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Sunday, January 28, 1940. 

Plane Paragraphs
News of Local Aviation and Aviators

Four Somerset county residents are taking part in the Civil Aeronautics Authority pilot training program at Somerset Hills Airport where the Standard Flying Service operated by George Viehmann is progressing with the flight program for Morris Junior College and Newerk College of Engineering. Andrew Yuhas of 50 Thompson street, Raritan, an engineering student, is ready to solo under instruction of Michael A. Gitt, formerly an instructor at Hadley Airport. 
    Another Somerset resident and student of Gitt is Walter D'Andrea of Bernardsville. Somerset residents being given training by Manager Viehmann are William Nansen of Bernardsville and Vincent A. Hughes of Somerville. D'Andrea, Nansen and Hughes are Junior College students. 

   Gitt, our first and only instructor to date, cut another notch in his "ticket" this week when he successfully passes his instrument rating flight test over the Newark radio range. Bob Jaekel of Plainfield provided the blind-flight-equipped plane and the instruction. 
   Mike's new rating permits him to fly commercial aircraft "on instruments" in heavy weather. The rating is one necessary for airline operation and the art of instrument flying is what makes the giant ships safe even when the skies are fog-bound. 

   The Hadley Aircraft hanger this week became hunting grounds for Thomas W. (Big Game) Robertson, airport manager, who decided it was time for the starlings to move south and cease their nuisance in the high-roofed structure. 
   Robertson purchased a rifle and armed himself with several boxes of scatter-shot and stalked birds in the hanger for several afternoons. 
    The starlings have decided it is no longer a safe place to roost and most of them have left to find healthier residence. 

   William Stenner of Guilden street New Brunswick, a mechanic at the Hadley Aircraft hanger, has accepted a position with the Luscombe Airplane Corporation at Mercer Airport, Trenton. Stenner was trained in the Hadley Airplane Mechanics School. 

   the Luscombe factory is turning out an all-metal monoplane in the light plane class. The plane is the first all-metal type offered in this class, and proof that its popularity is spreading is evidenced by the fact the company is expanding its quarters at Trenton. The company was given permission during the week to construct temporary quarters to provide for expanding business. 
    The Luscombe craft is also the first of the light planes to be exhibited in a Park Avenue (N.Y.) showroom. It is one of the most popular in the low-cost field. 
   Several members of the Lenape Flying Club of Lenape Aircraft Motors, Inc., of Matawan attended the January meeting of the Hadley Chapter of the National Aeronautics Association during the week in New Brunswick when Pan American Airways' new sound motion picture showing activities along the southern route, was presented. 
   New Jersey might soon have an Aviation Department without an airplane, if the wishes of certain members of the Joint Legislative Appropriations Committee succeed in striking from the budget a $3,600 item for a plane for Gill Robb Wilson, state aviation director. 
   Wilson, whose duties keep him traveling to and from the state's many airports, ask for less than $4,000 for the aircraft, while members of another state body ride in for a $15,000 airplane searching for forest fires. 
   We hope the appropriations committee leaves in the $3,600 item and cuts down on the expense items of some of the state's political appointees. Wilson, recently elected president of the National Aeronautics Association, is strictly not a politician. He has served the state well as its aviation director. he has been of great aid to independent airport operators, and the state can boast a record of no commercial passenger losses in the nine years he has been active. 
    The Federal authority, CAA, cannot hope to fully control the wildcat pilot or fly-by-night operator who refuses to submit to its regulations, but a close check on flying activities by the sate official has done much along these lines in New Jersey. 
   If this state is to have an aviation department, that department's director must have an airplane. And the need for continuing the department is shown by its record in the past. 
L.A.W.