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In June, Capitol Hill Backdrops ALPA Activities

Never-static, hard-to-keep-up-with Washington, in the balance of whose unpredictable happenings hangs much that affects the air line piloting profession for both good and bad, was the single most important hub of ALPA activity during June as President Behncke testified on behalf of the Air Line Pilots Association before Senate and House Committees and federal aviation agencies for virtually a week straight.
     
During this concerted week of Washington appearances, the week of June 13 to June 17, President Behncke: 
• Appeared before the CAB on June 13 pursuant to ALPA's intervention in the PAA-AOA merger (Docket 3589).
• Testified on June 16 before the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee investigating the financial stability and corporate structure of the air lines.
• Made known to the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, before which he had been scheduled to appear June 17, ALPA's opposition to power-grasping H.R. 780.

Bares Many Facts--In his appearance before the Senate Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee (The Johnson Committee), Mr. Behncke testified on the following subjects: Financial stability and corporate structure of the air lines; Progress of commercial aviation; The present situation; Financial effect on air lines; National defense aspects; Technological unemployment among air line pilots; Reasons for off-balance status of industry; Faulty administration of the Civil Aeronautics Act; The Air Safety record today; The President's Air Policy Commission; Actions which have been taken to remedy safety situation; ALPA's recommendations for DC-6 revisions; What is wrong in federal agencies; The extensiveness of the CAB's duties and their lack of time to do the job; The relations of profits to Safety; The CAA regional control mistake; Costly aircraft-airport coordination lack; The country's airports; Low air line employee morale; Air line labor relations; Need for stabilized air line network; and pending legislation, including Senator McCarran's Bills S. 12 and S. 8 and Senator Johnson's Bill S. 1431.

Air Safety Dominates--Air Safety was the dominating theme of Mr. Behncke's testimony, throughout which was woven a strong stand for the reestablishment of the Independent Air Safety Board. Mr. Behncke told the Committee that most of the current air line ills can be blamed on "the mad race to procure the biggest and fastest planes in the shortest possible time and neglecting the procurement of a real workhorse type of plane to replace the DC-3, with a resultant sufficiency of schedules that such equipment would make possible to link all of the commerce centers of the country, both large and small." 
     
Later in his testimony, Mr. Behncke told of the difficulties being encountered at the Los Angeles Municipal Airport in its efforts to accommodate the Boeing Stratocruiser, showing the Committee pictures of a collapsible fence which makes it possible to extend the runway, theoretically, 2,000 feet across a busily traveled highway for use in case of emergency. This, he said, was necessitated because the airport had only one 6,000-foot runway, while the Stratocruiser required a minimum of at least 7,000 feet.
    
CAA and CAB Hit--He charged the CAA with irregularities in its certification of the Stratocruiser and dangerous laxity in permitting it to operate out of the Los Angeles Municipal Airport. He attributed all this to the CAB's overriding ALPA's recommendations several years ago to maintain an 80 mile per hour stall speed in all air line plane engineering, going on to elaborate that every time a new air line aircraft was developed, it failed to meet the Civil Air Regulations but that regardless of this, "the CAA and CAB blandly and with utter indifference towards their responsibility," changed the regulations to fit the plane.
     
Speaking with complete candor, Mr. Behncke pulled no punches in not extensive justifiable criticism of the CAA and CAB. He condemned the plan to decentralize the CAA, which he said would result in conflicting decisions and buck

[[image]] 
-Staff Photo 
THE "GO" SIGN. With the CAA set to install the ALPA approach light system for complete testing at Indianapolis, this was the scene as ALPA and CAA representatives put their heads together at Headquarters in Chicago on May 24 to iron out final details prior to commencing installation. Shown (l. to r.) are: T.G. Linnert, ALPA Engineer; Captain E. A. Cutrell, AA, ALPA's approach light expert; C. F. Eck, of the Engineering and Air Safety Department; Marcus S. Gilbert, electrical engineer for CAA airport development division; ALPA President David L. Behncke; and K. D. Wright, Delta, of the ALPA Airway Aids and Air Traffic Control Advisory Committee.


[[image]] 
INS Photo
1919 RELIVED AGAIN IN '49
The recent record breaking flight of the Navy's "Truculent Turtle" over the Atlantic saw aviation's history-making first steps retraced, the first flight over the Atlantic Ocean being duplicated again 30 years later with the pilot of the famed NC-4, which made that first over-ocean flight, a passenger. When the "Turtle," a Navy P2V Neptune, made the crossing to duplicate the flight of 1919, aboard were Rear Admiral A. C. Read, pilot of the NC-4 in its trail-blazing and history-making 1919 flight, and chief aviation pilot E. S. Rhoads, also a veteran of the NC-4 crossing. In the picture at right, waiting to board the "Truculent Turtle" (l. to r.), are: Chief pilot Rhoads, Admiral Read, and Commander Thomas D. Davies, USN, pilot of the "Turtle."

June, 1949                                Page 3