FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0293.PDF
APRIL 19, 1928 DRIVATE FLYING A Section of FLIGHT in the Interests of the Private Owner, Owner-Pilot, and Club Member ACROSS AFRICA BY LIGHT AEROPLANE An Avro " Avian-Cirrus " Triumph [An Avro "Avian " light aeroplane fitted with the A .D.C. 30/80 h.p. Cirrus " engine has accomplished the first light aeroplane flight from Cape Town to Cairo. This was Lady Heath's record and we give below her own personal account 'of part of her experiences.—ED.] HAVING keft Nairobi (aerodrome at Ngong, 6,200 ft.) whenthe machine took its longest run, nearly 250 yds. to take off, 1 had some difficulty with my heavy overload in rising highenough to get over the Kijabi escarpment, 10,000 ft., and had to work backwards and forwards for nearly half an hourand finally fly a 50 mile detour, follow the railway, and even then only scrape over the escarpment at 20 ft. 'in spite ofthis detour I reached Kisumir (270 miles) before Lt. R. Bentley who had found a favourable current and got overfarther up. I only stopped to fill up there and proceeded at once to Jinja, 200 miles, which has the only aerodrome inUganda. It is small, about 600 yards, and 4,100 ft. high, and mostly up hill into the prevailing wind. Bentley took hisengine out there and I took the opportunity to rectify a cylinder blow by taking off all the cylinder 'heads with "thehelp of a garage lad, and put new gaskets in. I also motored over to Entibbi to stay a couple of days with Sir WilliamGowers, Governor of Uganda, who knows a lot about aviation. I was unable to go on without Bentley as the Sudan hadforbidden women to fly alone there owing to recent outbreaks among the natives who killed a district Commissionerlast December, and had to be bombed into submission in January. An entirely sensible regulation and one I wishcould be followed by the Governments of that part of Tangan- yika and N. Rhodesia where you get 700 miles of continuousforest and swamp, totally depopulated by the ravages of sleeping sickness. Before we could leave Jinja an extrarunaway o,f 120 by 15 yards had to be cut. It has now been made permanent. We left Jinja on March 28, at 6.10 a.m., but had to returnafter an hour's flight as Bentley had trouble. We restarted early on March 29, and had a wonderful trip up the Nile, watching herds of elephants below us and variousother beasts. I found I got on ahead of Lt. Bentley, and after doing numerous circuits (at 3,000 ft. above him) I pushed onalone, following the Nile the whole way, and shooting up the houses of District Commissioners at intervals. At Mongalla thetemperature registered 108° and 112° in the afternoon. Lt. Bentley turned up later. We left next morning, March 30, for Malakal, the worstpart of the trip, over completely wild desert populated mainly by honey-badgers, ants, hornets and hostile natives. We flewin formation, reaching Malakal at 10 a.m. My engine never used more than 0-6 pints per hour of oil throughout and attimes as low as 0-4 pints per hour. I then proceeded alone intending to get through to Khartoum if possible, leaving thesun-baked and cracked aerodrome at noon exactly. That is my last effort at flying at midday in the Sudan. Flying along theNile the bumps were terrific and I was actually physically sick. My thermometer registered 105° F. in the cockpit, 120° in theslipstream and went right off the map when not shielded and held in the sun. Owing to the heat, and, fearing for my engine,I put down at the lovely large aerodrome at Kisti at 2.50 p.m., having covered 700 miles that day with a following wind.Dorys Bentley and I were provided with Arab ponies to go to the house of the District Commissioner, who, an ex-R.A.F.man, was a kindly host. I pushed off alone at 6.30 next morningr March 31, andreached Khartoum in 2| hours for 185 miles, where the R.A.F. gave me a wonderful welcome. The Bentleys arrivedat 10.30, having landed in the desert. They gave us such a wonderful time in Khartoum, where the Air Force looked afterus like a mother, that I hated leaving, but I felt the longer I stayed the harder it would be to go, so I just waited to seeLady Bailey come in. I left Khartoum on April 2, and reached Atbara, 190 miles,in 1\ hrs. An immense aerodrome is there and the kindly people insisted on keeping me for tennis that afternoon.Leaving Atbara the next day, I followed the Nile as far as " Station 10," where, as 1 was unable to locate the aerodrome, THROTTCH AFRICA BY AVRO " AVIAN " (CIRRUS) : These are two snapshots taken during LadyHeath's flight through the African continent. On the left is a view of the market place at Mwanza, SotJgraphed brSt. R. Bentley, who accompanied the Avro "Avian" in his D.H "Moth" with his wife In the group seen at Mwanza Aerodrome are (left to right): Col. Montgomery, Mrs. Montgomery,ms wue. in me Biu v ^^ ^^ ^^ M^ Dorys Bentley 265
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
