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

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?

Anybody old enough to have used a pencil instead of a gyro
would be long dead. It doesn't work. The pencil could be
hanging precisely straight towards the floor while you are
in a death spiral.

~Paul

Paul

Yes but the airspeed would show an increase. Also the 'Whiskey
Compass' would show a turn. Pencil would show if you were coordinated
or not. You would have to fly with all the instrunents availabale on
partial panel G

I just don't remember the hanger flying stories and said it was
somethng (could have been a pencil on a string?????????) or some other
crazy thing that we wouldn't do now.

Your right about people actualy flying IFR in those days (long gone)
but the stories were passed down in 'Hanger flying for years
afterward.

Will see if any lurkers show up with a story about how the early birds
flew IFR with no or minimum instrunents.

I've looked via Google and havn't found anything that I remember yet.

Big John


On Tue, 02 Sep 2003 09:22:12 GMT, "Paul Mennen"
wrote:

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?

Anybody old enough to have used a pencil instead of a gyro
would be long dead. It doesn't work. The pencil could be
hanging precisely straight towards the floor while you are
in a death spiral.

~Paul