Cooden Golf Club
COODEN GOLF CLUB: One-off Landing Ground
Operated by: Mr Joseph J Hammond (Pilot/Instructor) & Lieut. Reginald J Bone R.N. (Student pilot)
Location: Just W of the B2182, extreme W end of Bexhill-on-Sea
Period of operation: 8th October 1912
Notes: These two aviators had decided the evening before to fly from the Eastbourne aerodrome at Willingdon Levels across to the Cooden Golf Club at Bexhill-on-Sea for a round of golf with two acquaintances. Without too much doubt the first time for such an arrangement by air in the U.K.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for unearthing this very little known location and providing the maps, pictures and press items.
The photo shows the Bristol Boxkite 'parked up' outside the club house. The Article One was published in the Bexhill-on-Sea Chronicle on the 12th October 1912.
The local area view is from my Google Earth © derived database. Article Two was also published in the Bexhill-on-Sea Chronicle on the 12th October. But of course, without radio, let alone TV, most newspapers would publish at least three editions each day. So presumably this second short article filled in a convenient gap in the typeface.
Article Three was published in Flight magazine on the 19th October 1912. The area view is also from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: In those days most pilots elected to fly more or less around the aerodrome, a French term describing the area within which flying took place. So, this short flight by Hammond and Bone was in effect a 'cross country' flight. The article above in Flight magazine amply describes the hazards faced if flying away from an aerodrome.
This said we need to bear in mind that the best and most famous aviators of the day, who could afford the very best engine mechanics and airframe riggers, were conducting seriously long cross country flights. See my article about the French aviator Henri Salmet for example and his quite astonishing exploits in 1912 touring around to give 'exhibitions of flying'.
SOME INFORMATION ABOUT HAMMOND AND BONE
The photo shows J J Hammond flying the Boxkite at Ascot in 1911.
MORE NOTES:
A notice was published that Lieut. Reginald John Bone R.N. has achieved his pilot certificate No,627 on the 16th August 1913 flying an E.A.C. biplane with the Eastbourne Aviation Company.
What interests me though is the information from Wikipedia about J J Hammond learning to fly in France. He was not alone and a great many aspiring pilots from many countries followed this route. Quite simply because the French had advanced powered flight way beyond any other nation. Indeed, the members of the Aero Club de France, with their headquarters on the Champs-Élysées, just south east of the Arc de Triomphe, pretty much sorted out all of the basics.
For example, although they admired what the Wright brothers had achieved, they soon realised that their design was, frankly rubbish, with no future. So, they set about getting the situation sorted out, and indeed, their concepts pretty much determined how most aircraft designs would progress for at least the next thirty years or so. Perhaps today few realise that some of their terms for airframes still exist - for example: Aileron, aerofoil, empannage and fuselage. Plus, as an extra example, their term for a building where aircraft are stored and maintained - a hanger.
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