Norton Priory
NORTON PRIORY: Precautionary landing site
Used by: Mr Robert Slack
Location: Just N of Norton village, about 1.5nm NW of Askern town on the A19, roughly 5.5nm SE of Knottingley town centre
Period of operation: 3rd August 1912
NOTES: Robert Slack flying a Blériot monoplane had been sponsored by ICS Education to conduct an extended tour mostly around England, although he did venture as far north as Edinburgh. In those days anybody brave enough, (or foolish enough?), to attempt such a project were hailed as heroes. Indeed, thousands would turn up to witness an 'exhibition of flying' as most people had never seen an aeroplane, let alone one actually flying. And even then, most pilots as a general rule, would transport their aeroplane to the venue by rail and road, then assembling it on site, if a reasonably long distance between venues was required.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have to thank Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', for investigating this subject and providing the maps and press reports.
Article One was published in the Sheffield Telegraph on the 3rd August 1912.
The route is from a map published c.1944. Article Two, in two parts, was published in The Aeroplane on the 8th August 1912. The local area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
MORE NOTES
In 1912 flying any distance away from an aerodrome was fraught with problems and indeed danger. We need to remember that powered flight had only started in the UK back in 1909. Virtually nothing was known about how aeroplanes actually flew, flying instruments were non-existant, and reliable methods of aerial navigation, including a compass that could be calibrated properly, took many later years of trial and error to become something useful to pilots.
This shows, more or less, (in red),the route that Robert Slack took back in August 1912 to try and fly from Harrogate to Sheffield, a distance of around 40nm in a straight line. Shortly after leaving Harrogate he did fairly well but made his first precautionay landing at Seacroft about 4nm NE of Leeds. Taking off again he strayed way off course to the east to avoid fog before making another precautionary landing here, which was about 13nm east of his intended track.
What interests me is that in those days making precautionary landings was very common for all sorts of reasons, engine problems, getting lost, poor weather etc, etc. But, more often than not it now seems, they found suitable places to land without inflicting any damage on the aeroplane. These days nearly all precautionary landings are made on an airfield. With, mostly, Forced Landings, (due to engine failure), resulting in serious airframe damage and often serious injuries. Worth mentioning I think, that back in those days, any kind of landing had to made with the engine either fully throttled back or indeed, switched off!
A BRIEF ASIDE
Reading the report in the article published in The Aeroplane above, brings about a wry smile. Oh yes, British summer weather. Or, for that matter - just British weather year round. Having found so many accounts of weather during the last hundred plus years, basically nothing has changed at all - even with global warming. Hardly surprising of course living on a green and septic island placed out on the eastern edge of the Atlantic.
Very often bound to be volatile, highly changeable, difficult to predict. Ironic then that basically we are very fortunate! At these latitudes this probably won't change much for the forseeable future? Going on holiday? Pack a raincoat and brolly - even in summer.
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