What's NewinWorld...
1
What's New in World of Air Transportation Pilots Tell Give Inside What Is Story of Wrong Flying By WAYNE moMlS I NTHElatt twelve month. con- gr•• sional inve.tigator., .ena- torial committeemen, air Un•• operators, various otfidall 01 the bureau 01air commerce, and a ilolt of magazine apologilts of one sort or another have told Mr. and Mrs. Public:just what wal wrong witn the air tranlportation indu.try and the lederal airways 01 the country. MOlt 01 the talking hat been done by thol. who know the least about the highly technical bUline•• 01flying commerc:ialairlinars. This is particularly true of the lenatorial committee. and 01 their agentl. In some Instancel the head. 01 eem- merdal air lin•• ha.,. iuued hys- terical statomenta blaming e•• rr- one but themselves for air line ee- ddenta. Reports of the air commerce bureau have, during the last two years, tended to ignoTecertain im- portant lactors which detinitly have been large Iteml In the Ult 01 dil- ficulties air transport operators are lacing. Whil. generally falr and accurate, the bureau'. reporta have not painted the complete picture. A. for the magazine writeT., they ger.erally fall into two clataes. The mo.t con.ervaUve, and tho.e who know mOlt about the lublect. have generally been the leaat pos- itive in drawing conclusions. The.e individuaa reported facta as found and aaked the reader to decide in hi. own mind, And then thent have been othertl, allegedly veteran airmen, whoH sensational but 100per cent inac- curate writingl branded them aa having little or no conception of the problems of air lino fiying and no idea of how mod.rn instruments and radio aids are utilized. Altor .urveying the field The Tribune d.cided that mo.t of the questiOn» which still ri.e in the minds of men and women on the street in regard to aviation aafety, technique. practice., a.ndthe inside BtOryof some of the accusations and counteraccusation. made by the varlou. individual. and groups of lobbyists remain unanawered. The question then arose: ••Who could anawer the se que.tion. be.t?" There was but one answ.r to this: \\The m.n who are doing the flying:' And. it was pointed out. the airmen them.elve.. who .hould know moat about the coun- try'. airwayl. have hitherto neither been aaked nor allowed to ten their atories. So It Wat that Th. Trib- une two months ago began a aurvey 01 its own to determine what the country'. air Une pilote- holders of matters' ticketa In corn- merelal flying- would reply to a few 01theso basic inq1.drles. of men who are identical In their fiylng characteriatic:a. so it i. up to the operators to .trike a balanc:e. make the operation aaflt for Ihe most conservative men, and then by training and checking try to keep them all up to a high .Iand- ard 01effi.c:lencyand tltChnique. .. So much fot the operators' .Ide and the pUot.' lide of the pilot- pushing que. lion, and now we come to the mo.t dangeroue phate 01 the whole bUline.l. and tbat ill the ground man or dispatcher who leta hit ambition to become the world'. be.1 weather man and die· patch.r, coupled with a certain tendency to execute hi. authority over the pllota. run wild. ••He II 10be found on all lin"l and haa been no doubt r.sponsl- bl. for a certaln percentage of ee- eldents in the past. and in all prob- ability will continue to be until a sufficient number of seasoned, well balanced. and mature men can be procured and trained to fillaU IUch loba. ..A dl.patcher holdl on. of the most important lobi on the air line. today. and although h•• hould be an exceUent weather man and have a thorough knowledge of the limitation. 01equipment. radio aida. t.rraln, emergency hldl. alternate airways and airports, h. is usually paid a .alary that no good weather man would consIder working for. An airplcme .D9Ine ill operation. TIU iI what a pllot •••• wlln be looka through a coc:kpltwiDclow. we bad certaln definite limitation., and if we w.nt beyond tho••. then someone wa. liable to get lkinned up. .. In summarWng the first part of tho que.tion, I believe that al- though competitive flying waa not urged or encouraged by tbe opera- tor. o. a whole. they were certain- ly aware that it Wat going on and were no doubt proud or ashamed of the records lhelr pilots were let- ting up for completed schedules. ..The POItoffice d.partment it guilty of a part of .uch fiylng In that they have aharply Clritidud certafn lin•• for failure to complete a latisfactory percentage 01 their schedul.a, and 1 personally read corre.pondence within the last sixty days between offic:tala of the po.t- office d.partment, the department of comm.rce. and our own com- pany that plainly expre••ed dis- aatl.fac:tionwith our operation•. n,It waa brought about by an ur- gent requelt of our company to in- Itall a beam .tation at one point on the Une. and wa. tONed around the natlon'l capital until th.y throw it right back In our lapa with a very definite 8ugge.Uon that we should have been able to complete the schedule. in queltlon without the aid of any aid to navigatlC!nwhat- everl "". .. Pilota as a whole are awerr. of the limitations of our equipment. and are alao aware of the aerloue .ituatlon. that may be encountered under certain weather conditions. Prac:ticallyall of them are quite enthullallUc about lif. and ant reluctant to blunder into anything that might end it. Ground croWl!at workpreparin9 a Dou91aaDC-I a:lrUnerlorflight. .echemlc. are flUIDgfu.l GIld00 tcmka. known of Instance. where pllota were censured for canceling flightD. Eleven per cent reported that 'there waa some truth to reports thai bad- weather fiying and competitive fly- Ing are encouraged. are going through even though tho weather condition. are dangerous:' And another: .. I know of several Instances where plJota were called down for canceling flights in bad weather. No alr Une pllol for any Une feels .ecure In his lob from one week to the next, and he i. con.tantly haraned by operators every time he i. late or cancels on his own. And they are 'con.lantly encour- aged to make low-ceiUng ap- proache., II a pilot talkl he grad· eee Here are typical r.plies: n 1 can't imagine how anyone could force me to ny in weather that I thought unflyable. I have tried to keep away from compet!- •e• n Tho tinelt weather m.n in the country are not Infallible when it comes to forecasting weather, 10 it I. illogical to ataum. that a young man who haa u.ually worked up from a lob aa trafie agent, or baggage smasher, i. capable of taking the available weather in- formation and forecasta and r.lea.- Ing ftighta when the weather all along the Une approc;achesmini- mum celUn9 and visibility require- ments. n In taolat.d cas.. of direct or indirect pilot-puahfng. nine time. out of ten it iI Instigated by lOme amart young punk on the ground who, after CIyear Oftwo of .ervice around a Itation loading .hiptJ, checking mall form., or the like, i. made diapatcher and immediat.ly .eta out to put the Uneon a paying baal.•. ••lito baa heard enough gOllip around the omce and the pUots' quartertl to have a well defined idea of who iI tough and who can't tak. it among the pUoting pertlon- nol, and he Itarta right in puahing the one. be conllden weak and restraining the boy. who ant too anx10ua to complete schedule•. ••When h. cleartJ a pilot who ciooan'tchoo•• torun, the dilpatcher will be heard to remark in a know- Ing way that So-and-So doean't •cut the buck: This remark will make the rounds, finally g.t back _ _______________________________________________________________ to the pilot concerned, whole firtlt , impulae ia to kno<:klOme te.th P r ot e C t S E mp 10 Y e S ~w.:c:o-: :::t::~::: ~~~ :::dein::n~' .::~ t::::=:: from.uch an inexperienced aource. ••When the ntmarb are r.peated at a later dat., aa they ulually are when a diapatchor geta an idea that he has a weak .later on the Un.. the pilot ta placed in rather a tough .pot. He naturally has a certain pride in hil ability to fiy his runs. but he may quit. easily be getting the bad breaks In the weather. in being on the wrong side of the cold front. flying into the IOUpin.tead 01out '01it. •• In any e.,ent he ill aware thai certain remaru errebeing ci~lat- ed around that he I. a little weak on his weath.r fiying, and when W. conclusion i. reacoed anything it liable to happen. Hia ludgment 1aqu••t1oned, h. is mad enough to commitmqyhem. and in most canl he i. waiting lot CIchance to dem- onstrate to aU concerned that he can fly lu.t aa eWciently in bad weath.r end Ihoot IUlt a. many low approach•• aa anyone on hil cUvilion. •• I do not know of any craekup that bas resulted from thil sort of buin.... but I have ••en luch thing. bapptln and have bad cold chill•• nry time the phone rang in bad weath.r lor fear somee:snebad put hil neck out a Uttfetoo lar in an .ffort to vlad1cate hlm••UIn the eyel of the world:' (CoDtlDlIed JUtat wHIr.) Grollftclcr.WI cue lmportcmtcop fDthe cdrtrellUlportatJOA .ac:hbae. but. , ODce ill the air. the pilot IIIill COJIIIlIacl. atrum.nt pilota, and were more or les. secure in our Imowledg. that we must be pretty hot or the in- apector would not have granted UJ such a license. .. Some pilota w.re a little more adept at the use of the radio beams, and some were a little I••• interested in the g.neral .tat. 01 their health, 10 naturally competi- tive fiylng WeD (J3 natural and log- Ical as breathing. ••The oJ)eraton went In no pam. tion to Judge at firlItwhether the tough pllota went •• ttlng the stand- ard for aat. operatton or whether the more conurvOtive lads w.re right In oc:eculonally canceling a achedule. Thill condition eztated for a year or two before anyone, e"en tho pilotsthemselv••• were ex· actly IUnt IUlt what the seote wcu. but finally we all arrived at the conclusion that with our equipment againsl their bett.r ludgment. On the other hand, I am quite positive that in many eat,s the operator. have watched competition develop on tbeir lines and between their line., fe.Ung that it WeD neeenary to the development of tough-weath- er fiylng. "Three or four years ago. when we really started to fiy by instru- ment and utiUzethe beam stations that the d.partment of commerce provided, the operators felt that the weather .!tuaUon was w.ll In hand, and many pilota were of tbe same opinion. However, we lOOn learned that even with the best of instrumenta and with the beam going full blast we would frequent- ly encounter situations which made It impoallble to complete .ched- utel. Neverth.le.. we had a li- cenae in our pocketa which plainly stated that we were qualffied In- (AcIM ••••• ) ant,.ed at the cODcluJOD• • • we had certain. d.JlDJt. llmItatJou. ad if we weDtbeyolld thou. th.DlOIIleoDeWeD J1a11le to g.t lIdIlIled up.II e•• ••On any air Une,however, there iI a .mall percentage 01pUotawho. through lack 01 ezperlonce, igno- rance, ot cocklne.s, take, or would take, chancel that ultimately would lead to a c:rac:kupunle•• they were re.trained from uaing their own judgment. All air line. a1ao have a small percentage of pUot. who are too con••rvatlve and are re- luctant to fiy Into any weather that appeQrtJdoubtful. •.Bothtypes are unde.wble. but it I. impolllible to obtaln a group tive flying and in this respect have always had the backing 01my im- mediate superiors, though not al- waYI of other pUota. I have often suffered criticism, or perhaps I should list it as thoughtless kid· ding. from mechanics, clerks, ete., when I canceled a trip and some other pilot flew. but never lrom the boss:' Another: ••We all realize w. had better fly when the hand.shaking pUots ually is ea.sed out of tho picture. A pilot .hould be ij)e final Juage of the weather, but he Isn't," Probably the belt answer iI as follows: •• A book could be written on this que.tion. and if it ever i. writ- ten it will make very intere.Ung reading for anyone concerned with air line travel. I w11ltry to .um- marize my view.. Air line. do not and nevel have to my knowledgfl forced pilots to fiy In weather ee• A questionnaire WCIIprepared and dilpatched to representatl,.e airmen .tatloned in widely .epa- rated parta of the country. Only tho.e who were flr.t pllota with many thouaand. of hourtl of flying were chosen. Th.y w.r. aaked to anawer a seriel of que.tlona which deall with th" follOWingitem.: 1. Are commercial air line. tere- ing their pilots to fiy in bad weath- er, at char9.d by representative. of the pilotl' union, or are the oper- atortl generally conl."ative and chleny concerned with .atety? 2. Several 01 the air Une opera- tOrtlhave chaTlJedthat the fed.ral radio beams are unreliablo, treach- eroUl, and not to be trusted aa ald. to navigation. What have been your f'xperienc:es with the beaml? 3. Should the beaml be removed from the airways, or Ihould the number of beam-transmitting ata· tiona be ine:ntased and the older Itationl modernized to increase their efficiency? •. What impro.,.m.nta in radio,' lights, or other type. of fiying aids will make flying aater? 5. Where, in your opinion, doe. the reaponaiblUty for the winter'l .eti •• of air line c:raahe. lie? Here are the re.pons ••. Cmalnly the mOlt interesting anlwe.ra were thOM received in reply to question No.1. Sennty- two por cent of iho.e replying aaid the line. for which they n.w never 10rcedthem to Dyin difficultweath. er or encouraged competitiveflying between pilots. Sixteen per cent of the men aaid th.y w.re lorced to ay in bad weather or had Aids Tribune and to b.neficlaries of 23 policyholders. and permanent dilabUlty claim. 01 $9.100to three pollcyholdertl. The M.dill ~ullding and Loan auoc1atlon. .tarted in 1922 .".itth finonclal aaslltance of executives of The Tribun., ill controled by employes 01th. company who are members. In fourt•• n yean it haa matured and paid off12,600,000in .tock, 01 which ~,500 went to pay off mortgage. on homes built or purchased by employ••. During 1938it received approxi- mately $220.000In paym.nt. and made n.w loans totaling '140,000. It now hal outltanding "22,000 in loans on 135 hom.s, Some 700 employ•• are memben. :TheDearborn Mutual Benefitaa- aociation waa organized as a prao- tical d.fense for Tribune employes againlt the exactions 01 loan .harka. It iI a mutual .enolngl and loan <IIIOciailonwith whichi. com- bined a death benefit -rltem. It make. loana to membertl at 1 per cent a week for .ums exceed- ing aso. or. 2 per cent on emaller .um.. the principal and earning. being cUltributed to member. at the .nd of eadt year. During 1936 a total of '12.750 in death ben.fit. was paid to lamWe. of 17memben who died. for 1937the auoc1ation already has enrolled 1.922 mem- bertl. (CoDtlDlI.clfrom PClge OD•• ) III medical assistance guards Its employes against phYlical dangef. and its benefil and insurance plans protect them In .icknel. and in old age. The weUare ac:tivltle. of the Trib- une company may be divided Into three elanes. The.e are activities of which the expense it defrayed entirely by the company, including pension., sick and di.ability bene- tita, health and dental service, ma- ternity benefita, and mamage gffts; life in.urance, to which the com- pany and employes both contrib- ute; and .enoing. a.lOc:lation•• originally .ponlOntd by the com- pany. but now financed and oper- at.d by .mploy•• alone. The Tribune bonus plan might allO be included in the firat class of activlti.l. Last year the com- pany di.tributed 1165.000In Chrilt- maa bonuee.. The bonuHl, in.tI- tuled In 1915, are paid on a sliding 'cale of percentag.. of annual wage paymonta, Inc:reaaing with Inc:reaaed terms 01 employment. Fot employe. earning les" than ".000 a year the paymenta are 3 per cent lor thou employed len than three yean. 5 per cent fot thos. employed three to five yean, S per cent for tho.. employed five to ten yean, and 10 per cent for thOle employed more than ten years. Percentages for thole earn- Ing mote than ",000 a year erreor. a lower acale. ' n The directon .stabliah thta pension fund as an appreciation of the fid.lity. efficiency. and loy- alty of the employe.," il a notation in the minute. 01the directora of tbe Tribune company lor June 15, 1911. In the quarter century which fol- lowed 132employe. of The Tribune have been penlloned. Thereare 67 penslonerl on Iherollat preHnt. All employe. are eUgible to pen.ion. und.r the conditions 01 the plan. Employel who have reached the age of 55 and have been .mployed for fifteen years may be pensioned at the dilCfetion of the pen.lon board. Employea of twenty yeara' or mont .ervice may be penaloned at th.ir own requ.lt after reaching the age of 60. Any .mploye 01 tbirty yeQrtJ'.ervice who become. dlaabled may be pensioned r•• gardlel. of hi. age. The annual pension payment ii, for each year 01 active ••rYlce. 2 per cent of the av.rage annual pay during the t.n yeara pnteed- ing retirement, with a maximum of f100 a month and a minimum 01 '18 a month. Mo.t 01the penllon- ertl receive the maximum, annual paymenta in 1936totaling "6.000. On Dec. I, 1919, The Tribune started operation 01a compnth.n- full year. Total wage payments unchr the benefit plan were 150,000. The beneilt plan department has a stat with an aMual pay roll of '18.000. ThI. lnelud•• a d.nU8t, who loat year gave free consulta- tion and prophy1crctlctreatments to 1,580 employe.; and a nurae. who during the last year had .,306 office vrslta for Ifrataid and minor aliments and who mad. l,4oohome call. on employe. who were dia- abled or Ill. Woman employel of The Tribune who leave work to have hable. r.cei"e .Ix weeb' full pay during confinement. In 1916The Tribune Itarted the prac:tice of giving each employe, on the' completion 01 b. yeara' service. a '1,000 We in.urance pol- Icy which the company maintained during the period of employment. In 1934thiI plan was broadened to gl.e such a pollcy to each employe after on. year'. omplo\'ment, and at the sam. time .mploye. were glYen the opportunity of buying additional insurance, in amounta ICClledaccording toannual pay, at group rate•• At pre••nt th~ are 2,275 em- ployes til Chicago of The Tribun•• racUostation W-Q.N, and the Trib- une Tower insured under the.e group pollci•• , with a total of 18.158,000In force. During 193G d.ath claims of $'13.000w.re paid .IYe employ. benefit plan. the moat important Item of which was a -rlt.m of lick and disability benefits. Before that time .Ick benefita had been allowed by the company' I weUare committee on an IndiTidual batls. Under the plan in operation linc:e 1919. employ.. who have been with the company foremore than ten yeara. U lick or dieabled. re- celye .hl: monthl' full pay and thereaft.r six montha' half pay during their abaence from work. thOle .mployed from fiv. to ten years receive thirteen weeki' full pay and thIrt••n weeki' haH pay, and those employed more than a year lix weeki' full pay and Iix weeki' half pay. Forty-tbree per cent of the com- pany'l employe., a recent .urvey .howed: are eUgfble to maximum benefils, having worked ten yean or longer, while 17 per cent have been .mployed for more than flye yean and 96 per cent for mote than a yoar. La.t year 217 employe. were placed on the benefit pay roU.ha,.- ing been absent from work for mote than one week. Of thes. 109 were paIclfot one week, •• for two, 34 for three. 14lor four, 13for b., 11fot I1x weeb, and 52for long.r periods, a total 011,023weeki' pay. Two emploY.1 were paid for the
Transcript of What's NewinWorld...
What's New in World of Air TransportationPilots Tell Give InsideWhat Is Story ofWrong Flying
By WAYNE moMlS
INTHE latt twelve month. con-gr•• sional inve.tigator., .ena-torial committeemen, air Un••
operators, various otfidall 01 thebureau 01air commerce,and a iloltof magazine apologilts of one sortor another have told Mr. and Mrs.Public: just what wal wrong witnthe air tranlportation indu.try andthe lederal airways 01 the country.MOlt 01 the talking hat been
done by thol. who know the leastabout the highly technical bUline••01flying commerc:ialairlinars. Thisis particularly true of the lenatorialcommittee. and 01 their agentl. Insome Instancel the head. 01 eem-merdal air lin•• ha.,. iuued hys-terical statomenta blaming e•• rr-one but themselves for air line ee-ddenta.Reports of the air commerce
bureau have, during the last twoyears, tended to ignoTecertain im-portant lactors which detinitly havebeen large Iteml In the Ult 01 dil-ficulties air transport operators arelacing. Whil. generally falr andaccurate, the bureau'. reporta havenot painted the complete picture.A. for the magazine writeT.,
they ger.erally fall into two clataes.The mo.t con.ervaUve, and tho.ewho know mOlt about the lublect.have generally been the leaat pos-itive in drawing conclusions. The.eindividuaa reported facta as foundand aaked the reader to decide inhi. own mind,And then thent have been othertl,
allegedly veteran airmen, whoHsensational but 100per cent inac-curate writingl branded them aahaving little or no conception ofthe problems of air lino fiying andno idea of how mod.rn instrumentsand radio aids are utilized.Altor .urveying the field The
Tribune d.cided that mo.t of thequestiOn» which still ri.e in theminds of men and women on thestreet in regard to aviation aafety,technique. practice., a.nd the insideBtOryof some of the accusationsand counteraccusation. made bythe varlou. individual. and groupsof lobbyists remain unanawered.The question then arose: ••Who
could anawer the s e que.tion.be.t?" There was but one answ.rto this: \\The m.n who are doingthe flying:' And. it was pointedout. the airmen them.elve.. who.hould know moat about the coun-try'. airwayl. have hitherto neitherbeen aaked nor allowed to ten theiratories. So It Wat that Th. Trib-une two months ago began aaurvey 01 its own to determinewhat the country'. air Une pilote-holders of matters' ticketa In corn-merelal flying- would reply to afew 01 theso basic inq1.drles.
of men who are identical In theirfiylng characteriatic:a.so it i. up tothe operators to .trike a balanc:e.make the operation aaflt for Ihemost conservative men, and thenby training and checking try tokeep them all up to a high .Iand-ard 01effi.c:lencyand tltChnique...So much fot the operators' .Ide
and the pUot.' lide of the pilot-pushing que. lion, and now wecome to the mo.t dangeroue phate01 the whole bUline.l. and tbat illthe ground man or dispatcher wholeta hit ambition to become theworld'. be.1 weather man and die·patch.r, coupled with a certaintendency to execute hi. authorityover the pllota. run wild.••He II 10be found on all lin"l
and haa been no doubt r.sponsl-bl. for a certaln percentage of ee-eldents in the past. and in all prob-ability will continue to be until asufficient number of seasoned, wellbalanced. and mature men can beprocured and trained to fill aU IUchloba...A dl.patcher holdl on. of the
most important lobi on the air line.today. and although h•• hould bean exceUent weather man andhave a thorough knowledge of thelimitation. 01equipment. radio aida.t.rraln, emergency hldl. alternateairways and airports, h. is usuallypaid a .alary that no good weatherman would consIder working for.
An airplcme .D9Ine ill operation. TIU iI what a pllot •••• wlln be lookathrough a coc:kpltwiDclow.
we bad certaln definite limitation.,and if we w.nt beyond tho••.then someone wa. liable to getlkinned up... In summarWng the first part
of tho que.tion, I believe that al-though competitive flying waa noturged or encouraged by tbe opera-tor. o. a whole. they were certain-ly aware that it Wat going on andwere no doubt proud or ashamedof the records lhelr pilots were let-ting up for completed schedules...The POItoffice d.partment it
guilty of a part of .uch fiylng Inthat they have aharply Clritidudcertafn lin•• for failure to completea latisfactory percentage 01 theirschedul.a, and 1 personally readcorre.pondence within the last sixtydays between offic:talaof the po.t-office d.partment, the departmentof comm.rce. and our own com-pany that plainly expre••ed dis-aatl.fac:tionwith our operation•.n,It waa brought about by an ur-
gent requelt of our company to in-Itall a beam .tation at one pointon the Une.and wa. tONed aroundthe natlon'l capital until th.y throwit right back In our lapa with a verydefinite 8ugge.Uon that we shouldhave been able to complete theschedule. in queltlon without theaid of any aid to navigatlC!nwhat-everl"". . . Pilota as a whole are
awerr. of the limitations of ourequipment. and are alao aware ofthe aerloue .ituatlon. that may beencountered under certain weatherconditions. Prac:ticallyall of themare quite enthullallUc about lif.and ant reluctant to blunder intoanything that might end it.
Ground croWl!at work preparin9 a Dou91aaDC-I a:lrUnerlor flight..echemlc. are flUIDgfu.l GIld00 tcmka.
known of Instance. where pllotawere censured for canceling flightD.Eleven per cent reported that 'therewaa some truth to reports thai bad-weather fiying and competitive fly-Ing are encouraged.
are going through even though thoweather condition. are dangerous:'And another:..I know of several Instances
where plJota were called down forcanceling flights in bad weather.No alr Une pllol for any Une feels.ecure In his lob from one weekto the next, and he i. con.tantlyharaned by operators every timehe i. late or cancels on his own.And they are 'con.lantly encour-aged to make low - ceiUng ap-proache., II a pilot talkl he grad·
e e e
Here are typical r.plies:n 1 can't imagine how anyone
could force me to ny in weatherthat I thought unflyable. I havetried to keep away from compet!-
• e •
nTho tinelt weather m.n in thecountry are not Infallible when itcomes to forecasting weather, 10
it I. illogical to ataum. that ayoung man who haa u.ually workedup from a lob aa trafie agent, orbaggage smasher, i. capable oftaking the available weather in-formation and forecasta and r.lea.-Ing ftighta when the weather allalong the Une approc;achesmini-mum celUn9 and visibility require-ments.
n In taolat.d cas.. of direct orindirect pilot - puahfng. nine time.out of ten it iI Instigated by lOmeamart young punk on the groundwho, after CIyear Of two of .ervicearound a Itation loading .hiptJ,checking mall form., or the like, i.made diapatcher and immediat.ly.eta out to put the Uneon a payingbaal.•.••lito baa heard enough gOllip
around the omce and the pUots'quartertl to have a well definedidea of who iI tough and who can'ttak. it among the pUoting pertlon-nol, and he Itarta right in puahingthe one. be conllden weak andrestraining the boy. who ant tooanx10ua to complete schedule•.••When h. cleartJ a pilot who
ciooan'tchoo•• to run, the dilpatcherwill be heard to remark in a know-Ing way that So-and-So doean't•cut the buck: This remark willmake the rounds, finally g.t back_
_______________________________________________________________ to the pilot concerned, whole firtlt, impulae ia to kno<:k lOme te.th
ProteCtS Emp 10 YeS ~w.:c:o-: :::t::~:::~~~:::dein::n~' .::~ t::::=::from .uch an inexperienced aource.••When the ntmarb are r.peated
at a later dat., aa they ulually arewhen a diapatchor geta an ideathat he has a weak .later on theUn.. the pilot ta placed in rathera tough .pot. He naturally has acertain pride in hil ability to fiyhis runs. but he may quit. easilybe getting the bad breaks In theweather. in being on the wrongside of the cold front. flying intothe IOUpin.tead 01out '01it.••In any e.,ent he ill aware thai
certain remaru erre being ci~lat-ed around that he I. a little weakon his weath.r fiying, and whenW. conclusion i. reacoed anythingit liable to happen. Hia ludgment1aqu•• t1oned,h. is mad enough tocommitmqyhem. and in most canlhe i. waiting lot CIchance to dem-onstrate to aU concerned that hecan fly lu.t aa eWciently in badweath.r end Ihoot IUlt a. manylow approach •• aa anyone on hilcUvilion.••I do not know of any craekup
that bas resulted from thil sort ofbuin.... but I have •• en luchthing. bapptln and have bad coldchill•• nry time the phone rang inbad weath.r lor fear somee:snebadput hil neck out a Uttfe too lar inan .ffort to vlad1cate hlm••U In theeyel of the world:'
(CoDtlDlIedJUtat wHIr.)
Grollftclcr.WI cue lmportcmtcop fD the cdr trellUlportatJOA.ac:hbae. but., ODceill the air. the pilot IIIill COJIIIlIacl.
atrum.nt pilota, and were more orles. secure in our Imowledg. thatwe must be pretty hot or the in-apector would not have granted UJ
such a license... Some pilota w.re a little more
adept at the use of the radiobeams, and some were a little I•••interested in the g.neral .tat. 01their health, 10 naturally competi-tive fiylng WeD (J3 natural and log-Ical as breathing.••The oJ)eraton went In no pam.
tion to Judge at firlItwhether thetough pllota went •• ttlng the stand-ard for aat. operatton or whetherthe more conurvOtive lads w.reright In oc:eculonally canceling aachedule. Thill condition eztatedfor a year or two before anyone,e"en tho pilots themselv••• were ex·actly IUnt IUlt what the seote wcu.but finally we all arrived at theconclusion that with our equipment
againsl their bett.r ludgment. Onthe other hand, I am quite positivethat in many eat,s the operator.have watched competition developon tbeir lines and between theirline., fe.Ung that it WeD neeenaryto the development of tough-weath-er fiylng."Three or four years ago. when
we really started to fiy by instru-ment and utiUze the beam stationsthat the d.partment of commerceprovided, the operators felt that theweather .!tuaUon was w.ll Inhand, and many pilota were of tbesame opinion. However, we lOOnlearned that even with the best ofinstrumenta and with the beamgoing full blast we would frequent-ly encounter situations which madeIt impoallble to complete .ched-utel. Neverth.le.. we had a li-cenae in our pocketa which plainlystated that we were qualffied In-
(AcIM ••••• )
ant,.ed at the cODcluJOD• • • we had certain. d.JlDJt. llmItatJou.ad if we weDtbeyolld thou. th.DlOIIleoDeWeD J1a11leto g.t lIdIlIled up.II e • •
••On any air Une,however, thereiI a .mall percentage 01pUotawho.through lack 01 ezperlonce, igno-rance, ot cocklne.s, take, or wouldtake, chancel that ultimately wouldlead to a c:rac:kupunle•• they werere.trained from uaing their ownjudgment. All air line. a1ao havea small percentage of pUot. whoare too con•• rvatlve and are re-luctant to fiy Into any weatherthat appeQrtJdoubtful.•.Both types are unde.wble. but
it I. impolllible to obtaln a group
tive flying and in this respect havealways had the backing 01my im-mediate superiors, though not al-waYI of other pUota. I have oftensuffered criticism, or perhaps Ishould list it as thoughtless kid·ding. from mechanics, clerks, ete.,when I canceled a trip and someother pilot flew. but never lrom theboss:'Another:••We all realize w. had better
fly when the hand.shaking pUots
ually is ea.sed out of tho picture.A pilot .hould be ij)e final Juageof the weather, but he Isn't,"Probably the belt answer iI as
follows:••A book could be written on
this que.tion. and if it ever i. writ-ten it will make very intere.Ungreading for anyone concerned withair line travel. I w11ltry to .um-marize my view.. Air line. do notand nevel have to my knowledgflforced pilots to fiy In weather
e e •
A questionnaire WCIIpreparedand dilpatched to representatl,.eairmen .tatloned in widely .epa-rated parta of the country. Onlytho.e who were flr.t pllota withmany thouaand. of hourtl of flyingwere chosen. Th.y w.r. aaked toanawer a seriel of que.tlona whichdeall with th" follOWingitem.:1. Are commercial air line. tere-
ing their pilots to fiy in bad weath-er, at char9.d by representative.of the pilotl' union, or are the oper-atortl generally conl."ative andchleny concerned with .atety?2. Several 01 the air Une opera-
tOrtlhave chaTlJed that the fed.ralradio beams are unreliablo, treach-eroUl, and not to be trusted aa ald.to navigation. What have beenyour f'xperienc:es with the beaml?3. Should the beaml be removed
from the airways, or Ihould thenumber of beam-transmitting ata·tiona be ine:ntased and the olderItationl modernized to increasetheir efficiency?•. What impro.,.m.nta in radio,'
lights, or other type. of fiying aidswill make flying aater?5. Where, in your opinion, doe.
the reaponaiblUty for the winter'l.eti •• of air line c:raahe. lie?Here are the re.pons ••.Cmalnly the mOlt interesting
anlwe.ra were thOM received inreply to question No.1. Sennty-two por cent of iho.e replying aaidthe line. for which they n.w never10rcedthem to Dyin difficultweath.er or encouraged competitive flyingbetween pilots. Sixteen per centof the men aaid th.y w.re lorcedto ay in bad weather or had
AidsTribune andto b.neficlaries of 23 policyholders.and permanent dilabUlty claim. 01$9.100to three pollcyholdertl.The M.dill ~ullding and Loan
auoc1atlon. .tarted in 1922 .".itthfinonclal aaslltance of executivesof The Tribun., ill controled byemployes 01 th. company who aremembers. In fourt•• n yean it haamatured and paid off 12,600,000in.tock, 01 which ~,500 went topay off mortgage. on homes builtor purchased by employ••.During 1938it received approxi-
mately $220.000In paym.nt. andmade n.w loans totaling '140,000.It now hal outltanding "22,000 inloans on 135 hom.s, Some 700employ•• are memben.:TheDearborn Mutual Benefit aa-
aociation waa organized as a prao-tical d.fense for Tribune employesagainlt the exactions 01 loan.harka. It iI a mutual .enolngl andloan <IIIOciailonwith which i. com-bined a death benefit -rltem.It make. loana to membertl at 1
per cent a week for .ums exceed-ing aso. or. 2 per cent on emaller.um.. the principal and earning.being cUltributed to member. atthe .nd of eadt year. During 1936a total of '12.750 in death ben.fit.was paid to lamWe. of 17membenwho died. for 1937the auoc1ationalready has enrolled 1.922 mem-bertl.
(CoDtlDlI.clfrom PClgeOD•• )III medical assistance guards Itsemployes against phYlical dangef.and its benefil and insurance plansprotect them In .icknel. and inold age.The weUare ac:tivltle. of the Trib-
une company may be divided Intothree elanes. The.e are activitiesof which the expense it defrayedentirely by the company, includingpension., sick and di.ability bene-tita, health and dental service, ma-ternity benefita, and mamage gffts;life in.urance, to which the com-pany and employes both contrib-ute; and .enoing. a.lOc:lation••originally .ponlOntd by the com-pany. but now financed and oper-at.d by .mploy •• alone.The Tribune bonus plan might
allO be included in the firat classof activlti.l. Last year the com-pany di.tributed 1165.000In Chrilt-maa bonuee.. The bonuHl, in.tI-tuled In 1915,are paid on a sliding'cale of percentag.. of annualwage paymonta, Inc:reaaing withInc:reaaed terms 01 employment.Fot employe. earning les" than".000 a year the paymenta are 3per cent lor thou employed lenthan three yean. 5 per cent fotthos. employed three to five yean,S per cent for tho.. employed fiveto ten yean, and 10 per cent forthOle employed more than ten
years. Percentages for thole earn-Ing mote than ",000 a year erreor.a lower acale. '
n The directon .stabliah thtapension fund as an appreciationof the fid.lity. efficiency. and loy-alty of the employe.," il a notationin the minute. 01the directora of tbeTribune company lor June 15, 1911.In the quarter century which fol-
lowed 132employe. of The Tribunehave been penlloned. There are 67penslonerl on Ihe roll at preHnt. Allemploye. are eUgible to pen.ion.und.r the conditions 01 the plan.Employel who have reached theage of 55 and have been .mployedfor fifteen years may be pensionedat the dilCfetion of the pen.lonboard. Employea of twenty yeara'or mont .ervice may be penalonedat th.ir own requ.lt after reachingthe age of 60. Any .mploye 01tbirty yeQrtJ'.ervice who become.dlaabled may be pensioned r••gardlel. of hi. age.The annual pension payment ii,
for each year 01 active •• rYlce. 2per cent of the av.rage annualpay during the t.n yeara pnteed-ing retirement, with a maximum off100 a month and a minimum 01'18 a month. Mo.t 01 the penllon-ertl receive the maximum, annualpaymenta in 1936 totaling "6.000.On Dec. I, 1919, The Tribune
started operation 01 a compnth.n-
full year. Total wage paymentsunchr the benefit plan were 150,000.The beneilt plan department has
a stat with an aMual pay roll of'18.000. ThI. lnelud•• a d.nU8t,who loat year gave free consulta-tion and prophy1crctlc treatmentsto 1,580 employe.; and a nurae.who during the last year had .,306office vrslta for Ifrat aid and minoraliments and who mad. l,4oohomecall. on employe. who were dia-abled or Ill. Woman employel ofThe Tribune who leave work tohave hable. r.cei"e .Ix weeb'full pay during confinement.In 1916The Tribune Itarted the
prac:tice of giving each employe,on the' completion 01 b. yeara'service. a '1,000 We in.urance pol-Icy which the company maintainedduring the period of employment.In 1934thiI plan was broadened togl.e such a pollcy to each employeafter on. year'. omplo\'ment, andat the sam. time .mploye. wereglYen the opportunity of buyingadditional insurance, in amountaICClledaccording to annual pay, atgroup rate••At pre•• nt th~ are 2,275 em-
ployes til Chicago of The Tribun••racUostation W-Q.N, and the Trib-une Tower insured under the.egroup pollci•• , with a total of18.158,000In force. During 193Gd.ath claims of $'13.000w.re paid
.IYe employ. benefit plan. themoat important Item of which wasa -rlt.m of lick and disabilitybenefits. Before that time .Ickbenefita had been allowed by thecompany'I weUare committee onan IndiTidual batls.Under the plan in operation linc:e
1919. employ.. who have beenwith the company for emore thanten yeara. U lick or dieabled. re-celye .hl: monthl' full pay andthereaft.r six montha' half payduring their abaence from work.thOle .mployed from fiv. to tenyears receive thirteen weeki' fullpay and thIrt•• n weeki' haH pay,and those employed more than ayear lix weeki' full pay and Iixweeki' half pay.Forty-tbree per cent of the com-
pany'l employe., a recent .urvey.howed: are eUgfble to maximumbenefils, having worked ten yeanor longer, while 17 per cent havebeen .mployed for more than flyeyean and 96 per cent for motethan a yoar.La.t year 217 employe. were
placed on the benefit pay roU.ha,.-ing been absent from work formote than one week. Of thes. 109were paIcl fot one week, •• for two,34 for three. 14lor four, 13 for b.,11 fot I1x weeb, and 52 for long.rperiods, a total 011,023weeki' pay.Two emploY.1 were paid for the
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