Crime in the Air
Be your own Detective
This article is taken from Over to you! the official newsletter of the Airways Aero Club. No 2 - December 1953.
We all fancy ourselves in the role of the detective who by sheer brilliance unravels a complicated mysetery and brings the dangerous crimila to justice. How good a detective are you? We are going to give you a chance to find out. Each month under the above title we shall publish an account of an episode in which one or more dastardly crimes are committed. It will not be a 'who-dunnit?' series. You will know the criminal. Your task will be to name his crime or crimes. The second episode is below.
Episode 2: Edwin has engine failure
It was a cold claggy sort of winter day, but conditions at Croydon were not I.F.R. and so Edwin Eager decided to take advantage of his booking to do one or two circuits in an Aiglet. He reported to the time-keeping office, obtained authorisation for this flight and signed the time-sheet in the appropriate column. He then booked out with flying control and went out to his aircraft which was waiting for him in the parking area.
He carried out his external pre-flight check and climbed into the cockpit. The engine started quickly and Eager carried out his internal cockpit checks in the order which he had been taught to follow. There was no radio in his aircraft and so, having waved chocks away, he started to taxy out to his holding point. The particular runway which was in use involved quite a long taxying trip before he reached the holding point. he was careful to obtain a flashing green from the Control Tower before crossing one of the other runways. When he arrived at his holding point, he turned into the circuit and carried out his vital actions before take-off. He also did a mag:check at 1,600 revs. observing that the circuit was clear and that the Tower was giving him a steady green, he turned into wind and took off.
He had left the port side window slightly open and he shivered as a very cold blast of air came rushing in. He hastily closed the window and continued on the climb, reflecting that it was definately colder than he had thought. When he reached a thousand feet, he levelled off and did a ninety degrees turn to port. Looking around, he realised that it was claggier than it had appeared fromm the ground and that conditions had obviously deteriorate since he had arrived at the airport and booked out in the office. Air to ground visibility was in fact so poor, that Eager decided there was no real pleasure in flying in such conditions. He made up his mind, therefore, to call it a day as soon as he landed and to save his money for better conditions. On the down-wind leg, he carried out a pre-landing check. He first checked that the brakes were off, that the mixture was rich and that there was enough fuel in the tank which he was using to enable him to carry out an over-shoot if necessary. He then reduced speed to 75 m.p.h. and lowered one notch of flap. He decided to do an engine-assisted approach and lowered one more notch of flap on the base leg.
He turned on to his final and started to carry out an engine assisted approach with a small power setting, and therefore with low revs. All went well until just before his touch-down, when the engine cut out and stopped completely. Although somewhat taken aback by the sudden loss of his engine, Eager completed his laning with only a couple of very minor bounces. He found himself in the ignominious position of sitting ont he airfield with a dead prop and being powerless to move. Having no radio, he was unable to call up to the Tower and hoped that they had noticed what had happened. They had in fact observed his plight immediately. An engineer soon arrived on the spot to give assistance and after some while the engine was got going again.
Conditions in the circuit had now become quite busy and Eager was kept waiting with his engine running for quite a long time before Control gave him a flashing green. From his position, he then had to taxy all the way round the field before he was able to arrive back at the parking area. In fact, the journey took him so long that he was in an irritable mood when he eventually reach the tarmac. As soon as he was in position, he switched off immediately and left his aircraft. After eventually reporting that his engine had failed just before touch-down, he signed the booking sheet, paid what he owed and went off home.
Can you spot Edwin's crimes this month?
