Maze of Instruments

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 456, 11 September 1928, Page 8

Maze of Instruments

ERRORS MAY MEAN TRAGEDY IN OCEAN FLIGHTS

A Peep Into Cockpit of the Plane

DELICATELY-BALANCED instruments, the last word in scientific mechanism, play an enormous part in the success of long ocean flights. But the finer the instruments the more likely they may he to suffer from some misadjustment, bringing tragedy in its trail. So also must the human skill of the operators not fall one iota behind the efficiency of the machine and its equipment. Captain Kingsford Smith, like all great flyers, is supreme in the art of organisation. Nothing must be left to chance. Preparing for the Tasman flight has been one long' series of tests.

Two-thirds of the flight’s success may be attributed to those tests and so the aviators and their mechanics have had to work at the machine from morn till night. A car starting out on a 12,000-miles journey may take two days to prepare, working at full pressure; a destroyer over 18 hours» and if to travel at full steam, a refuelling en -route. No machine is perfect, both the car and the warship may break down and the crews still be in comparative safety, but not so the Southern Cross. If she is forced down at sea, what then? It means, one hundred chances to one, the end for all aboard, which perhaps to the gallant men is not as bitter as the failure of their flight. “An Art Only” Miss Amelia Earhart, declared to be the first woman to conquer the Atlantic, recently stated to the London “Sphere” that “the art of flying by instruments is an art only a few men pilots know.” How did she know? She was only a passenger; it may have been a compliment to her pilot, but on the Southern Cross, Navigator Litchfield is quite an exponent of the art, vigorously practising his job each day and taking his place with the other members of the crew when they fully try out their different departments in the flights which last as long as the real thing. So day after day Kingsford Smith and Ulm, with their crew, as well as a host of mechanics, have made ground tests, air tests; test, test, test all contributing to the making of an- : other famous flight. Would You Realise Suppose you suddenly woke up and found yourself flying an airplane across the ocean, your worries would be a board in front of you covered with a weird intricate array of dials and switches. Here, briefly, is what they are all about (says “The Sphere”). (No. 1) AMMETER.—This is pretty much like the one on your car. It gives you the rate of charge and discharge of your batteries, so that you won’t take any chance of the said batteries going dead. / (No. 2) TACHOMETER.—This tells the rate of rotation of the propeller, the number of revolutions a minute. It is very comforting to glance at it and see that the old prop is turning around properly and you are making steady progress through the air. (No. 3) OIL GAUGE.—TeIIs you how much lubricating oil you have. Your automobile experience has given you plenty of understanding of what happens when your oil runs out. You burn out your bearings, and generally put your engine right out of action. Very undesirable in an airplane. (No. 4) PRIMER.—Same as in a car. You give it a push to shoot more petrol into the engine when it isn’t hitting just right. (No. 5) THE BAROMETER, for low altitudes.

him from his course. The detection of side winds has always been one of the problems of aviation. One of the best ways is the use of smoke bombs. (No. 22) WHEEL OR “STICK.” The controls are dual. They look something like automobile steering wheels. The “stick” of ordinary planes, which is merely a rod that you push round to steer the plane, is not used on the big machines. In the present type of control you turn the wheel to steer right or left, and push the wheel and bar backward or forward to go up or down. (No. 23) ALTIMETER. —This tells you how high you are. (No. 24) CLOCK. —Exactly the same as on your car. (No. 25) BAROMETER, for high altitudes. Gives air pressures' and height at which you are flying. Another instrument registers for low altitudes. The pilots are enclosed in the complicated cockpit up to their necks. Their heads protrude above, so they can have a good look ahead and over the sides.

(No. 6) LATERAL INCLINATION INDICATOR.—This is similar to the next on the list—the rate of climb indicator—but is laid over on its side. It tells whether the plane is level with reference to the two wing tips, whether it is leaning over on one wing. (No. 7) RATE-QF-CLIMB INDICATOR.—In a fog you might not know whether you were going up or down, or on a level. It indicates whether the plane is tilted witli reference to nose and tail—a simple device on the principle of the ordinary carpenter’s spiritlevel. (No. 8) OIL GAUGE.—Another instruments that registers how much lubricating oil you have left. In case one goes out of order the other works (No. 9) THERMOMETER.—Gives the temperature of the lubricating oil (No. 10) EARTH INDUCTOR COMPASS, that new marvel in the way of mechanical sens© organs. You set it for the direction in which you wish to fly, and whenever you deviate from that direction the needle shifts. One trick about the mechanism is that if the plane should swing ’ completely around 180 deg. and you did not notice it, the compass would seem quite normal. In reality, of course, it would be working ba.ckward. (No. 11) PETROL STRAINERS AND CUT-OFFS.—One for each petrol tank. The Bremen carried two. The fuel oil passes through these strainers and is cleared of any extraneous matter that may be in it, and the - pilot can shut off either tank at will. (No, 12) AIR THROTTLE, as on a car. You use it to make the mixture richer or leaner. (No. 13) PETROL THROTTLE. This is what you use to open her out. It is just like the hand throttle on the steering wheel of your car. (No. 14) AUTOMATIC PETROL GAUGE.—It is a complicated device for registering how much fuel you have. There are two petrol gauges, for safety sake. (No. 15) IGNITION SWITCH, which throws on the engine. (No. 16) TANK SWITCH, with which you change from one petrol tank to another. (No. 17) PNEUMATIC PETROL GAUGE. (No. 18) PETROL PUMP, used in case the automatic pump fails. (No. 19) GREASE GUN, for shooting lubricants into the heavier moving parts. (No. 20) BOOSTER, a device for speeding up the magneto. (No. 21) CHART, which is almost like a map for the trans-Atlantic pilot:. It gives him his hourly course. Before he starts he lays out his route and sets down, in terms of hours of flight, the direction in which he is to head from hour to hour. In the actual flight he follows this chart. He flies in the direction indicated during each hour indicated, making allowances as well as he can for side winds which drift