Mr Dales Meadow
MR DALE'S MEADOW: Temporary Landing Ground
Location: Near to the Falmouth Union Workhouse, just NW of Falmouth town centre
Period of operation: 14th to 18th June 1912
In 1912 the then famous French aviator Henri Salmet was sponsored by the Daily Mail to make a tour of much of England and South Wales, ending up in Ireland - then of course all part of the United Kingdom. Starting in west London in May, he made his way westwards into South Wales before turning around and crossing the Bristol Channel to then head south-west into the West Country.
His previous main venue had been Truro and following on from a four day visit to Falmouth he then flew across to Fowey.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
NOTES: The newspaper article, divided into two parts to make it easier to read, was published in Lake's Falmouth Packet and Cornwall Advertiser on the 21st June 1912. One aspect of this story caught my eye - that Salmet claimed to have flown from Truro to Falmouth, a distance of some eight miles - in six minutes. And, this against a strong headwind.
I think this is of interest for a number of reasons, not least the perception a pilot of a light aircraft has regarding speed over the ground, and indeed, the way the winds can change after taking-off. As a private pilot I was always fascinated by how quickly, when climbing out from an airfield, the perception of speed very quickly diminishes. This can be perhaps be better illustrated when looking out of a airliner window, in the cruise at say, 35,000ft. Although flying at around, typically, something like 550mph, the ground below seems to pass at a crawl.
Salmet of course had only very basic instruments, so his perception of speed over the ground would have been purely visual, and this can be, even at low altitudes, very misleading. As the Blériot XI-2 he was using had a claimed maximum speed of 75mph at sea level, this would only make matters worse. However, a simple 'back-of-a-fag-packet' calculation clearly indicates that he had encountered a pretty stiff tailwind over much of this route.
As an aside, those early rotary engines had only two power settings - flat out and off. Later on, in WW1, (perhaps a tad earlier?), 'blip-switches' were introduced whereby the pilot could interrupt the ignition, briefly, to slow the engine down to aid the descent when coming into land. Needless to say, you had to be very careful about not letting the engine get so slow - it would stop!
A SHORT STORY
Regarding the wind changing whilst in flight, may I indulge you in this example. Many years ago I was flying in a Cessna 172 from Luxembourg International Airport to Lydd in Kent. I was doing the navigation and radio and the forecast was for fairly light winds all the way. Lovely - ideal. There is a long stretch in northern France with no major ground features. No GPS in those days, so basically adopting a heading and keeping to it.
Along the way I had a nagging doubt that all was not well, but could not put my finger on what was wrong. Eventually I spotted a ground feature and we were way off course! How? Not long after we were able to get in range of a VOR facility and dial it up on our DME, (Distance Measuring Equipment), and could hardly believe the reading. We had encountered a 65mph wind blowing across from out port front side!
Needless to say, if Salmet had had a similar experience, no doubt he would have noticed. Being rendered nigh on stationary regarding forward progress, but with a serious degree of drift.
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