ms pieDmonim
VOL. VII, NO. 7
APACE WITH THE PACEMAKER
OCTOBER, 1964
ATL-CLT Link Is Proposed
Britf Presents Written Statement
To House Sub-Committee
At the present time there is
an airplane that leaves Washing
ton at 1:15 p.m. and arrives in
Charlottesville at 1:30; another
plane leaves Washington at 8:00
p.m. and arrives in Richmond
at 7:41; still another leaves DCA
at 1:25 p.m. and arrives at SHD
at 1:14 p.m. These flights are il
lustrative of the confusion and
inconsistencies which accompa
ny the varying cut-on and cut
off dates of DayUght Savings
Time. Piedmont Airlines, along
with the other scheduled air
lines, has been supporting legis
lation which would in some
measure eliminate much of the
confusion which results from
various states and communities
adopting their own systems for
Daylight Time.
Other industries and interests
in the United States have also
been concerned with the need
for establishing some conformity
with regard to time observance.
As a result, a House sub-com
mittee has been studying va
rious proposals with the pur
pose of effecting federal legisla
tion to alleviate the situation.
Don Britt, assistant to Pied
mont’s president, presented a
statement to the sub-committee
urging that legislation be en
acted to establish uniform cut-
on and cut-off dates for Day
light Saving Time in the inter
ests of eliminating confusion to
passengers and of reducing cost
to the airline industries. He em
phasized that the need to revise
schedules each time one area
switches to or from Daylight
time costs Piedmont and other
airlines a substantial amount of
money. Uniform cut-on and cut
off dates would make two re
visions in the schedule each year
sufficient.
Britt specified in his statement
that Piedmont Airlines is not
particularly concerned with
whether or not Daylight Time is
used nor with which areas use
it. Rather, the Company is main
ly interested in seeing that all
areas that do intend to switch
to Daylight Time do so on the
same date.
At the present time, it ap-
pears that no legislation will
be enacted along lines of time
uniformity before the current
session of Congress adjourns.
However, those who have been
watching the progress of the uni
form time issue at the federal
level are convinced that prog
ress has been ^,Lude in terms of
public and congressional interest
in the matter and that gradually
a reasonable amount of order
might come out of the sub-com
mittee hearings.
The fate of the mails has yet to be decided. Overnight mail service
from eastern cities may be offered by Piedmont provided the CAB rules
favorably on the proposed exemption.
Rieger Makes His Own 'Luck'
. _1 — ^0\ O-rCi T»Q3l
By JACK KESTNBR
Ledger-Star, Norfolk
Reprinted by Permission
The little girl tugging at her
mother’s hand stopped as she
was about to board a plane at
Norfolk Municipal Airport.
Pointing at the pilot who was
peering up at the underside of
a wing, she looked at her mother
and said:
“Mummy, did he forget where
he left his chewing gum when
he got off?”
Not many of the child’s fellow
passengers shared her naivete,
Angela Smith, daughter of Bernard Smith, INT-M, is shown receiving
instruction from Mrs. Lucy Thompson, occupational therapist, at the
Forsyth County Children's Center. See United Fund story, p. 3.
but on the other hand, probably
none knew exactly what the pi
lot was doing.
“It’s just a walk-around
check,” said Capt. Donald H. Rie
ger as he swung his leather
flight bag out to the Martin 404
waiting at Gate 6 for Piedmont
Airline Flight 637 to Cincinnati.
“There’ve been service trucks
out here — ground support
equipment such as fuel, baggage,
and so on. They could have
brushed against a surface and
caused some damage without
knowing it.”
Rieger put down his bag at
the foot of the 404’s tail ladder
while co-pilot Sherman Hart
climbed aboard for the cockpit
pre-flight check.
“There’re other things, of
course,” Rieger added, walking
over to the landing gear. “See
these? (He fingered aluminum
rods protruding from the wheel’s
disc brakes.) “They’*re called
‘pucks’ and they indicate wear.
If these were a quarter-inch in
I’d have to ground the plane
But before they get that far, a
mechanic would catch it. I check
it anyway.
“Look at the tires—good tread,
huh? But what I’m looking for
are cuts and flat places.”
He moved to the wings.
“Flap doors? Okay. Radiator
grills? In winter, heavy oil as
we use, they sometimes crack.
Okay. Cowl flap seams? Not
much chance of anything here
unless the engine’s been worked
on. Okay. Blade switch (on the
big R-2800 Pratt-Whitney en
gine?) Okay. These are real
good powerplants — with water
methanol injection, we get an ex
tra 400 horsepower on take-off.”
Rieger bent over the nose
wheel.
“Knuckles? Okay. Anything
goes wrong here and it could be
a $15,000 repair bill. It happened
to one pilot I know. Today the
nose wheel is the first thing he
checks. I suppose all pilots have
their whims about a walk-around
check. Know another pilot who
lost cowling twice and today
that’s the first thing he looks at.
“But the longer you fly' the
more your main concern is with
‘killer items.’ At least that’s
what I call ’em. I mean, things
that can lose an airplane. Like
the spring tabs here.”
He nodded up at an inboard
section of the wing where a
small flap-like rectangle was
locked upward by two arms.
“Without that, you could get
an extra 200 pounds of pressure.
About all you can apply on the
controls is 150 pounds. Could
be a bit uncomfortable.”
Rieger flicked his eyes around
the undersurface, shrugged al
most imperceptibly and said:
“That’s about the size of it.
Of course, for an overnight stop
we’d have a much more thorough
check — engines, electrical sys
tems, hydraulics, written com
plaints by the pilot who had just
flown it, and so on. They’d be
checked by mechanics like (M
R.) Sink, who’ve been with Pied
mont for years.”
Rieger picked up his flight
CAB action on a recent pro
posal for an early morning flight
out of Atlanta is expected in the
near future.
The application for an exemp
tion to operate between Atlanta
and Charlotte was made at the
instigation of U. S. postal offi
cials in Washington, as well as
postal officials and business in
terests in Greensboro and Win
ston-Salem. The proposed flight
would leave Atlanta at around
4:00 a.m. and stop in Charlotte,
Greensboro-High Point-Winston-
Salem, Roanoke, Lynchburg,
Richmond and Washington.
Since Piedmont is already au
thorized to fly between all the
above points except Atlanta and
Charlotte, the proposal is de
pendent only on CAB approval
of the ATL-CLT leg of the trip.
Postal officials and business
interests in Charlotte and
Greensboro believe that the now
inadequate airmail service _ to
those areas would be greatly im
proved by Piedmont’s proposal.
Mail from most major cities east
of the Mississippi arrives in At
lanta between 12:30 and 3:30 a.m.
The early morning flight would
thus provide overnight service
from each of these cities. The
details of the schedule have been
worked out with top officials in
the Air Transportation Section
of the U. S. Post Office Depart
ment. In addition to handling
an estimated 800 pounds of air
mail per station for Greensboro
arid Charlotte, the flight would
also carry passengers and cargo.
The main opposition to the
proposal has come from the
Greensboro-High Point Airport
Authority on the grounds that
the early morning flight “will
not be of any real significant
value.” Gordon Brown, vice-
president of Piedmont Airlines
said, “It certainly seems strange”
that the airport authority has
objected. “The proposal seems
clearly to be in the interests of
their citizens and industries.”
Deepest sympathy is ex
tended to the family and
friends of Erwin Kiri, Louis
ville, Ky., who died Septem
ber 7.
Mr. Kirk came to Piedmont
Airlines as an inspector in
1949 and in 1952 was pro
moted to Chief Mechanic at
SDF, the position he held at
the time of his death. He was
63 years old.
bag and walked lightly up the
ladder.
It was hard to believe that he
was 44, the father' of three chil
dren, and had been flying for 29
years — ever since at the age of
15 in Youngstown, Ohio, he had
swept out a cow-pasture hangar
in exchange for flying lessons
in an E-2 Club.
Later this month he will ad
dress the Radio-Technical Com
mission on Aeronautics, meeting
in Washington, on the subject of
radio, navigational and approval
aids. Since Piedmont is recog
nized as having as good radio
equipment as exists on U. S.
commercial airlines (plus an en
viable safety record) the speech
follows one he gave in Athens,
(Continued on Page Six)