Evening star., 1932-10-30

ed Wltnln the past SIX months.
Stark's booklet is regarded as of i'm
portance in view of the fact that the
Department of Commerce will make i
mandatory for all pilots flying for trans
port lines in interstate commerce to re-
celve an instrument flying rating, pass
ing rigid flight and written tests for
the purpose. not later than January l.
| In rev1W of Stark'S booklet, Lieut.
| Howard B. Kaster, United States Naval
Institute Proceedings, declares that
blind flying is impossible"
The pilot" Lieut. Kaster said. can
not distinguish between gravity and
other accelerations and before long
the plane is in spin. Instrument
flying is not only possible, but is
practical procedure which Is frequently
used on certain transport lines. Present
| instruments are both sufficient and
satisfactory when their proper use is
! understood. A source of danger, how
ever, lies in the lack of proper training
of the pilot
| Lieut.. KaSter told Of private discus
| SionS he has had recently with four
| transport pilots, each of whom has had
some experience with instrument flying
according to individually adopted
methods of procedure.
oiIc 1ItUI Master SdlQ. was quite
satisfied with a method OF his own
which involved holding one of the usual
controls fixed Another was quite GER
tain that instruments were so unre-
liable that only the master mind of
pilot could decide when to believe them.
| and the mental strain was such that
such flying could be continued for
only a short time The other two had
no definite system. Their idea was
10 keep certain instruments at certain
| readings by watching all at once When
presented with a sketch of an instrl-
ment board indicating a short turn
combined with a skid. each upon being
| asked how to recover, stated a pro-
cedure which he later had to admit
would have put him into a vertical
bank, dangerously close to a spin
Lieut.. Kaster expresses the opinion
that If every pilot were familiar with
the subject covered by Stark. the re-
suit would be considerable decrease in
prevalent misinformation and a marked
increase in the safety of aircraft in
bad weather.
Miami Races Planned
| Conquering depression engendered
doubts. Miami is getting ready to hold
the fifth annual Miami All-American
Air Races on January 5-6-7. Twenty
five civic leaders of the Florida city
| have reported to Mayor R. B. Gautier
| that they are hard at work on the
| arrangements for an air meet which
will be second in importance only to the
National Air Races.
Airmail Poundage Falls.
The effects of general business con-
ditions and increased postal rates on
| the airmail service are revealed by the
monthly statistical reports of the Post
Office Department.
During August, the last month for
which the report has been made avail
able, the total weight Of mail actually
sent by air in the United States was
| 568,887 pounds. This was an increase
| of $4,000 pounds over the July total,
but was Woefully short of last years
volume. a total of 804,455 pounds hav-
ing been flown in August. 1881.
For the transportation Cf this mail
the Post Office Department paid the
c. tractors a total of S1,T80,578. or ap-
proximately $3.14 per pound, as con-
! trasted with an average payment OF
$274 per pound during the same month
year ago.
The August report shows that the
United States mails are flown over
routes totaling 27,O62 miles in length
and that during the month 1920 regu--
lar through round trips were scheduled
to be flown. OF the S,109,617 miles
scheduled to be flown, q total OF $685.
773 actually were flown, the Is, ,844 miles
which was reported as unf1oWn having
been Cancelled chiefly because OF adverse
| weather conditions.
Low Flyers Punished.
Low flying brought Sc pilots before
the disciplinary tribunals OF the De-
partment of Commerce aeronautlcs
branch during the third quarter OF this
year. Violations of the low-fying reg
ulations led the list of specific otfenses
against the air commerce regulations
during the three months.
The aeronautics branch dealt with
2el charges of violation of the regula-
tions during the quarter, it was an
nounced by Gilbert G. Budwig, director
| of air regulation. The branch collected
civil penalties totaling $575, civil pen
alties having been assessed against 81
persons during the quarter. The de-
partment imposed SO reprimands. SO
| suspensions of license, 43 revocat1onS OF
license and IL denials of license. In
So cases the charges were dismissed.
| Forty-six are pending.
| Acrobatic flying in defiance of regu-
lations followed close behind low flying
| in the number of offenses, with So
cases. There were 26 cases involving
the flying of licensed airplanes by un-
licensed pilots and 16 cases Of flying at
night without proper lights. There
were 140 oftenses listed as miscel-
| laneous. W