Evening star., 1927-10-05
By CAPT. FRANK r. COURTNEY.

BY CAPT. FRANK r. COURTNEY.
By now practically everybody knows
that Atlantic flying Is something more
than merely covering a certain big
distance by air.
During the earlier part Of this year
various machines, generally without
sny safety equipment or any navigat'
ing arrangements. came over with
monotonous success from West TO
East, making the whole business look
very easy.
Then attempts made 10 fiy from this
side all ended in tragedy or failure,
and later even flights from the other
side became disasters.
In a responsible paper | saw a state
Ynent the other day that the problem
is merely one Of improved gasoline
range to cover the difference between
head winds and tail winds. but l think
most people will realize by now that
there is more in it than this. There is.
The problem of why the westward
fight is so much more difficult than
the eastward is, of course, funda-
mentally ore OF weather, but the effect
of the weather difference on gasoline
consumption is no more important
1han lIS erect OF ndNlSdtlOH.
When / started work on my own
scheme | went into all these matters
as fully as l was able. During the
months when 1 was preparing, and
then DELAYED through mechanical
troubles. I was forced to follow the
whole situation Of transa tia ntic flying
in daily detail, partly TO see how l
stood myself and partly to study the
chances of my rivals. Consequently
I have learned an immense amount
from comparing actual facts with my
original assumptions and information.
Weather Root Of Trouble.
A general review of the situation
may therefore be of interest and pos
sihly of value.
Weather being at the bottom of the
trouble, let me try to give simply an
idea of what North Atlantic weather
generally is. The explanations and
diagrams are not meant TO be meteor
ologically exact--they are merely in
tended to give a simple idea of the
situation.
North Atlantic weather is governed
chiefly by the movement of areas of
low barometric pressure generally
called depresSions. Around these the
wind blows in counter-clOckwise di-
rection, giving westerly winds on the
south side and easterly on the north.
4 deep depression has a very low
barometer in the middle, strong winds
and bad weather around it, and may
extend it's influence over many hun
dreds of miles. / say that these de-
pressions govern" the weather be-
cause their opposite number, the anti
.-l- 4lS@ 10
revoIve the opposite way. is generally
much slower in it's movements, has
much lighter winds and fine weather,
and is less of a problem to the fore
caster.
A glance at Figure I will give 4 gen
eral idea.
The depressions generally travel
from somewhere near the American
coast. following a path roughly north
east. and arrive usually anywhere be-
tween Ireland and Iceland. The dia-
gram shows how such depressions
maintain westerly winds over that
part of the Atlantic where fights gen
orally take place.
Favorable Weather Rare.
The high pressure area between the
depreSsions may give a chance Of
north or northwest winds and finer
weather for a longer or shorter time,
and this period has to be estimated by
the forecaster. Sometimes the depres-
sion may go far enough north and be-
come feeble enough for the southern
high pressure area to move up with
lighter west winds and finer wea ther.
On rare occasions, however. the de-
pressions may take a southeriy course.
permitting the northern high pressure
area to come down, com bine with the
east winds to the north of the depres-
sion and thus give favoring winds for
the east to west flight.
This may occur over part of the
route. and even. very rarely. over the
whole route. But such conditions are
unstable and doubtful as a rule. and
there is always the risk that pilot
may start when conditions are in that
way favorable, only to find that by the
time he reaches that area the depres-
sion has suddenly moved north. giving
him adverse winds where he had
counted on favorable winds.
Figure II, for example, shows roughly
what probably happened 10 Minchin.
When he started there was depres.
sion at moving eastward and giving
him favoring winds on his rather
northerly course to Ottawa. There
was every reason TO think this depres-
sion would continue eastward. instead
Of which it moved north to B, giving
precisely the opposite winds. Even
had Col. Minchin known of this move
ment he could only have dealt with it
by going too far of his course.
Germans Make Error"
Figure III gives a general idea. of
,x.Ia
mans started from Dessau AT Cal
shot there was such strong west
wind that I could not bring my ma
chine ashore. DeSsau being, however,
farther east, the Germans could have
gone round Scotland with a good fol-
lowing wind the whole way to New
foundland.
In fact ! was sure that they would
do this. and that, provided their en-
gines ran, they would gel across.
since they could afford to throttle
back 10 low speed and thus prolong
their gasoline supply.
For some reason they cut across
Engla M south OF the depression cen
ter. ] knew then that they had no
chance, and was relieved when they
turned back.
AS it turned out. however. the de,
p~SsloH' "hitH hdu oeeH s'dtiohdfN
for some time. decided to move off
northeast so that in any case the
Germans would probably have had 10
go too far off their route to get much
advantage.
To avoid comDlica ions | have not
referred TO secondary depressons 81
far.
These are generally small and ra pic
j. formed low pressure growths on the
side OF main depression which
often serve to maintain westerly
winds where otherwise the high pres
sure might have had chance IN come
In. These points will, ! hope. give the
layman a fair idea of Atlantic weather
changes.
Stable Conditions IN May.
II Is clear. therefore. that The eas.