BEAGLE -1"04!O=

Number 6

SPERRY IN THE BEAGLE B .206-SSPL.45 Autopilots have been ordere d

in quantity for the Beagle B .206-Sin addition to Sperry panel instruments .

The military Beagle Basset sare similarly equipped with

Sperry instruments and autopilots .

P[RRY

AERONAUTICAL GROU PSPERRY GYROSCOPE COMPANY LTD., BRACKNELL, BERKS . PHONE: BRACKNELL 3222

BEAGLE NEWSEDrrOR : F. .1 . .1X(RSO 1,

CONTENTS

Pag e

BEAGLE PUP

2

PRODUCTION TEST FLYING

8

F .A .A. CERTIFICATION

. 10

BACKGROUND TO BEAGLE

. 12

ROLLS-ROYCE CONVERSION

. 18

SOUTH AMERICAN SAGA

20

Front cover photographFirst flight of the ne wBeagle Pup-10 0

Reproduction from BEAGLE NEWS may be freely made exceptwhere copyright is indicated . We shall be grateful, however ,that acknowledgement be given when any part is used fo rPress purposes .

BEAGLE AIRCRAFT LIMITED ,Shoreham Airport ,Shoreham-by-Sea ,

Sussex .Tel . : 2301 .

The new Beagle

A two-seat aerobatic light aircraft whic hwill sell in the £3,500 price bracket, thePup is sleek and beautiful — an entirely ne wBritish design that originates a fresh concep tin its field . It is a bold step forward tha thas already excited vivid interest in ligh taviation circles throughout the World an dit may well become, like the immortal d eHavilland Moth in the 1920s . a classic o fits kind .

2

Pupan outstanding aircraft

in its class

The Pup is powered with a Crewe-built 100 h.p . Rolls-Royce Continental engine and has adesigned cruising speed of 110 m.p .h . and a range of more than 500 miles . Construction is all-meta land the very attractively furnished cabin has a 2 -l- 2 seating arrangement with generous baggag ecapacity .

Enthusiastic crowds constantly surrounded the mock-up displayed at the last Farnboroug hShow and it is expected that even bigger crowds will eagerly view the prototype at the internationa lParis Air Show next month .

Flight trials will proceed with three prototype Pups during the coming months whilst another i sundergoing structural testing, and Certification is aimed at with the first production aircraft towardthe end of the year .

3

Interior EleganeeA NEW "HIGH" I NLIGHT AIRCRAFT STANDARD SIn the PUP, Beagle have achieved astandard of interior elegance rarely foun delsewhere but in the most expensive o fmotor cars. A large door on each side o fthe aircraft provides easy access to th eoutstandingly well appointed cabin which ,with an internal width of 45 inche s(approximately 4 inches more tha ncompetitive aircraft), allows for luxuriou sindividual seats .The seat backs are adjustable for 'rake 'to suit the specific requirements ofoccupants . To add to the comfort o fpassengers, the PUP features a reall yefficient ventilation and heating system .

4

FUNCTIONAL LAYOUT OF INSTRUMENTS AND CONTROL SIn the design of the modern-styled panel, careful consideration ha sbeen given to the logical location of instruments . Every instrument ca nbe easily read and controls come easily to hand . Provision has beenmade in the panel for 2+ VHF, ADF, I LS/VOR . Provision is alsomade for duplication of instruments and controls, includin gtoe-brake pedals, for the starboard seat occupant .

5

Throughout the design of the aircraft specia lattention has been given to ease of access an dreliability of components . Every effort has bee nmade to restrict servicing to a minimum by th efitting of non-lubricated bearings and the use o finterchangeable parts .Routine maintenance and servicing is mad esimple by such careful location of access panels ,as will enable all inspection of control linkages ,etc ., to be made from the outside of the aircraft .The hydraulic reservoirs are readily accessible i nthe engine bay, Both nose and mainwheels ar eof the same size and tyres are interchangeabl efor the PUP-100 and PUP-150 . Similar bearingsare used for all flying control surfaces, thu sresulting in simpler servicing and economy i nspares holdings .With the fitting of the Rolls-Royce Continenta l0-200A engine in the PUP-100, the operator ha sat his disposal the unsurpassed service facilitie sprovided by Rolls-Royce, which offer at thei rCrewe factory in the United Kingdom, a ful lengine overhaul service and an engine exchang escheme. The advantage of the engine exchang escheme is that by replacing a time-expired uni twith a fully-overhauled exchange engine, th etime for which the aircraft is out of service i sgreatly reduced . Outside the United Kingdom ,a world-wide network of both Rolls-Royce an dContinental distributors exists to serve operator sof the PUP . In addition, over two hundre dRolls-Royce service engineers are available t oadvise on engine maintenance .The Lycoming 0-360 engine installed in th ePUP-180 has been in service for many years .Well proven in every corner of the World, thi sengine has excellent power/econom ycharacteristics and an outstanding record ofreliability .

(top and centre) To ensure economic operation of the PUPspecial attention has been paid to ease of access, reliabilit yand interchangeability of components .

(bottom) The PUP is subjected to a comprehensive tes tprogramme, to ensure compliance with the relevant Civi lAirworthiness Requirements .

6

Foreign Air Attaches accepte dan invitation by Beagle Aircraftto visit Shoreham Airport o nMay 3rd.Picture shows : A group of th eAir Attaches being shown th e" mock up" of the Beagle PUPby Mr. Peter W. Brooks, DeputyManaging Director of BeagleAircraft .

PUT "BITE" IN BEAGLE B206- SMcCauley 3-blade constant speed, full feathering

McCauley Industrial Corp ., Dayton, Ohio, USApropellers enable the Beagle B206-S to bite throug hthe air at speeds up to 256 MPH . McCauley i sproud to supply vital components for the "BeaglePack." Throughout the world, more personal andbusiness aircraft are equipped with McCauley pro-pellers than any other kind .

—the birthplace of aviation .

Mc rVL,EY7

production test flying

THE I, OR 110ll .1 I, D-tour Teo Pilot (Rrrt : bc) .

EVERY new Beagle B .206 aircraft is sub-jected to a comprehensive schedule of

flight tests before delivery . These testsinvolve about five hours flying tim eand take approximately two weeks tocomplete, dependent upon the range ofoptional equipment fitted to each indivi-dual aircraft .

Stability and Contro lEvery B .206 is flown at a range of loading sfrom the most forward practical centre o fgravity to the extended aft centre o fgravity positions . This is done to prov ethe correct handling and stability be-haviour and that the correct trimabilit yrange is available . The extended af tcentre of gravity being one per cent of th ewing chord behind the normal aft limit .

Performanc ePerformance measurements are carriedout at the maximum landing weight t oestablish compliance with the Certificate

of Airworthiness requirements .These testsare usually completed for convenience ,at the extended aft C of G loading ,accurately measuring the single engin erate of climb on each engine in turn ,over a period of not less than five minute son each engine. The stalling speed sand behaviour are recorded with eac hflap position . Level speeds at 75 per cen tand maximum power are also measured ,at approximately 2,000 ft . In addition, al laircraft are dived to a speed 10 per cen tabove the normal 'never exceed' speed a sa matter of course .

For the supercharged B .206-S theprocedure is slightly changed to incor-porate a measured 'all engines operative 'climb to 16,000 ft . to establish theperformance rate of climb at altitude an dto prove the functioning and adjustmen tof the turbo-charger automatic controls .

Systems check sDuring the course of these test flights al lthe aircraft's equipment is functioned an dspecial tests are made on systems such a sundercarriage and flaps, measuring th eoperating times to establish compliancewith the Airworthiness requirements .Undercarriage uplock checks are mad eand the emergency lowering syste moperated .

Feathering and unfeathering of eac hengine is carried out and timed . Electrica lsystems are checked under maximu mand minimum load conditions . The loadtransfer system is functioned and genera -tor failures simulated to prove th eemergency facilities .

Fuel systems are functioned in bot hnormal and crossfeed positions and th eboost pumps are checked in normal an demergency settings for each engine .

Most aircraft are equipped with auto -pilots and these are tested to check thei rnormal functioning, emergency cut-out sand manual over-ride facilities .

Most aircraft are also fitted with de -icing equipment for the airframe (in-flatable rubber boots), propellers andwindscreens (fluid) .

8

These items are functioned, timing the cycling operation of the de-icing boots and observing th ecorrect flow patterns of the de-icing fluid on each propellerblade and windscreen panel .The list of normal equipment to be checked is lengthy and briefly includes the engine drive nvacuum system, flight instruments, engine instruments and controls, cabin heating, ventilating an doxygen equipment, cabin and instrument lighting, navigation and landing lights, anti-collisio nlights, pitot heaters, windscreen wipers, hydraulic system power pack, wheel brakes– normal an demergency operation, nosewheel steering, airstairs operation, radio, etc .

Radio TestsThe scale of radio equipment fitted can be up to full airline standards according to the customer' srequirements and may include such items as a Decca Navigator and flight log ; VH F omni rang e(VOR) ; Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) ; Instrument Landing System (ILS) with glide slop efacilities and marker beacon receivers . Radio Compass (ADF) ; High Frequency (H F) communicatio nradio, plus the normal VHF communication radio which is often duplicated .

This equipment is flight tested with the appropriate ground stations, for each navigation an dapproach aid, and with the Pailton Test Centre for the communications radios .

Additional quality checks are also made at regular intervals on a proportion of the aircraft to ensur ewater tightness and freedom from carbon monoxide contamination in the cabin .

Thus, when these tests have been completed successfully and final adjustments made, the aircraf tand test results are examined by the Air Registration Board's surveyor . The aircraft is then issued wit ha Certificate of Airworthiness, ready for delivery to the customer.

9

F.A.A. certification for B.206-S

sae vnitsb Rotes of An,sdr .

01 :600'1:.0'.00 (12 0'6.i :•i'0R00TI00<<q

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Nadel B .206

Series 1

Model 0 .206

Series 2

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2./AyC /olaid. ..e: January 22, 1965 .

COMPANIA ARGENTINADE AERO TAXI S.C .

BUENOS AIRE S

We are extremely pleased with the performance of our firs t

H .206-S and feel sure that, provided you maintain the high standard

of quality and reliability this demonstration aeroplane is showing ,

potential buyers here will prefer your product to the traditiona l

lines of American origin .

Otto Tolderlun d

Managing-Partner

they also prefer the Beagle

AIRWAYS TRAINING LIMITE DLONDON (GATWICK) AIRPORT SOUT H

Dear Sirs ,

The first course of candidates have just complete dtheir Instrument Rating Training using the Beagle 20 6aircraft . All candidates on this c

Je passed th eInstrument Rating Test on their first attempt .

I feel that these most satisfactory results are du ein no small measure to the fine flying characteristics o fthe Beagle 206 aircraft .

The flying times needed to achieve the requisite standar dhave been out by some 30% compared with those required usin gAmerican Training Aircraft .

I feel that the performance of your aircraft when used i nthis extremely important training role is worthy of my congrat -ulations to all in your Company who have been associated wit hits introduction to our fleet .

Yours sincerely ,

K . Sinclair, M .B .E .

CHIEF PILOT .

'yCm,.o«.. .

Series 1 :

enber 7, 196 5_nsAA~ -

Saries 2 :

April 18, 196 7

hy .,~>

,,ofo

Veltex R . Ilu ldema n~~.~~~ Gb t~C, Aircra Ct Cer[1C icacion Sln ii

$9,000,

10

Before you take off, plan your refuelling points with the help o fthis free map. It shows all the points throughout the Britis hIsles where you can fill up with the fuels and oils that ar efamous throughout the flying world .Whether you are a private owner, a club flyer, an executiv eaircraft or helicopter pilot, an aerial spray contractor or a nair-taxi operator, you will find this new map quite invaluable .Get it free from any Authorised Shell-Mex and B .P . AviationDealer—and remember that at most of the refuelling point sshown you can use your Shell or BP Carnet to buy you rpetrol and oil on credit .

Get this newFREEmap of Shell -Mex and B .P .Aviation Dealers SHELL-MEX AND B .P . LT D

Operators in the U .K. of the Shel land the BP Aviation Services BP

11

BACKGROUN DTOBEAGLE

A U ST E R AIRCRAFT

The Auster 5, known also as theTaylorcraft Model J, was develope ddirectly from its predecessor the Auster 4 .

twenty five years

It was practically the same as theAuster 4 but a blind flying panel wa sfitted to enable it to be officially used as acommunications aircraft . The trimmer wa salso moved from its position underneat hthe tailplane and introduced as a tri mtab on the port elevator. Production com-menced in May 1944 and built up to a naverage of about 14 aircraft a week .

The new type of aircraft had only jus tstarted to come off the production linewhen a great tragedy struck the firm . O nMay 14 a military display was held in th eAbbey Park, Leicester, as a part o fLeicester's 'Salute the Soldier Week', on eof the many wartime propaganda cam-paigns held to help the National Saving sMovement . One of the items in this displa ywas a competition between the Pionee r

CHAPTER 5

Corps and the Home Guard on an assaul tcourse, and during this two Austers fle w

The Auster 5

over and gave a demonstration of Arm y

12

(Far left) Auster 5 TJ 207 float-plane at Beaumaris (Photo : Crowncopyright) .(left) The engine cowl for th eModel L .(below) The prototype Auste r6 TJ 707 with the original internall ysprung tailwheel installation .(Photo : Crown Copyright) .

(above) Auster 5 TJ 366 on skisat Rearsby.(right) Mr A . L. Wykes, ManagingDirector .

Co-operation flying and general aero-batics. They were flown by A . L . Wykesand Jeff Edwards, who was Taylorcraft' sChief Test Pilot . During the aerobaticsA.L. made a series of steep turns but then ,from onlookers' reports, it appears that h ecompletely stalled at the top of a tur nbut there was not sufficient height t orecover. The aircraft dived into th eground at the back of the railway em-bankment and A .L. was killed instantly .

Production of the Auster 5 continue dthroughout the remainder of 1944, and i nJuly, after the initial snags had bee ncleared up, a mobile assembly line wa sintroduced for fuselage assembly. Thespeed of the line, which was electricall ypowered, was adjusted to a speed tha tproduced four fuselages a day and it ha dits first production run on July 14. Thiswas probably the first and only time tha tlight aircraft in this country had eve rbeen built on a basis resembling car mass -production . More Auster 5 aircraft wereproduced than any other single type of

Auster, and the Auster 5 thus became th estandard airframe from which the post -war aircraft were developed — except th eAuster A2/45, Auster 9 and the Agricola .

Another event which occurred in 194 4was the introduction of the ambulanc eversion of the Auster and this modifica-tion was later carried out on many Auster 4and 5 aircraft as and when it wa srequired . The first aircraft so modifie dwas tried out on June 16 at Rearsbybefore representatives of the M.A.P .Carrying a crew of two and a 6 ft . 2 in .man on a stretcher the aircraft took off i n60 yards. The time for loading was 7 +seconds and unloading 9+ seconds .

Later on in the year another drasti cmodification took place on the basi caircraft . An Auster 5, TJ 207, was fittedwith a pair of floats . The idea behind th efloatplane conversion was that it migh tbe of use in the Far Eastern area ofoperations . In the Experimental Depart-ment of No 7 Works the aircraft wasfitted with a set of floats taken from a D H

13

Queen Bee aircraft . It was then taken toan NFS static water tank in Rearsby fo rfloatation tests, and on November 17 i twas dispatched to the works of Saunders -Roe Ltd, at Beaumaris, Anglesea, an dtest flown there for the first time on th e21st . Following Ministry trials at Helens -burgh on the Clyde two more aircraft wer ebuilt, but by the time they had bee nordered, built and delivered the progressof the war in the Pacific had made th etype redundant . The aircraft were alsosomewhat underpowdered and unable t otake off with full AOP loads in anythin gother than calm water .

With the end of the war in sight, i nEurope at least, the Design Office a tTaylorcraft began to think ahead t owhat the firm should produce for thepost-war pilot and flying club . Initia lmoves were made by A .L . before he wa skilled. The aircraft under discussion a tthat time was in one way a complet ebreak with tradition as it was a low -winged aircraft, but in fact it was a basi cAuster airframe with the wings moved t olocate on the bottom longeron and th elift struts attached to the top longeron .The fairings along the fuselage wer egreatly revised, and spats were to hav ebeen fitted . After the death of A.L .however it was pushed into the back -ground by urgent wartime commitments .

However, Taylorcraft's did make areturn to the civil market in 1944, even i fit was only in a very small way . I nAugust two Auster 5 aircraft were take nfrom the production line and, stil lcamouflaged, were registered G-AGL Kand G-AGLL and supplied to the re -formed Ministry of Civil Aviation for us ein commercial licence testing work a tGatwick. Also produced in 1944 was a nAuster 5 fitted with a DH Gipsy Major 1engine and this aircraft, TJ 187, wasused as the firm's hack aircraft .

In September 1944 the Allies launchedtheir offensive to cross the Rhine intoHolland. Whilst two of the crossings,those at Grave and Nijmegen, were

successful and were subsequentl ybroadened and developed into a corridor ,the air crossing at Arnhem, to the Nort hof the other two, was a failure and wa slater evacuated . As a direct result of thi sthe advance into Northern Europe wa sheld up, and then before it had properl ydeveloped again the severe winter of1944-5 set in and virtually stopped al lforms of transport . By January eve nAusters were finding it difficult to take-off .Hence Taylorcraft was asked to provid esome skis to enable the Austers to operat efrom snow covered airfields . The ski swere designed, manufactured and teste dby Taylorcraft and were flown to Franc ewhere they arrived only seven days afte rthe request was received at Rearsby .

The Auster 5 aircraft continued inproduction into 1945 and further modifi-cations were carried out on the aircraftto enable Austers to do extra tasks . On emodification was the fitting of equipmen tto pick up mail and messages, first trie dout on TJ 645, and another was a cabl elaying version which carried enough wireto lay a continuous cable for four miles .With all these extra roles for which th eAuster 5 was being adapted, it becameobvious that further redesign was neede don the basic aircraft to enable all thes eroles to be completely successful . Thedesign of the new Auster, the Model Klater known as the Auster 6, was starte dtowards the end of 1944 and construc-tion of the new model commenced in th eExperimental Department in January1945. The differences from the Auster 5were the greatest yet between any of th eAuster Models . The Lycoming enginewas replaced by a DH Gipsy Major 7 o f145 h .p ., increasing the power by 15 h .p . ,and the split flaps were replaced byexternal flaps giving it a completel ydifferent appearance from any othe rAuster before or since . TJ 707, theprototype, was completed at the end o fApril and the first flight was on May 1 ,1945, but production did not start unti llate in the year.

14

G-AGOH flying overthe outskirts of Hull.(Photo : Hawke rSiddeley Aviation) .

CHAPTER 6

Peace again, and a change of name

During 1945 as the end of the war cam ein sight production of the Auster 5 endedafter a total of 790 had been built, an dthe Design Office once more turned it sthoughts to the type of aircraft the fir mcould produce for the civil market . Thefirst object was to obtain an engin esuitable for economical operation, an dthe one chosen was the Blackburn CirrusMinor 2. This was first fitted into an

Auster 5 aircraft by Blackburn AircraftLtd for use as a test-bed . All the militaryequipment was deleted and the aircraftwas registered G-AGOH . The next stag eof the development was carried out b yrebuilding a Plus Model D. In April th eremains of G-AFWN were taken out o fstorage and the fuselage frame was pu tback into the main jig and modified up t oAuster 5 standard . Then the internal cabi nwas fitted with two seats at the front and asideways facing bucket seat in the rear ofthe cabin . The perspex in the rea rwindows was restyled to conform wit h

15

the fuselage tubes and a one-piec eperspex windscreen was introduced .This latter item had been originall yintroduced on the experimental two -seater aircraft G-AGPS, an aircraft whic hresembled the original Plus Model C . Nomodel number was ever given to 'GP Sand it was used as the firm's hac kmachine, and later by the Auster Flyin gClub .

The new aircraft developed from theAuster 5 was called the 'TaylorcraftAuster 5 Series J/1 Autocrat', late rshortened to 'Auster J/1 Autocrat' . Themodel number J/1 indicated the firs tmajor alteration to the Model J . Autocra tproduction commenced soon after theAuster 5 production had ended andtowards the end of 1945 the first few wer eready for delivering, the first one G-AGT Obeing delivered to Mr T. W. Shipside a tTollerton in December . The first 50 J/ 1aircraft were sold for £850 each, at aprofit .

In November 1945 the last Typhoo nwas delivered to the RAF, and with thi sended the repair by Taylorcraft of othermanufacturers' aircraft apart from a smal lcontract to repair Kirby Cadet gliders —these were commenced in May 1945 andended in April 1946 . The total number ofaircraft repaired during the war was 36 8Hurricanes, 281 Typhoons, 339 Tige rMoths, 235 Austers, 1 Hornet Moth an d11 Kirby Cadets . Parts were also manu-factured for Hurricanes, Spitfires, Oxfords ,Albermarles, Tiger Moths and the Hawke rAudax .

On January 1, 1946 civil aviatio ncommenced again with official blessing ,and Taylorcraft found themselves supply-ing Autocrats against a flood of order sfrom post-war pilots all eager to get int othe air again, many of them having ha dair experience in the A .O.P. Austersduring the war . Many Autocrats wer e'sold' by the Post-War Sales Scheme .This was started in 1943 and people wh owere interested in owning a light aircraf twhen the war was over put down adeposit of £25 and their names were

placed on a list . After the war if th e'purchaser' changed his mind and did no twant his aircraft he was refunded £20 ,but if the firm had not been able t oproduce the promised aircraft all the £2 5would have been refunded. As it turnedout, after three years or more the 'pur-chaser' suddenly received a letter whic hsaid 'Your aircraft will be ready fo rdelivery next week . Please confirm orde rand send £850 less £25 deposit' .Amongst others this happy experienc ehappened to Lt Cdr J . J . Dykes, R Nwho took delivery of G-AGXB . He had'ordered' his Autocrat one morning i n1943 when he was ferrying a Spitfir efrom Lee-on-Solent to Scotland, and ha dto divert off course due to bad visibilit yand just dropped into Rearsby to wait fo rthe fog to lift !

With the firm settled once more into th eproduction of civil aircraft it was realisedthat the name of Auster was better know naround the world than the name ofTaylorcraft . As a result of this, and als otaking into consideration the fact that th eaircraft which were then being produce dwere quite different from the Taylorcraf taircraft that were being produced i nAmerica, it was decided to change th ename of the company from Taylorcraf tAeroplanes (England) Ltd . Accordingly,on March 8, 1946, the name of Auste rAircraft Ltd was adopted .

Autocrats were then produced to aworld market, and at the same tim eAuster 1's that had been declared redun-dant by the RAF were being converted tocivil aircraft and were sold as PlusModel D's. Many of these ex militar yaircraft had had very few flying hourshaving been stored for several years b ythe Air Force as they had been replace din service by the Auster 3 .

On the design side attempts wer ebeing made again to produce a two seate raircraft similar to the pre-war Plu sModel C, and as a first step severa lAuster 1's were temporarily converted t ohave a 55 h .p . Lycoming engine in plac e

16

of the Cirrus Minor . After trials with theseaircraft the Design Office proceeded t omodify the basic Auster 5 airframe to atwo seater and the result was the Mode lJ/2 Arrow. It was in effect a productionversion of the un-named two seate rG-AGPS, but was powered by a 75 h .p .Continental engine and had, in theopinion of many, the best lines of anyAuster ever produced . In an attempt to ge tnearer still to the pre-war standard a65 h .p . Continental was fitted into a J/ 2airframe. This aircraft was called th eModel J/3 Atom but flight trials showedit to be underpowered and so only theprototype was produced . Production ofthe Arrow started towards the end of 194 6and first deliveries were made in Decem-ber . The Arrow was only put into limite dproduction, however, for in 1946 Englandhad severe limitations on anything im-ported from America, so the majority ofthe Arrows were produced for the expor tmarket, as the import restrictions did no tapply if the engine was only imported fo rre-export . In order to satisfy the two sea tneeds of the home market a standar dJ/2 airframe on the production line wa sfitted with a Blackburn Cirrus Minor 1engine . The resulting aircraft had a muc hbetter performance than the Arrow, an dit was given the model number J/4. I twas put into production alongside th eArrow and first deliveries were made a tthe end of the year .

One event which took place in 1946 o nthe military side is interesting . Thi sconsisted of a series of trials in March tolaunch a light aircraft from a LST ship .The first stage of these trials at Farn-borough consisted of Auster 5 TJ 53 7flying off a 165 ft track in the form ofthree 'U' shaped channel sections, on efor each wheel, fixed to the ground . Th esecond stage, trials on an actual ship ,never took place as far as is known, bu tone can imagine an Auster precariousl ymounted on an LST rolling around in aheavy swell somewhere in the Nort hSea, with a slightly ill pilot only tooanxious to take off !

(top) The first batch of Autocrats awaiting delivery dates .(top centre) Model J/2 Arrow G-AJXZ .(centre) Model J/3 Atom G-AHS Y.(bottom) Model J/4 G-AIZP .

17

Rolls-Royce conversio n

After a two and a half year period in whic hClub members designed, built and teste dthe complete engine, propeller and air -craft electrical system installation, aContinental-powered Auster light aircraf thas recently entered service with th eRolls-Royce Merlin Flying Club at Huck -nail . The two-seat aeroplane, now know nas an Auster J4-100, is powered by afour-cylinder Continental 0-200 of 100b.h .p .

The Merlin Flying Club is approved bythe Air Registration Board for aircraf trepair and overhaul and so, in co -operation with Beagle Aircraft Limite dand the Rolls-Royce Light Aircraft Engin eDepartment which supplied the engine,the Club designers produced a revise dmounting and undertook the necessar ystress work for the 0-200 installation .

The first test flight was made early this

year by Mr H. C. Rogers, Rolls-Royc echief test pilot, and following a period ofdevelopment flying the A .R .B . issued afull passenger-carrying Certificate o fAirworthiness .

In addition to replacing the origina lengine with an 0-200, members of theClub, who currently number 75, of who m20 have private pilot's licences, com-pletely dismantled the Auster — registra-tion number G-AIPH — recovering, re -spraying and undertaking any repair sfound necessary. In fact, they haverestored the aircraft to 'as new' condition .

The Continental 0-200 which powersthe Merlin Flying Club Auster is identica lto the Rolls-Royce Continental 0-200currently being produced for ten types ofEuropean light aircraft . The Rolls-RoyceContinental 0-200 will also power thenew Beagle Pup.

18

Mobil Terminal

for BeaglingThis is the Mobil Aviation Terminal at Gatwick; fully-equipped and ready to serve Beagl eaircraft with Mobiloil Aero branded oils—the aviation lubricants recommended for th eBeagle's engines by their manufacturers, Lycoming and Rolls-Royce Continental .

Wherever you fly, whatever your aircraft, world-wide Mobil Aviation Service provides th elubricants you need —with speed and reliability .

IVIcbi l world-wide aviation servic e

19

q: \ south amerieansaga

by R . L . PORTEOU SIt was warm and summery at Shoreha mwhen Ian Aslett and I took off in a shin ynew B .206-S, G-ATTL. Argentina seemeda long way off but, as we headed Nort htowards Prestwick, our departure poin tfor the Atlantic crossing .

Somewhat surprisingly we found th etemperature of Scotland to be almost

Belem

30' below those prevailing at Shoreha mand we shivered, perhaps prematurely ,

Fortaleza

when we were told that Iceland wa sclosed due to bad weather .

After a day's delay, the weather report s*Salvador

were better and we set out from Prest -wick, climbing immediately into th erainy overcast which denied us a farewel lview of the glorious North West Highlands .

An hour or so of flight above th eweather brought a break in the clouds

o de Janeiro

and we found the sunlit North Atlanti cto be as blue as the Mediterranean . Backbearings were maintained for a long tim e

Porto Alegre

from the powerful transmitter in th eOuter Hebrides and our progress wa snicely plotted by cross reference to th e

1 Montevideo

Faroe Islands, whose NDB came u pBuenos Aires

weakly but consistently .Iceland's powerful beacon eventuall y

came in and we felt ourselves home an d(figuratively) dry . Iceland itself was ,however, hidden by an amorphous lowovercast and we had to resort to a rain yVOR letdown at Keflavik, which i s

20

situated in a bleak and barren wildernessof rocks and moss .

Fuelling and formalities presented n ogreat problem but we were surprised t ofind that the correct grade of oil for ou rengines was unobtainable there and w ewere advised to fly to Reykjavik, som e30 miles off our intended track .

Reykjavik is a whitewashed spick-and -span little capital, not unattractive ,especially in relation to its forbiddin gsurroundings . Nevertheless the oil com-pany representative was far from helpful .First of all he said that the correct grad eof oil was unobtainable, then he recante dand disappeared towards the town t oreturn some while later with a supply o fnondescript-looking oil in an open con-tainer . We had no option but to acceptthis, no matter what our misgivings, an dwe resolved to watch our temperature sand pressures very carefully until the oi lcould be replaced in its entirety . Mean -while we were glad to see our old frien dLarus Oskarsson, the former Auster agent,

who seemed surprised and impresse dby the size and comfort of the Beagle .

A fair headwind was forecast for th ewhole of the flight to Sondrestrom on th efar side on Greenland but the landin gforecast was not too bad and we heade dTango-Lima westwards across the ocea nwith a solid back bearing and a modicu mof faith in the radar facilities said to beoperated by the Americans across th evast Greenland Icecap . The powerfu lbeacon of the Greenland coast seeme dinordinately long in coming up and w ehad been flying for nearly an hour ove runbroken cloud before we were firmlyestablished . We never caught a glimps eof Greenland and calculations showe dthe headwind to be much stronger tha nhad been forecast . However, we estimate dthat we would still arrive at Sondrestro mwith a reasonable safety margin .

Our progress westwards over unbroke ncloud seemed interminable and we wererelieved when we were able to contac tthe American radar stations, Sob Story

} wing Lskimoes standingby Tango Lima at Sondre-strom-Greenland.

21

south ante' .leanSaga

and Sea Bass, who gave us a series offixes leading us by the nose, as it were ,towards Sondrestrom. All around andbelow us was an expanse of milky white .It was quite impossible to distinguis hbetween cloud, haze and the unbroke nsurface of the Icecap . In due course wetransferred to Sondrestrom radar, havin graised their powerful NDB some 90 mile sout . The American Air Force controlle rled us gently down over Sondrestro mFjord where we found the low air to becompletely clear, enabling us to see th erunway from our final turn-in som e15 miles distant . The operator continuedto give us a precision approach, fo rreasons of practice, and this was almos tlaughable in its extreme accuracy. Hewas in fact giving us corrections of afew feet, while we were still several mile sout and, as far as my eye could judge, the ywere all precise to a hairline .

At Sondrestrom we arranged a com-plete oil change, having noticed atendency to 'coring' on the side whic hhad absorbed most of the dubious oil a tReykjavik . Meanwhile solid blizzards set i nand we had to wait for them to pass o ntheir way before carrying out the neces-sary test flying at temperature down to-34°C. On one of these flights in fin eweather we had a magnificent view o fthe western edge of the Icecap where i tspills over among the mountains whic hlie for 90 miles between it and the Davi sStrait . Surely there can be nothing like i tin the rest of the world .

Our next destination was Frobisher i nBaffin Land, in the Arctic North East o fCanada . We found flight informationhard to come by and relied greatly o nour charts which showed an airfiel dequipped with an NDB . In addition a nNDB was shown at Cape Dyer on th eBaffin Coast of the Davis Strait and weanticipated using this for back bearing son track to Frobisher. We were soononce more flying over unbroken clou dand after an hour so so, made wea kcontact with Cape Dyer radar althoughwe could not raise their NDB . This, theytold us, was iced up in the prevailin gweather conditions of zero ceiling an dfreezing snow. They were able to give u sa weak radar vector but we did notdare to rely on it because of the condition sbelow and the proximity of mountains .

When we had flown for about thre ehours without a land sighting of any sortwe noticed an upper cloud formatio nwhich made me think that the wind a tour level was probably from the por tbow instead of the starboard beam as ha dbeen forecast . Acting on little more thana hunch I altered course appreciably t oport and this later proved to have beena very lucky decision .

Soon we were able to raise Frobishe ron VHF, our HF set being unserviceabl eat this time, but found to our consterna-tion that they were unable to give usbearings, all their goniometric equipmen thaving been withdrawn by the American ssome time previously . I therefore decide dto descend to safety height in the hope o ffinding the cloud layered and brokenenough to allow a land sighting . However ,all that we could see in the gloom belo wwere black rocks and icy patches speedin gdimly past through the flurrying snow .and accordingly climbed up again int othe sunshine at 14,000 ft . We could stil lraise nothing on our ADF and Frobishe rVHF strength seemed neither to hav eincreased nor decreased .

We were well past ETA when w enoticed what appeared to be a shar pline or ridge in the cloud some miles tostarboard and we accordingly flew overto investigate . To our intense surprise th ecloud ended abruptly and fell sheer tothe ground like a gigantic cliff .

Ahead of us was a pool of clear air,some 50 miles in diameter, through whic hthe late night sun shone on miles o ffeatureless rock and pools of ice andpacked snow. Nowhere in sight wa sthere a patch of ground on whic heven a Husky could have been pu tdown. Far away to the left was a tongue offrozen water, larger than the other pool sof ice, peeping shyly out from the blanketof snow clouds, like the toe of a bashfu lmaiden from beneath a Victorian skirt .Frobisher radio suggested the name of alake (which I never was able to find o nmy map) but, the more I looked at it ,the more the V-shaped tongue of ice ,with a small rock island in its apex ,seemed by its alignment to correspond t othe tip of Frobisher Bay, the huge 20 0miles-long fjord at the head of whic hlies Frobisher airstrip .

This indeed it turned out to be, the

22

airstrip coming into view barely a mil eoutside the curtain of cloud and snow .

We were soon made wise after th eevent . VHF/DF facilities had been with -drawn by the Americans. The wea kFrobisher beacon could often not b eraised from the North . 'Micky Mouse 'transistorised light weight ADF equip-ment had long since been discarded aslethal in these regions . June was theworst month in the Arctic, warmermoister air from the South being con-densed as cloud and snow over vas tareas of frozen sea and rock . Local 'Bush 'aircraft (a misnomer, since no trees o rbushes exist until some 500 miles furthe rSouth in Labrador), operate strictly on a'no see no fly' basis, etc ., etc ., etc . . . .If ever there was a case of learning th ehard way—this was it .

While we were at Frobisher an Apach ewas grounded for almost a week, waitin gto take two passengers to Resolutio nIsland, little more than 200 miles away a tthe mouth of the fjord, but we were abl eto test the excellence of the Beagl eservice organisation . An alternator wen tunserviceable on a Saturday . That evenin gwe telephoned to Shoreham and areplacement was in our hands by theMonday afternoon by the medium of aPacific Western DC6 out of Gatwick .Even this impressive performance did no tprevent our missing the only real brea kin the weather for almost a fortnight .

When we finally escaped from th eArctic down into Labrador and NorthernQuebec, the flight was uneventful . Th ehuge iron deposits and mines at KnobLake sent our magnesyn compassesspinning in wild circles, but our AD Fneedles remained faithfully locked on t othe beacon and commercial broadcas tstation there. After the northern wastes,the little Labrador mining townshi pseemed like a metropolis, with itshouses, streets, cars and shops . Neverhad we been so glad to see civilisation .

From Labrador to Montreal is a fairl ylong haul, but cloud cover was no tcontinuous and there were forests andlakes which could sometimes be identifie dfrom our excellent maps. We wereseldom out of ADF range of either aradio beacon or a local settlemen tbroadcast station, and the anxieties of th eArctic seemed far away, as indeed they

were .The lush lands of border Canada ;

Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Goderic hand the Lake country is impressive .Prosperous-looking small towns abound ,with their airfields, and navigation aidsare strong and well spaced . We weremost impressed by Sky Harbour, run b yJohn Hopkinson near Goderich, on th eshores of Lake Huron . This thriving fixe dbase facility for private and busines saircraft has a large and catholic sale sturnover and specialises in really excellen texternal paint finishes . There can be fewbetter ways of seeing the Niagara Fall sthan from the pilots' seats of the Beagl e206, with it wonderful downward an dpanoramic view . The flamboyance of th eCanadian side contrasts with the worka-day aspect of the American, which wefound strangely paradoxical .

Flying as pilot in the States was a newexperience . I had previously done muc hpassenger flying in airlines there and ha dalways been impressed by the apparentl ysmooth handling of dense traffic . I hadalso been shown round a busy air trafficcontrol centre, which had strengthene dmy admiration. Even then, the slic kefficiency and commonsense helpfulnes sof the ATC network was refreshing . I a mafraid that most other countries havemuch to learn in this respect . I can thin kof airports not too far from home wh owould be doing well to handle half th etraffic in twice the time as seemed to benormal at La Guardia . Admittedly therewas an internal airline strike, with it sconsequent stimulation of general aircraf tmovement, but only once did I detect aripple of disturbance in the fast-movin gstream of patter, which then ran 'Beech -craft XYZ, are you still behind Constella-tion ABC? If not, climb to Hell outa hereand get yourself resequenced ! '

New York in a July heatwave is a nempty and tedious phenomenon and aweek of visits and negotiations therepassed slowly . One day we were abl eto fly the President and senior executive sof a well-known company from Ne wYork to Baltimore for a conference ,returning the same evening . It wasnoticeable that these people spent mos tof the trip each way talking business an dexchanging papers, the 1-2-2 inward -facing seating arrangement of Tango -

23

south (Ullea'leansaga

Lima's wide, quiet, partitioned passenge rcabin lending itself ideally to this . Th ePresident remarked that the Beagle wa sthe first comparable aircraft in which h ehad found this to be really practicable ,and greatly praised its quietness and th ewell-damped smoothness of its 'ride' .

Southwards through Virginia, Tennes-see, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgi ato Florida was little more than a laz yjoyride, with Tango-Lima 's excellen tautopilot doing all the work as w eluxuriated from one VOR beacon t oanother, stopping occasionally to mak eour number with some of the better -known aircraft dealers . One of these ,pre-eminent in American business avia-tion, after flying Tango-Lima, remarkedof its closest competitor' . . . it just isn' tin the same league as this ship' . It wasmost heartening to see how Tango-Lim amade friends among such hard-bitte nfolk, many of whom had started by bein ga trifle cynical .

There was a warm and friendly welcom eby David Lindsay and Berkeley Barron o fTransflorida at Sarasota . Their Cavalier -Mustangs continue to combine nostalgi awith modern business utility to a uniqu edegree. Where else can one buy com-fortable well-equipped two-seaters whic hcruise at 400 mph for about £12,000 ?

Across Florida we flew through andunder some ferocious thunderstorms toPiper's splendid, modern Cherokee plan tat Vero Beach, we found charmingpeople and an excellent product, and mus tensure that we remain even more charm-ing and our product even better . Althoug hI have lived and flown much in the tropics,I have never seen thunderheads build upas quickly as they do in midsumme rFlorida . With the Atlantic on one side i nconflict with the much warmer Gulf o nthe other, and with a big lake and marsh yflatlands in the centre of the peninsula ,there must be a mighty mixing of loca lair masses of huge temperature differen-tial, under the scorching near-tropica lsun .

After the slick bustle of America, th eBahamas and the Caribbean island sseemed quiet and slow indeed . Nowonder that more and more victims o fthe rat race seek rest in these laz yparadises, now being opened up in th ejet age to massive tourism . So, too, are

the smaller islands, such as the Grenadin echain and Tobago, attracting the attentio nof the tourist industry . More and moreairstrips and hotels are being built an dsmall feeder-line aircraft have a bi gfuture there . At present, however, com-munications are very limited . It is normall yeasier to telephone New York or Londo nthan to contact the island next door, letalone the neighbouring South America ncountries, which might well be on th eother side of the Moon .

Tango-Lima continued to perform wit hRolls-Royce regularity . The long se acrossings, such as that between Sout hCaicos and Antigua, held no terrors, a sthe radio beacons and commercial broad -cast stations were strong and the weathe rmainly fine, although a short distanceaway, south of the Cuba-Haiti-Dominic aland mass, a Caribbean storm was causin geven United States M .A.T .S . aircraft todivert .

Piarco control and normal navigationa laids operate effectively right down theIslands and the marine scenery aroun dsome of these, with its startlingly blue -green coral lagoons, is spectacular . Goodnature, courtesy and efficiency wer elacking on only one of these islan dairports, which shall remain nameless .Indeed, the reverse was shown in thi sone instance to such a marked degree b ya pompous little official and the contras twith the charm normally found here-abouts was so great that we must havebeen unlucky.

Trinidad, which lies directly on the jetroute between the U.S.A., Brazil andArgentina is a warm and hospitable littl ecountry, more advanced industrially an dsocially than are the other, smalle rislands . Race relations are excellent an dthe key to men's hearts and confidencesseems to be an interest in, and knowledg eof, cricket, even though the Mecca ofthe game has now shifted to Barbados .

While there, adjustments had to b emade to our autopilot and radio . Wefound, in British West Indian Airways a tPiarco, one of the best equipped an dmost helpful maintenance setups whic hwe have encountered anywhere . Woul dthat half of their equivalents were halfas good .

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24

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25

blackest, densest jungle I have seenanywhere. The country round the Orinoc odelta looks decidedly inhospitable, an dwe were glad of the steady hum of ou rtwo big Rolls-Continental engines andof the knowledge of Tango-Lima's goo dsingle-engine performance. Most of thes eflights were at 12-15,000 ft . and it wa scomforting to feel that we could sta yright up there, if necessary, even on on emotor.

We had an interesting dawn arrival a tZandery in Surinam . Although they weregiving an 'actual' of clear skies an d20 miles visibility, we could see that th ewhole terrain for miles around wa scovered by seven-eights of very lo wstratus, apparently at tree-top height ; i nother words, fog .

When virtually overhead we were abl eto locate the runway by seeing th evortices ploughed in the stratus by alarge American transport as it lumberedinto the clear air above. However, i nresponse to our repeated challenges,Zandery tower continued to give us it ssplendid, clear 'actual' and we began t owonder whether we had arrived in tim efor the Hatter's tea-party.

Soon, through one of the remainingsmall gaps in the fog, we spied a smal lcorner of the threshold stripes an dfollowed our nose down towards it, t oland with much relief in 'fifty feet – fivehundred yards' conditions . There was, o fcourse, no ILS there .

The Indian controller, from whoseample windows the tree-tops could beseen to be shrouded in fog, could no tunderstand why I seemed to be incensed .He showed me his two-hour-old tele-printer strip and affirmed that he ha dbeen reading it clearly and accurately . I twas more than his job was worth, h esaid, to deviate from it in any way .

The Amazon delta was one of th esurprises of the trip . We had imaginedendless vistas of dark, swampy jungle, a sin the Orinoco area, but the reality wa sless harsh . There was much comparativel yopen bushveld, across which tracks an dpaths were clearly discernible, thesesometimes leading to small huts o rhomesteads, beside which cattle couldbe seen grazing .

We entered the vast, loose-knit empir ethat is called Brazil through Belem,

capital of the state of Para and a boo mcity of the rubber age in the twenties . Tous, who for some weeks had not seen atown bigger than Port of Spain, George -town or Paramaribo, this city of nearly amillion inhabitants seemed a splendidmetropolis, with the afternoon sun slant-ing richly over block upon block o fimpressive modern-looking quasi-sky-scrapers stretching parallel to the wide,lazy southernmost branch of the Amazon .

Our experiences at the airport were les sthan happy, however . We had made thecardinal error of arriving on a Sunday,with little more than taxi-fare in Brazilia ncurrency, over and above our travellerscheques . Moreover, our cable to th eairline who were supposed to be handlin gus had gone astray and we arrived un-heralded and (we began to suspect )unwanted .

Despite our tired pleas to be allowed toseek a bed in the town where we coul dcash our travellers cheques and return t opay our dues in the normal way on th emorrow, we were held for nearly threehours in the airport buildings by a hos tof 'officials', with nothing in the way o funiform or badge to identify them, whos esole object seemed to be to find out ho wmuch cash in dollars, etc ., we had on us,and to lighten us of it, in settlement o fvarious improbable fees, notably taxis tothe airport at an exorbitant rate . Norwould these people accept that ours wa sa'private'trip,Tango-Lima being registere din the name of Beagle, rather than a nindividual . In these circumstances, sai dour tormentors ominously, special appli-cation would have to be made fo rauthority to make a 'commercial' fligh tthrough Brazil ; – and the granting of thi smight take many days, or even weeks .

Our spirits were at a low ebb as webooked in to our dull but not unpleasan thotel in the centre of the city, but theyrevived on a chance meeting with som echarming and helpful fellow-countrymenof the Bank of London and SouthAmerica, who took us to an 'atmosphere 'restaurant on the banks of the Amazo nand thereafter relayed details of ou rpredicament to the British Consulate ,who sprang into action willingly an deffectively .

While at Belem we saw the biggest ,clearest-cut and most ' textbook' tornad o

26

that either of us had ever witnessed . Itsmassive snakelike trunk writhed power -fully some 5,000 ft . from a blackthundercloud to the near banks of theAmazon, luckily just off-shore fro mbuildings and small ships at their moor-ings . A keen look revealed its rapi dinternal gyration and it was easy tovisualise the fate of any flying thing ras henough to venture too close . It wouldhave made the photograph of a lifetim ebut, sadly, my cameras were locked up i nTango-Lima at the airport, some fou rmiles away .

By contrast with our unhappy experi-ence in Belem, we found the Brazilian selsewhere both charming and helpful .At Fortaleza, a fine-looking city of som e800,000 inhabitants, situated on th enorth-east coast facing the blue Sout hAtlantic and flanked by vast white sand ybeaches, we were taken in hand by th eBrazilian Air Force, who looked after u ssuperbly, and problems were minimal a tSalvador and Rio . What a picturesque andimpressive city Salvador (Bahia) is . Itsmodern quarter of sunlit skyscrapersstands commandingly and Manhattan -like on a tongue of land between th eocean and the huge harbour, surrounde dby many miles of sprawling suburbs .Looking at these huge cities, with thei rancient-and-modern aspects, one is re -minded of the powerful growth of aself-generating economy, which has i nmodern times grafted itself on to arelatively old and once stagnant country ,as yet so little known to the Anglo -Saxon . Bahia itself has nearly 500 yearsof history behind it .

Flying conditions southward to Ri owere good, apart from an inter-tropica lfrontal belt, some 200 miles wide, sout hof Salvador. Luckily, visual conditionsprevailed until we made a landfall nea rCanaveiros, and we were able to detec tand correct an error of nearly 15° in th eoutbound alignment of Salvador VO Rtransmitter . We later found that this wa swell known, but nobody had thought t owarn us .

Conditions at Rio were perfect and theevening sun slanted down upon that vas tand beautiful city nestling among itsgrotesque mountains, to which postcard sand tourist views never do justice .

After a day or two in Rio it was time to

move on southward . A visit to SaoPaulo, largest skyscraper metropolis i nthe Southern Hemisphere, and probabl ythe second largest in the world, couldunfortunately not be justified and w emade a flight plan to Montevideo, with afuelling stop at Porto Alegre, southern -most of Brazil's big cities, some 800 milesaway. The weather was not good, heavylow cloud and rain prevailing and a head -wind of some 25 knots being forecas tfor the whole journey . However, both Ri oand Sao Paulo have excellent letdow nfacilities and Curitiba, not far off trac kabout half way, was shown to have aVOR right on its airport.

Accordingly, we took off and sli dupwards into the murk at a few hundredfeet above Rio Harbour, not to emerg euntil we had topped 10,000 ft . and wereestablished on an ADF back track fro man island off Copacabana .

Facilities in that metropolitan part o fBrazil are virtually of European standar dand Tango-Lima sailed along above th eweather with no navigational problems .However, as beacons and cross-fixe ssucceeded each other on our charts, i tbecame plain that we were making veryslow progress and that the headwin dmust have been some 60 knots, rathe rthan the 25 forecast . Our compute rmade it increasingly plain that we woul dnot reach Porto Alegre with IFR reserves ,very necessary in this case as the termina lforecast was marginal and no othe rsuitably equipped alternate existed fo rmany hundreds of miles. We were jus tabout to propose a diversion to Sa oPaulo control, with whom we were stil lin fitful contact, when they forestalled us,instructing us to make for Curitiba, som e200 miles south of us and 50 mile sinland between mountains . Curitiba were,they said, giving a cloud base of 1,200 ft .with slight rain and 10 km . visibility ; – no tbad for a VOR let-down .

About an hour later, however, whe nwe had established VHF contact wit hCuritiba, despite some language diffi-culty, we were told that their weathe rhad deteriorated to a cloudbase of 200 ft . ,continuous rain and 2 km . visibility . Aswe had by now been flying for some tim ein the unusual and depressing condition sof extremely heavy and continuous rain a t11,000 ft ., this was disheartening news,

south ante,•it•an(Iga

27

especially as we now had barely enoug hfuel to return to Sao Paulo or Campinas ,as well as to make a new climb to height .

Just then a friendly and encouragin gAmerican voice broke in, loud and clear ,saying 'I've just left Curitiba . I think that ,if you make a careful and accurate VO Rletdown, you'll find you can locate th erunway. Good luck!' Careful it was an daccurate it proved to be, for we brok ecloud at little more than tree-top heigh tto see the runway directly through th erain almost dead ahead, and to splas hwith relief on to its now flooded surface .We were grateful to the Beagle develop-ment team who had endowed the 206(S )with such exceptionally good instrumenthandling characteristics .

Curitiba, like so many Brazilian cities ,proved an impressive surprise . Instead ofthe sleepy country town which we ha dvisualised, we found a teeming industria lmetropolis of about the same size an dpopulation as Manchester, but of muc hmore modern and imposing aspect, wit hits many blocks of tall buildings, the tophalves of which were, however, hidde nmuch of the time in the heavy, lowovercast, from which the rain poured wit htireless ferocity . The city lies at 3,000 ft .in a basin surrounded by mountains, fro mwhich the ubiquitous thunder rever-berated endlessly for two whole days .Not even in Glasgow had either of usseen so many umbrellas and I was force dto buy the local product for about 16s .It is still giving good service and is, lik emuch else in Brazil, sterling value .

On the third day, the enormous area o fbad weather was said to have clearedPorto Alegre and we climbed once mor einto the low rainy overcast, to break ou tinto sunlight at 9,000 ft . and to sai lalong serenely above the unbroken clou dwith Florianopolis commercial radio al -ready established on our ADF an dpromise of an end to the cloud som e200 miles ahead .

This came abruptly and we foun dourselves on the coast, right on track an dwith almost a 100 miles of clear visibilit yahead . So perfect did this weather remai nfor the whole 800 miles past PortoAlegre and Montevideo to Buenos Aire sthat we could have flown without even acompass, let alone navaids . Indeed thi swas lucky as we were unable to raise any

of the distant (alleged) NDB-s, fro mwhich airways fixes were supposed to b eobtained .

What a splendid finish to a long, longsaga this was .

Before being handed over to her ne wowners, Compania Argentina de Aero -Taxi S .C., who are now Beagle distri-butors, Tango-Lima was honoured by a ninspection by H .R .H . The Duke o fEdinburgh, who remarked to the waitin gpressmen how much he had admired th ehandling of one of its counterparts, whe nhe had tried it in England .

As I finish these notes, a letter fro mCompania Argentina de Aero-Taxi hasjust been placed on my desk and I mus tquote from it, – 'I am pleased to repor tthat our "Beagle No . 1" is a hit with ou rflight customers here . . . Our competitorshave nothing to criticise and marketingconditions for new Beagles seem t oconfirm our earlier predictions . '

(below) Tango Lima at Montevideo, Uruguay .(bottom) Tango Lima at Saint Justo Airfield nearBuenos Aires .

south miter leanSala

28

BEAGLE throughout the world

A PACK OF BEAGLES – The Beaglefl. v-past at Farnborough .

(Photo : Copyright Flight International )

Printed at The Grange Press, Southwick Sussex, England