Viewing page 54 of 84

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

clearances containing far too many words, and by the time it has been relayed twice parts are forgotten and misstated-all for the purpose of injecting legal phraseology-and, further, a large portion of clearances are repetitious."

Weather Reporting - According to Captain Wood, the method of utilizing reports on the airlift operation is "simple and at the same time sensible and effective."

This, he pointed out, is accomplished by merely taking the visibility down the approach runway and, if it meets the minimum requirements for the field in question, an approach is made and the pilot reports the ceiling when he comes in.

"If this procedure were approved for the air lines, on only the ILS runway," he commented, "it would save each air line thousands of dollars annually, as it would eliminate the now frequent occurrence of being held in a stack while the ceiling is well above the minimum but is reported as being below."

Maintenance Praised - Safetywise the record of only 3.2 fatalities per 100,000 hours of flying, in the face of the terrific problems created by 2,000 hours of flying, which can be translated into 8,000 engine hours daily, was attributed to a concentration on maintenance.

All in all, from Captain Wood's and Captain Strait's report it can be generally stated from an overall standpoint that, while some lessons can be learned from an operation such as the airlift, it is a far cry from its civilian half brother - the air lines. What has held true before still holds true; military flying is one thing, air line flying is another.


EXTRY!!!  EXTRY!!!
[[image - photograph]]
NEWSBOY OLSON
HIs Route, the World 
Fifteen-year-old Donald Olson probably hawks papers on the longest news route in the world - a 'round-the-world one. To celebrate the Minneapolis Star and Tribune one-hundredth anniversary, Donald hoisted his delivery bag to his shoulder and set off to make globe-girdling deliveries that will take him to 15 cities before returning home. He is shown here in London with the special 400-page edition printed by the paper.


QUITE A QUEER BIRD IS THE "SATELLITE"

[[image - photograph]]
The British may be traditionally staid in other ways, but airwise they have shown no postwar inclination to hew to the beaten path of convention. They not only have come up with the world's first jet air liner, but just take a look at this queer bird, the "Satellite," which must have taken at least one of the prizes for tradition-breaking at the Farnborough air show recently. It's a topsy-turvy plane if there ever was one. The tail unit has the rudder below instead of above and also houses a pusher type propeller driven by a shaft running through the plane and connecting with an engine in the nose.


The Strangest of Many Strange Happenings

On August 29, with the scene set in Miami, Florida, the curtain rose on one of the strangest and most fantastic happenings in the annuals of air line pilot representation history - the attempt of the strikebreaking National pilots, masquerading under the colors of the never-before-heard-of National Pilots Association, to wrestle representation rights away from ALPA and the regular veteran national pilots represented by the Association.

What It Really Means - What it actually amounts to is a weird attempt by men not even flying for the air line to write the rules, working conditions and rates of compensation for the men who are. What the results would be were they, by any stretch of the imagination, successful in their move was aptly expressed by President Behncke who declared prior to departure for the National Mediation Board hearings in the case: "If the strikebreakers were successful in this move, it would mean, without question, that they would immediately sit down with Baker and amend the National Pilots' Employment Agreement and I shall leave it to your imagination what this amendment would include and how it would eventually affect every air line in the country."

The purpose of the hearings in the case, docketed as NMB R-2160, is to determine whether or not representation elections will be held and whether the strikebreakers, being maintained on a tax-supported, padded payroll basis by the company while not actually flying, would have voting eligibility.

Resisted by Mediation Board - The Nationals Mediation Board had halted this fantastic move on the part of the Johnny-come-lately's until all of the provisions of the November 24, 1948, back-to-work agreement had been completed. With only a few straggling, and relatively unimportant, items providing an exception, this has now been accomplished, but only after 41 grievances, the majority of which have been decided in favor of the National pilots, had been filed against the company. OF this number, 31 have been completely processed and nine still remain in process. Practically all of these grievances dealt with the attempts of the company to evade and scuttle the provisions of the back-to-work agreement.

The representation case, it is easy to see, is merely a new tack along an old course, but the significance of its outcome, which is being avidly watched by the entire industry, is not difficult to evaluate.

Again on National vital issues affecting every air line pilot are at stake. Again the Association is in the midst of another pitched battle to protect the interests of the air line pilots.


HUNTING TROUBLE
[[image - photograph]]
THE NAVY'S PB4Y-2's
Bad Weather's Their Meat

Most pilots avoid weather; these pilots look for it, the worse the better. They're hurricane hunters that track down the "big blows" like the one that hit Florida such a destructive punch this month. These Navy planes work in cooperation with the weather bureau during the hurricane season, flying far out to sea to check all storms and give ample warning of any approaching hurricane.

AUGUST, 1949           PAGE 5