PUPIL FALLS OUT OF AEROPLANE

[Dave Homewood]

Here in New Zealand it is a reasonably well known piece of history that Squadron Leader Dave Allan who was the Commanding Officer of the Flying Instructor's School at RNZAF Station Mangere fell out of a Tiger Moth during a training session on the 12th of March 1940, and fell to his death. This was an extremely sad event as Dave Allan was one of New Zealand's best known and most admired pilots. He was the Ray Hanna of his day (in fact I'd not be all all surprised if Ray had seen Dave's displays when he was a kid!). He had been the CFI of Auckland Aero Club and every weekend he performed aerobatic displays either at Mangere or elsewhere around NZ to raise interest in flying. He was renowned for his low level flying and his aerobatics.

On the sad occasion of his death Dave was giving instruction to young pilot Guy Newton (who went on to become an ace in the Pacific and only died a few weeks ago, aged 100). Guy was told t perform a loop and after completing it he found his instructor was no longer behind him. He landed safely and a search was mounted but Dave had not had time to use his parachute and was killed on impact. This incident sparked an inquiry that concluded that the joystick that Guy was moving had unhooked Dave's seat belt harness, and he'd simply dropped out of the plane due to the loop being a fairly slow manoeuvre. Privately I have been told that Dave actually was known to never actually fly with his harness done up, but who knows. The Court of Inquiry's findings set in place a modification to all Tiger Moth harnesses, supposedly throughout the world, to prevent this happening again.

So i was surprised to find it did indeed happen again! This time in Australia. I found this article in The Press newspaper (Christchurch, New Zealand) dated the 8th of October 1940. I wonder who this pilot was, and what happened to him later in his career.

PUPIL FALLS OUT OF AEROPLANE

MACHINE LANDED BY INSTRUCTOR

DESCENT TO SAFETY BY PARACHUTE

A Royal Australian Air Force officer fell out of his aeroplane while flying upside down near Sydney, but made a safe landing by parachute (writes the Sydney correspondent of ‘‘The Press" ). An instructor who accompanied him landed the machine.

The pilot and the instructor were practising aerobatics. The safety clip on the pilot’s harness pulled loose when the machine was flying upside down after a slow roll. Unaware that his pupil had fallen out, the instructor turned after admonishing him for a bad roll, and discovered the cockpit behind him empty. He straightened up the machine, and looked over the side, to see his pupil floating towards the earth on an open parachute.

"‘That’s my favourite parachute. It s worth its weight in gold, but I hope it’s a long time before I have to use it again.” declared the officer, as he displayed the equipment which saved his life. ‘I certainly had an effective initiation to parachute jumping but I’m still wondering how the thing opened. We were at a height of about 4000 feet. I did a left-hand roll and a right-hand roll, and then the instructor took over. We started a roll. I felt myself slip a bit. but thought the belt would pull me back. I then realised that I was still slipping. I grabbed for anything and everything, but got nothing, and the next thing I remember I was floating in mid-air."

“Just for a few seconds I didn’t know quite what had happened, or where I was, until the aeroplane zoomed around in front of me. The instructor waved, I blew him a kiss, and then I started to think of all I had been taught about parachutes. It was two years since I had had a ground lesson with parachutes, and as we are not given any jumping in our course of instruction, I was suddenly faced I with the problem of applying as quickly as possible, my knowledge."

“I had a good look round at the countryside, and I had a nasty feeling when I found that there was nothing but tall trees everywhere below, I had visions of being suspended from a tree-top. I sighted a small clear patch in the midst of the jungle, and by spilling air out of the parachute. I coupled with a terrible lot of good I luck. I gradually floated down towards the patch. I just sat tight and I waited, waving now and again to my instructor, who cruised round me as I floated down. I landed on my back, but I was able to regain my feet almost immediately. It was a lucky break."

[johnnyfalcon]

Dave, control stick or control column, please.

[Dave Homewood]

?? I thought Tiger Moths have joysticks rather than control columns?

[johnnyfalcon]

Control stick (or column) is not a yoke. Joystick is the same as Jumbo Jet instead of B-747. You will find joysticks on toys and other things with which children play

[errolmartyn]

Oct 25, 2018 17:11:44 GMT 12 johnnyfalcon said:

Dave, control stick or control column, please.

Or as Joe Hammond, our pioneer pilot of pre-WWI and WWI days, used to call it - the Joy Pole!

Errol

[johnnyfalcon]

That's enough innuendo Errol!

[Dave Homewood]

Umm, I had no idea the pedants did not like the word joystick. Everyone seems to call it that, including veteran pilots. I', sure it is actually an accepted term. It certainly has been used by pilots and aircraft builders from the earliest days of aviation.

Wikipedia states:
"The name "joystick" is thought to originate with early 20th century French pilot Robert Esnault-Pelterie.[3] There are also competing claims on behalf of fellow pilots Robert Loraine, James Henry Joyce, and A. E. George. Loraine is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary for using the term "joystick" in his diary in 1909 when he went to Pau to learn to fly at Bleriot's school. George was a pioneer aviator who with his colleague Jobling built and flew a biplane at Newcastle in England in 1910. He is alleged to have invented the "George Stick" which became more popularly known as the joystick. The George and Jobling aircraft control column is in the collection of the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Joysticks were present in early planes, though their mechanical origins are uncertain.[4] The coining of the term "joystick" may actually be credited to Loraine, as his is the earliest known usage of the term, although he most certainly did not invent the device."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joystick

And the Oxford English Dictionary online backs it up that it is a legitimate name, so it is not a media nickname like 'chopper' or 'jumbo jet'.
en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/joystick

[Dave Homewood]

Perhaps you just had an instructor who told you not to say it because it made them uncomfortable?

[planewriting]

The joy of flying... As Dave has evidenced with his Wikipedia quote, there was such a common term as joy stick and certainly in the era of Tiger Moths so full marks to Dave for his contemporary terminology.

[johnnyfalcon]

The first proof of this term was when Loraine noted in his diary in 1910 the use of the "central lever — otherwise the ‘cloche’, or joy-stick..."; others believe that James Henry Joyce coined it earlier as the 'Joyce Stick'; and evidently there were spoken terms, colloquial slang or otherwise, in use prior to WW1. Esnault-Pelterie is recognised as the inventor of this control mechanism we know so well today.

Of course many of the modern terms for aircraft parts are French in origin; fuselage, empennage, aileron, pitot; stabilize(r); pilot; hangar; nacelle...None of these are colloquial or slang expressions. Joy-stick is shrouded in doubt.

My earliest memories include aeroplanes and flying as my father had been flying since he was a teenager and was RNZAF. I never once heard him (or any air force pilot) use the term. It was always control-stick, control-column, or control-yoke (not steering wheel!) For me, so it shall remain. And my harness (not seat-belt) will remain securely fastened!!

[errolmartyn]

Interestingly, the earliest appearance of the term joy stick in the weekly Flight magazine does not occur until 27 Sep 1913, when used there in an article by Noel Pemberton Billing who was qualifying for his RAeC Aviator's Certificate at the time.

Errol

[Dave Homewood]

You seem to be the only person clouded in doubt Johnny. Just because you never heard it does not mean it wasn't said. It was and is common terminology, and dates back to the earliest days of aviation. it was coined by aviators, not the general public or the media. It's legitimate.

[Dave Homewood]

From the STAR, 22 OCTOBER 1920

INVENTION OF THE “JOYSTICK.”

FRENCHMAN’S HUGE CLAIMS.

The ‘‘joystick'” of an aeroplane, the lever which operates all the lateral controls of the machine, has come into prominence lately by the claims of a Frenchman, M. Esnault-Pelterie, that he is the inventor. Yesterday a cablegram from Paris announced that the Court of Cassation had finally found in favour of M, Esnault-Pelterie as the inventor of tho “joystick,” and that this entitled him presumably to enforce his claims on French aeroplane constructors for patent rights, the amount of the claims being variously stated at from 20,000,000 francs (£800,000) to £2,640,000.

The announcement in the cablegram may be of the utmost importance to the French aeroplane industry. M. Esnault-Pelterie has had his case before the French Courts for some time, and had established it in two Courts, besides obtaining authority to attach a sum owing to the aeroplane constructors, by the French Government, amounting to many hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"We shall fight against this," said M. Robert Morane, one of the principal constructors in France. "All the aeroplane constructors of France will close their works if the judgment is upheld.”

In expert circles the question was considered whether M. Esnault-Pelterie could lay claim to the joystick invention in England. It was admitted that he was one of the first, if not the first, to invent that method of control. The prospect of a successful suit in England, however, appears to be remote. The patent law is that if a thing is made public or used publicly before it is protected or patented no patent can be taken out for it.

If M. Esnault-Pelterie, therefore, had not protected his invention in England before it came into use he could have no standing in the courts, even though he had protected it in France. As a matter of fact, French and British law on the subject of patents are said to be very much alike, and it will be interesting to learn the grounds on which the Court of Cassation has found in the inventor’s favour. This Court, which sits at Paris, is the highest tribunal in France, but the Encyclopedia Britannica say's “the Court of Cassation does not give the ultimate decision on a case; it pronounces not on the question of fact, but on the legal principle at issue, or the competence of the Court giving the original decision.” but it can review the decision of any other tribunal except administrative Courts.

The “joystick” itself, which is the cause of the litigation, is used, without exception, in every aeroplane flown. Sometimes it is called the steering lever, but this is hardly correct, inasmuch as steering is effected also by a vertical control operated by the feet in the same way as the steering of a vessel. The "joystick.” which can be moved in any direction, is used for practically every movement of tho aeroplane.

[Dave Homewood]

It seems Esnault-Pelterie even patented the joystick under the name of joystick.

www.leagle.com/decision/193354066f2d4741377

[johnnyfalcon]

Oh I heard it alright. That's what kids called it. All the pilots I flew with as a kid, my father's ex air force buddies included, always called it a control-stick, usually in the context of letting me handle the controls for a bit while airborne. It certainly gave me joy! Perhaps the kids knew better...

Historians disagree about the origin of the phrase joy-stick and when that phrase began to be used, which in itself suggests a colloquial beginning rather than a definitive technical term. The French had also coined the term 'cloche' which describes the shape of the early base of the control mechanism (see above). Some historians argue joy-stick came from innuendo others argue it did not. That is what is shrouded in doubt. Your earlier Wikipedia post verifies that.

The inventor of the mechanism deserved to win the battle of the patent. That is not in doubt.

[oj]

Johnny,

Please let go here.
Dave has done the research.
By the way, in the Airbus and others you refer to, the term is "side-stick control".

[johnnyfalcon]

Wikipedia is research?

Everyone is entitled to a viewpoint - informed or otherwise - me, you, Dave, and history's researchers. And sharing those viewpoints, coloured by personal research, reading, experience etc makes up the tapestry of society.

My viewpoint is a mix of the above. I can read too. And my conclusion, in the absence of definitive documents, agrees with a number of historians: there is doubt over the etymology of the term in a categorical, technical way. To me, joy-stick doesn't fit with the nomenclature of all the other accepted definitive aeronautical terms. Whereas the other accepted ones do. You could say they waggle my wings, wriggle my rudder, tickle my tail-wheel, and er, jiggle my joy-stick...

[Dave Homewood]

Yes you're entitled to your opinion, of course.

But your opinion is not going to stop me from using the term joystick, because I know it as an accepted and commonly used name for the pilot's control column, and that it was and is indeed used by aviators, and is on the actual patent documents for the design of it, a patent proven in court as legitimate.

[Dave Homewood]

Not that it has anything to do with the actual story this thread was started for.

[johnnyfalcon]

LOL! It was a light-hearted throw away comment to get a reaction.