Frank Murphy is 80 years young, lives at 809 East Arthur street. He has a fishing pal from Marion by the name of German. Mr. German flies a new Aeronica airplane. Old fisherman Frank taught pilot German all the fishin' holes in Pike lake.

Thursday, Mr. German repaid the debt. While in town for a spot of ice-fishing (he flies back and forth between Warsaw and Anderson), Frank and his four-score years were loaded into the airplane at Municipal airport for a ride. Passenger Murphy enjoyed it.

Sidney now has a new private pilot. Veteran Jim Huffer has passed his flight examinations successfully at Municipal airport in spite of bad weather, can now carry passengers.

Anything which makes flying safer is alright with me. Paul Lowman some time ago installed a new stall-warning device in his Ercoupe, recently had them placed on both of his Luscombe airplanes. Yesterday I flew the Ercoupe with the device on, to determine for myself how well it works.

The stall-warning device gets my unqualified vote of approval. It is a simple gadget. A tiny finger protrudes from the leading edge of the wing into the slip-stream. Whenever a wing begins to stall, whether at low-speed or high-speed, this sensitive finger is moved by the changing air currents, makes an electrical contact. At about 4 miles per hour above stalling speed, a red light flashes in the cockpit and a horn starts blowing.

I noticed that in a climbing turn, the device sounded-off with plenty of time to spare to release the control pressure and prevent a full stall. The same thing held true in a fast, tight turn, when a high-speed stall was imminent. Just release the pressure the instant the horn blows and you get no stall.

When landing, it was an interesting check for me, because the horn started blowing just at the time my wheels touched the ground, which is as it should be. A pilot in the dark, or troubled with windy, gusty weather or very busy in a forced landing, might conceivably ignore the "seat of his pants" warning of an impending stall while trying to stretch a glide, making too steep a turn coming into the field---but he cannot ignore this blaring Klaxon sounding-off right in his face.

Naturally enough the stall-warning device is meeting lots of stubborn resistance from the old-time pilots, who resent the implication that they cannot fly with all the natural instincts of a bird. But did you ever see a bird in a tailspin?

The stall-type accident was the greatest killer last year, taking more lives than almost all other types of crashes combined in private flying. This significant fact shines like a beacon: of 3,000 planes now equipped with the stall-warning device, not one has had a stall-type accident. Isn't that worth while?

Typical of the thinking of the old-timers who resist these new improvements, is the statement of one instructor. He says: "A stall-warning device is an insult to the instructors."

It's a shame, but he has only a year or so left in which to practice his profession, for high on the CAA agenda at the present time, is a regulation to require a stall-warning device on every airplane which carries an NC number.

This is as it should be. I, for one, believe that no new airplane should be licensed and no old airplane should be relicensed without this life-saving device.

The stall-warning device is an infallible check against that one careless moment any pilot is apt to have. In this game, you are only allowed one of those careless moments. They can be and should be eliminated with the stall-warning device.

If you haven't flown one, pilots, please do before you express an authoritative opinion. You'll be surprised!

Warsaw Daily Times Friday Jan. 9, 1948