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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0482.PDF
JUNE 14, 1928 PRIVAI FLYING A Section of FLIGHT in the Interests of the Private Owner, Owner-Pilot, and Club Member AN AIR TOUR IN FRANCE MR. A. H. DOWNES-SHAW. Chairman of the Bristol andWessex Aeroplane Club, and Mr. W. L. S. Keith Jopp, a member, made a recent air tour to France in a D.H. " Moth."The former is the pilot owner of D.H. " Moth " G-EBST, which he registered in August last year, after learning to flyat Bristol. They left Bristol on April 5, and reached Croydon, where a delay of 50 minutes occurred whilst thenecessary air travel documents were filled in by Imperial Airways for an inclusive fee of 2i. Qd. Glorious weatherfollowed them on the trip to the coast, a house in Tonbridge was circled, and Lympne came into view after 50 minutes.Over the Channel rolling clouds obscured the water, and the crossing was made at 4,000 ft. by compass guidance, whilsta seemingly prolonged journey led to a fierce argument be- tween the tourists concerning the correct course. Appar-ently the navigator's arguments were justified, for the first break in the clouds revealed Calais on the left. It was not long then before the Route Nationale runningsouth from Calais was picked up. It brought them to St. Ingle- vert, where their first landing on French soil was made.Oddly enough, a comparison in the temperatures of England and France on that day were found to be in favour of the.former. London had reigned under a warm spring day, but a wintry temperature prevailed at St. Inglevert. They had been led to expect no accommodation for thenight nearer than Calais, 12 kms. away, but, on the contrary, they discovered an excellent cafe at St. Inglevert, kept byan Englishman, who made them very welcome for the night. Le Bourget was the next stage, with a landing at Beroqfor re-filling, and there was a tiresome delay at the aerodrome, lunch, petrol and oil each taking an hour to obtain. Throughthat, Dijon could not be reached before darkness descended, so a landing was successfully made in a large field outsideTonnerre. They left the machine in the care of a farmer whilst they explored the town for accommodation. Before starting again the next morning they had been led to expect an OcnwARO JOURNEV — — — RDVRN JOURNEY Our sketch map traces the course flown by Mr. A. H.Downes-Shaw and his companion, Mr. W. L. S. Keith Jopp, through France on a D.H. "Moth" (Cirrus). aerodrome at Avallon, but it was not seen, and the landingwas conseqtiently done in a field for re-filling. To reach the next stage to Chalons, the Cote d'Or had to be crossed,where the ground was not very high, and having soil which was too poor for even the French to cultivate. The SaoneValley was entered, and the calm, warm air, highly cultivated land, flooded river valley and mountain ranges presented animmediate change. Fifty miles to the east the Hautes Alpes were a sheer white range on the horizon, and below thedirection of flight were the well-known French wine towns of Beaune, Chalons anfl Macon. Lyons was the next stop, where the bright blue Rhonejoined the muddy Saone. Till then the weather had been extremely favourable to the tourists, and so had the wind,so that on starting off again they fully hoped to reach Nice by night. But the Rhone Valley became the opposite of theSaone, blowing up a strong head wind with increasing force, leaving the D.H. " Moth " struggling to keep level with' cars on the roads beneath, and letting mere trains shoot ahead and go far out of sight. Rain and mist came, and there were the most horriblebumps. Over Orange the machine was practically brought to a standstill, so, finally, with a real need for relief, theylanded at Avignon and filled up again with petrol. Within half-an-hour they were battling again and trying to reachMarignane, near Marseilles, but once more the strong winds defeated their intentions, and, with the help of darkness,forced them down at the Miramas aerodrome. The machine was left under the lee of the repair pits, and the town wassought for rest. During this visit a Marmon car with Rapson tyres was attempting a 50,000 miles' endurance test, havingalready been running day and night for three weeks, with two drivers sharing twelve-hour shifts. One of the drivers,Mr. R. J. Hopkinson, was very kind to the air tourists. A Costly Forced Landing Heavy pebbles carpeted the centre of the aerodrome, and these were advanced as the reason for the sudden dis- appearance of the tail skid-shoe. With the tank filled up the flight was continued at 9 a.m. towards Nice. The roughest weather was encountered, in which the machine could only crawl round the mountains, and, finally, it was decided to land again in a field which seemed to have a surface of hard grass, but, unfortunately; it proved to be soggy ground sown with corn. The D.H. " Moth " gently tipped over on its nose, and the propeller was neatly finished off. This happened on Easter Sunday, when nobody was at work, so within a short time they were the centre of intense curiosity. It was an anxious task keeping the rest of the machine intact. In a few hours they became a confirmed local attraction. Whole families drove out in cars to see them. A man who appeared to be a farm hand was picked out and despatched for rope to pull the tail down with. Then the wings were folded with the help of the most intelligent of the crowd and arrangements completed for transport to Marig- nane, 60 km. away. One of the tourists went for the lorry whilst the other remained on guard for 2J hours until he returned. The next event was a fierce argument with the owner of the field over compensation for damage ; 500 francs were demanded and refused, so the local gendarme was sent for and he contributed his knowledge of the law, declaring that in the event of a dispute the damage should be judged by two independent assessors. Our tourists invited the disputant to make a selection from the crowd, and an impromptu court was solemnly held. Two farmers and the gendarme gravely inspected the field and fixed the com- pensation at 400 francs, which was paid. It was a long job hitching the tail of the machine on to the lorry and after journeying 3 km. the machine heeled over at a sharp bend, bringing the right wing on a corner of the lorry and breaking a rib. Road troubles were met farther on and as darkness simultaneously set in, the tourists, in the interests of their machine, refused to_allow further progress. 438
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