FLYING IN CLOUD

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 720, 21 December 1933, Page 3

FLYING IN CLOUD

. PILOTS ADVENTURES EYER PRESENT DANGER OF "DOWN DRAUGHT" IN CERTAIN, AREAS. ■THE TURIW1HATI FATALITY. "I want to make it plain to the public that thsre h,as been no laxity in regard to instruction- of pilots of the Cantenbury Aero Club," said Mr. J. C. Mercer, when he was asked a question !>y the Christchurch Star reg.arding a discussion that took place at the Aero Club's meeting on flying in clouds. "On the contrary," he said, "it is only six months ago that some of the members of the club were up in arms because they thoug.ht I had too much authoriity and held ,themi down too much. The attitude I took up then was that I had rny job to do and that the trainees were under my control. "It is pretty hard to lay dqwn regulations about flying- in clouds," Mr. Mercer said. "For instance, in the Turiwhati accident no one knows whether thg pilot was flying in cloud or nob. "It is very, very difficult to lay down definite regulations in regard to flying above clouds. I have always taught the dangers and have warned the fellowis ag,amst them in some classes of country. The committee or the club could not be held responsible in any way for the last accident, however, and I myself think that the pilot was above the clouds all right, but owing to the atmospheric conditions prevailing that day he was really trapped. The same thing might happen to an older pilot who ha.d not the experience of that class of coun•try. People may reply that if that is the case, why let anyone fly over there-. Well, actually it is quite aa*y to fly there in some weathers, and you get experience in the process. Lost in a Cloud. . i "One member of the committee th'ought that we ought to revise the rules and stop cloud flying. He hiniself got into a cloud and was lost for half an hour going from Wellington to Palmerston North while following me last year. There were just some small hills, 2000 feet high, and that ' day we were flying about 4000 feet. There was a big ibank of cloud on the side of us. I could see there was a big valley in the clouds and flew through it-, but for some reason he thought he would go on the other side of the clouds and pick me up beyond, but he failed to come through and was lost for half an hour. Fortunately the clouds were not down on the hills.

"There was another little adventure going, to a pageant last year. I had two other trainees with me flying separate machines. After leaving Wellington we had to get over a bank of cloud between Wellington and Paekakariki. We had reached 6000 feet, when I knew I was well above the clouds and could see the sea coast on the other side. Without any warning I suddenly saw the clouds above me, which meant that I had got into a dowr.ward current or down-pressure. I immediately turned away from it into the opening. The other pilots hung on my tail and followed me, which was the right thing to do. We came at it a second time and got up to 6000 feet, but exactly the same ■thing happened again. I had to turn i away, climb a bit higher again, and J make right back to Wellington, and cross from there towards Mana Island. j "Like a Waterfall." j "That trip demonstrated that just in that area there was a big .downward pressure or down draught which I would act, you might say, just like a waterfall coming over on top of it. Had' they been young pilots flying alone', they might not have realised the difficulty they were getting into and might have been forced down into clouds and lost." Discussing the neeessary relation between power in the machine and ability to climb above a certain level, Mr. Mercer instanced the time when in perf-ect weather, flying north over the Loburn Valley above Cromwell it took him 20 minutes to get to a height of just over 3000 feet, and another 30 minutes to get up to just on 7000 feet. Then suddenly they went up to 10,000 feet in the next 10 minutes. This was wh'ere experience came in, because a pilot could feel these upward lifts or downward pressure by his sense of balance, and also by his altimeter, although the alti-met-er did not always give the exact altitude because of atmospheric conditions.

Flying Over the Alps.. "We are somtimes climibing like the devil, full bore, holding, the machine up in a climb, and gaining no height. Then all of a sudden you perhaps get a hump and up she- will go. Sometimes getting towards hills or mountains we find we are not getting height, so we turn back and keep on climbing until we get a bit higher, and above that downward pressure." I Mr. Mercer was asked at what ' j height he flew over the Alps, and he j replied that it varied from 10,000 feet to 11,000 feet. At that altitude he was within easy gliding distance either of the T-eremakau River • on the one side or the Waimakariri" on there were also two or three other rivers, the Arahura, the Wilberforce and the Taipo, on which a safe landing could be made with no dainage boycnd, at the most, the bursting of a tyre.