IMPERIAL AIRWAYS PLANS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 37, 27 February 1937, Page 17

IMPERIAL AIRWAYS PLANS

From Planes to Flying Boats

f lM»9 extent, Imperial Airways wQt ohanga from land aaroplanea to dying-beats next ysar, althongh many big np-te-datf land air liqers are on ffder. A J** ngo the personnel ineluded » doaen flying-boat pilots, end H otkMa, The pxogramme of expanrion akd aoeeleratiom demanda the sdllifciou tf iM pori dying men, and more than |«|f ef these will be needed for flying* . i Arrangementa wero mad# for ioo air* pen to bo tnained ia flying-boat pflot* pge aad ia handling marino aircraf t on the water, at Air Service Training, near gouthampton, and jt if from Southamp* ton Water that the accelerated. Empire •ffoinef will operate, pending the com* flstiaa of the proposed b&se at Porfcameuth, * a flying boat is. aot diflesent twa flying a land aeroplana, and the |fia«ip«l oxtra training needed for the pilots who are taking the apecial QOQjrse at Air Service Training relates to man* •eovriag ea. the water- ia over-vaxying eombinations of winds, tides, and sea, The yachtaman 's expferience is, In this mattfr, of very limited us^ althongh fcfttp than none, but the conduet of a ifing SWfhiae afloat presente problems whifh leilori have not had to tnckle. Jmpermi Airways pilots are navi. gltoff, and navigation, wbetber over

land or sea, Ia the samc. Directional wireless ia more and more used, but astronomical navigation can be applied in flying, and even in the K.A.F., now that the range of bombera. has become so great, will often be neceseary. Air-Service Training is a veritable university of the air, where a large number of young men of seventeen and upwards prepare for a career in com* mercial aviation. The long couxses, in fact, cost about the same as entry into elder professions, and the prospects of a life career are equally assured to euitftble moa, It used to be said that the air pilot'* job was a dead-end one. If this ever was true, it is so no longer, for, assum* ing that a man ia too old to be the cap* taia of au air liner ftt, say, fifty years of age, he will still have, if he ehoose, years Of service on the ground in re* sponaible jobs for which his training hai given him the right qualifications, aa cpuld be proviaed by no other train. ing* A large number of students at thiiB air university go tp Imperial Airways, but not for a long time as Ihrst Pilots, They must serve a long apprenticeship beforo they are given full responsxbility. Experience is etill the best teacher, and although the training of the modern air j>ilot is very sound and practical, it cap only b© completed ip terma of actual aervice.