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TO ALL MEMBERS   -13-    February 16, 1943

of months ago, a set of engineering regulations was drafted based to a large extent on more than two years of careful study on the part of ALPA's Engineering and Airworthiness Advisory Committee. These laws will regulate the building of postwar commercial air line aircraft and I think we can say, without much fear of contradiction, that the flying characteristics of the aircraft that will be built during the postwar period will be much more satisfactory structurally and aerodynamically with particular reference to controlability and stall characteristics than the models being flown currently. Fields, runways, constructions, and all of the other important parts of air transportation closely related to safety are carefully watched and advised upon by the Air Line Pilots Association. In other words, the whole air safety picture has been a constantly moving panorama of activities of which ALPA is very definitely a part. All this did not just happen. It was a recognition we had to fight for just the same as all the other gains that the air line piloting profession has managed to accomplish since 1930.

Approximately three years ago, in order to facilitate our air safety work, we drafted a form known as ALPA's Air Safety Recommendation Form for the local executive councils to use in submitting air safety recommendations to Head quarters and hence to Washington and elsewhere. This form has been a most successful medium for transmitting air safety recommendations, and much has been accomplished. However, due to the great number of changes that have been a part of the business during the past months, it seems the local councils have forgotten these forms and are not making proper use of them. Instead, we are receiving letters about this and that which should be done to improve air safety. All this should be handled through your local executive council and a regular ALPA air safety form should be used for each recommendation. In this way each recommendation will receive a number and start through regular ALPA channels on into Washington or elsewhere to accomplish the results desired. If you have anything in mind such as a dangerous part of the aircraft you are flying, improper maintenance, obstructions around an airport, improper runways -- in fact, anything at all that you deem unsafe, it should be recorded on an air safety form such as I face just described. Don't forget, your chairman has an ample supply. Once a recommendation is submitted on an air safety form it is followed up until action is obtained, or until it is found that this action is utterly impossible of attainment. 

SUPPLEMENTAL C.A.A. INSPECTORS

Due to the war and for the reason that so many regular CAA air line inspectors have been ordered to active duty, the regulatory agency several months ago suffered an acute shortage of air line inspectors. The first thing we knew about it was when certain chief pilots, check pilots, and so on, in the employ of companies were being utilized by the C.A.A. for pilot and copilot checking purposes. I immediately went into this and met with the Civil Aeronautics Board on January 13. In the name of our organization, I flatly objected to this procedure and said it should be discontinued by the Civil Aeronautics board. While the Board agreed the procedure was unsatisfactory, its members took the position that discontinuance would be