Penrhyn Bay
PENRHYN BAY: Civil aerodrome (Aka NORTH WALES AERODROME, COLWYN BAY AERODROME and DINARTH HALL)
Location: Roughly S of the A456 in 1961, about halfway between Colwyn Bay and Llandudno
Period of operation: Not known exactly. Opened on the 11th July 1911 until the second week in September? Flying site hired for four months.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have to thank Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', for discovering so much information about what went on here in the summer of 1911.
The article was published in the North Wales Weekly News on the 7th July 1911. The short article was published in The Aeroplane on the 13th July 1911.
The short article was published in Flight magazine on the 15th July 1911. The letter to the editor was published in the North Wales Weekly News on the 21st July 1911.
The Notice was published in Flight magazine, also on the 15th July 1911. This aerial photo of Rhos pier has been included because R A King made a forced landing on the shore. Were the groynes in place in 1911? The article in two parts was published in the Cheshire Observer on the 29th July 1911.
This first article was published in the North Wales Weekly News on the 21st July 1911. The second article was published in The Aeroplane on the 3rd August 1911.
Article One was published in the North Wales Weekly News on the 4th August 1911. The two part Article Two was also published in the North Wales Weekly News, but on the 11th August.
The rather poor photo of R A King was taken at FRESHFIELD. (See seperate listing). The area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: The articles above certainly illustrate just how fraught with problems the business of getting airborne were in those days. As a general rule of thumb, those early machines in 1911 could only achieve speeds of around 40mph (65kph), later rising to 50mph (80kph), and, were usually flown in the early morning and in the evening when the winds had died down. Any kind of reasonably light turbulence posed a threat, simply because the danger was of becoming in a stalled condition.
Don't forget that in those days they had no airspeed indicator available, let alone an accurate one. Those came years later. Even so, even if they had had one, the difference between flying safely, and becoming stalled, was so small that it probably wouldn't have made much difference. By modern standards, the response rate of their primitive aerodynamic controls was rather slow at best.
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