Low Cost Aircraft Touring

A short while ago a young French girl arrived at my home, having come all the way from Biarritz on a motor-scooter. The journey had taken her quite a long time, but the cost had been low. The motor scooter, which looked rather like a well-loaded Christmas tree, had been persuaded to carry quite cor{siderable quantities of baggage.

When scooters were first brought out, one always imagined that they were useful for short journeys and town work, but not really suitable for long distance touring. This girl and many others have proved that they are quite practical and useful machines for long journeys.

The same applies to the Turbulent aircraft. When it was flrst brought out in France, this diminutive aeroplane with its 30 h.p. engine was regarded as a pretty little toy to fly around the aerodrome on a fine Sunday afternoon. This may be true, but I have flown one for quite a number of hours during the last seven or eight months, and I have proved it equally suitable for aerial touring at very low cost.

The machine has a range of a good three hours, during which one should be able to average 80 m.p.h. in still air. It is quite possible to sit in the machine for this time without discomfort. The controls are so light, and the view is so good that very soon the sense that you are flying an aeroplane disappears, and you really feel that you are part of the machine.

Popular Flyins, Novemberl December, 1958

The windscreen provides first-class protection and there is no difficulty at all in looking at your map, reading a book, or having an impromptu picnic.

Very naturally, if the air is at all turbulent, the little aeroplane lives up to its name, and sometimes gives you the impression that you are flying. about like a piece of newspaper, or even that you are sailing a dinghy in a rough sea. The machine is so stable and responds so quickly to the lightest touch on the controls that provided you do not fight with it, but allow yourself, as a dinghy sailor does, to relax with the craft, you soon find that any sense of insecurity disappears.

In dealing with two other potential difficulties. of touring with light aircraft, the Turbulent shows. up very well. The first of these is noise. The engine is smooth and sweet running, and very quiet. There are two advantages here. One is that the pilot does not suffer from noise latigue which is common enough after flying a small aircraft for some time. The other is that since the noise is not bothering you, you have the confldent feeling that it is not bothering anyone else on the ground either, and if, as a result of. the exigencies of navigation and low cloud it is. necessary to fly low over a road or railway, you have the comfortable feeling that you are probably not being noticed. It is always surprising to me how few people look up at all.

Lastly, the view through the windscreen is so good that negotiating power cables, factory chimneys or church steeples does not strike you as any stranger or more difficult than driving a car past a lamp-post or through a railway arch. Lest there is any misunderstanding, it should be made clear that the Turbulent, like any other aircraft, is subject to the Air Navigation Regulations as to flying heights, particularly near built up areas.

Here is the log of a recent trip to Bordeaux:Day I Fair Oaks to Lympne 72 miles

Lympne to Le Touquet 60 miles

Le Touquet to Bernay 120 miles

Day 2. Bernay to Angers 120 miles

Angers to Saintes (Bordeaux) 120 miles

Day 3. Saintes to Laval 160 miles

Laval to Deauville 110 miles

Day 4. Deauville to Redhill 200 miles

On to Croydon and Fair Oaks

Total distance, approximately 1,000 miles. Total flying time 12fr hours. Average speed, 80 m.p.h. Fuel consumption: petrol, approximately 25 galls., oil, virtually none. Longest leg 200 miles

-2+ hours.

Both channel crossings involved very bad weather flying and necessitated flying at 50/150 feet above sea level.

The pilot reports complete absence of any troubles and that the Turbulent was far easier to navigate in fog and low cloud than any other aircraft he had flown.

WoodenlValls

News has reached us of a real vintage piece in the shape of a 1929 German Klemm monoplane fitted with a 45 b.h.p. Salmson radial. The aircraft G-AAXK was sold by P.F.A. member Bob Grant of Dumfries to a Mr. McConnell who kept it airworthy for some years at Newtownards in Northern Ireland. Now Bob Grant and his friend Hector Monro have flown the Klemm back to Dumfries and sold it to its new owner, C. Vick of Sevenoaks in Kent. The Klemm is now at Croydon.

These arccraft are delightful examples of the chippy's art and it is a credit to their constructors that they last so long. We say they, because a member of the P.F.A. Committee, Desmond St. Cyrien has another Klemm, recently airworthy but now dismantled, at Redhill. The St. Cyrien Klemm is registered G-AAHW and like Bob Grant's has a Salmson radial, something rather like a cross between a sewing machine and a good grade watch. Should any of our readers know of the whereabouts of Salmson spares or even a complete engine Bob Grant would like to have information at Millbank, Hazehigg Avenue, New Abbey Road, Dumfries. Why? Well he has another Klemm G-AAUP hidden away and in between building up a pair of vintage Bentleys is hoping to get airborne again. Certainly the editorial eye which remembers the Grant caravan pickingup the bits of Klemms from Hanworth in 1938 never imagined that the same man would be flying them twenty years later. Roughly in the same class as the Turbi the Klemm has a large span wing at 42 feet and lands at about 25 m.p.h. with a cruising speed of approximately 68 m.p.h.

Druine Condor and Piel Emeraude Plans

Plans are now in stock for both of the above types of aircraft. Price is thirty-five pounds per set. In both cases the measurements are in metric dimensions but information is available for supply with each dossier which makes the question of metric diameter bolts, etc., no difficulty. Work is in hand to have translations available but that is a future project. Already amateur built Condors and Emeraudes are on the way in the U.K., and both of these types look like enjoying a great future. Pre-fabricated parts for tlre Emeraude are available and in particular the parent French company recommend the purchase of a spar ready made.

Propellers

Many members have written in to ask for a source of propellers for Turbulent aircraft. Messrs. Rollason Aircraft and Engines Ltd., of Croydon Airport, Croydon, Surrey, have had a batch manufactured and these are available for immediate delivery. Some are French manufacture while others are English. In view of the long delay involved in having a propeller made to order this news is most propitious.

Wire Thread Inserts

For new parts or repairs AIRCRAFT SPRING u7ASHERS to 7.5P.47. Specifi cation CTRCLIPS AND RETAINTNG RTNGS to S.B.A.C. and other standards A.l.D. A.R.B. approved

Manufacturing Co. (1938) Ltd. COMBE DOWN, BATH

Telephone: Combe Down 2355/8

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Wanted

AIRCRAFT RADIO AND TTGER MOTH spares including engine. McAully, 20, King George Road, Hempton, Fakenham. Norfolk. Telephone: Fakenham 2052.

FOR SALE

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