the multi-departmental control which perhaps sufficed for the bare needs when aviation meant aero club activities, the operation of a few taxi services and the very limited activities of the New Zealand Air Force. The system of control which has' grown up, for want of a definite policy, is divided between the Defence Department which handles military aviation as one of its sections and civil aviation as a subs' section, the Post and Telegraph Depart >f ment concerned with communications, c the Public Works and Labour t Departments, concerned with the development of aerodromes, the r" Scientific and Industrial Research, De- & partment, of which the meteorological r- office is a branch, and also local bodies j .. who in some cases have their own " definite ideas of what should be done I v for aviation, and accordingly may work! V in or out-of sympathy with one or, some or any of the Departments. It i ft is by no means clear that the Govern-| >- ment Departments themselves have I c worked in close co-operation; nor is, c that consistently possible in the ab-1 P sence of a plan for the co-ordination I •- of the efforts and contrasting policies s of half "a dozen or so of/ separate *■' authorities. It was, however, now ». being indicated by the Government i- that some single form of control-will shortly be brought into fact. y Though on a number of occasions the c officials of Cook Strait .Airways have & judged it wise to cancel the service ti across the Strait to Rongotai on ac- :. count, of rough weather conditions, it is ti interesting that Union Airways man chines have flown on every day since y the inauguration of- the service on - January 15 of "this year. On one day, s February 2, when gales raged over the s Dominion and were particularly de- '■- structive in the Palmerston North dis--2 trict, the southward-bound service was 1 suspended for the day, but the north- '• bound airliner, left on scheduled time from Dunedinj remaining at: Christchurch overnight and returning to Dunedin in time for the normal running, north and south, to be resumed the day after the storm. This was the only occasion on which Palmerston [ North had been unworkable up to the present. . . RADIO DIRECTION NECESSARY. Difficulties have been experienced at the southern terminal, for the Taieri Aerodrome, ten,miles to the south of Dunedin, is surrounded by hills about which cloudy conditions are frequent. It is considered, impracticable to land there when the "ceiling" is low and the r clouds are unbroken, with the present c limited radio aids, which do not include 1 directional equipment. During the last spell of bad weather the aeroplanes • were going as far south as Timaru, c until that aerodrome became flooded, f and although the flights were not i actually completed, passengers and i mails were carried over the route * (with the exception of passengers to * Dunedin) each day without a break.- ---•• With adequate directional radio, local i beam wireless and marker beacons v it is possible that the aeroplanes would a have been able to land at Dunedin, t at the Taieri Aerodrome, each day 5 without the slightest risk whatever, a f "Post" reporter was told today. Visiting pilots had referred to the New s Zealand pilots .as sound and efficient i and as pilots who, because they exer- >• cisc caution in their flying, should create confidence in the minds of passengers. Even in the United States the percentages of regularity of service vary from 89 to 98 per cent, on different air lines.