IFR in the 1930's

I heard someplace through the years in some hanger flying that a
pencil was used in IFR in the very early days. Can't remember how it
was used but might be something like it was hung from a string in
cockpit???? Maybe some real old, old, old timers remember some to the
stories about the time the AAC was tasked to fly the Airmail?

There's got to be some lurkers older than BOB and me G

Big John


On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 21:15:30 GMT, "Dick" wrote:

Staring at my empty instrument panel while considering which instruments and
their placement, I got wondering how old time Mail pilots flew if caught in
IFR conditions.

On my project plane, I'm considering just a airspeed/altitude/ ball & tube
slip (no needle) indicator/compass setup in order to avoid the venturi or
vacuum pump setup. Since I consider "electric" too expensive and wondered
whether a dome style compass might be the key??

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks, Dick -Lakeland, Florida