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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0843.PDF
SEPTEMBER 13, 1928 D RIVA FLYING A Section of FLIGHT in the Interests of the Private Owner, Owner-Pilot, and Club Member PRIVATE OWNER'S "ARABIAN NIGHT AFTER only eight hours' experience of solo flying, Lieut- Commander H. C. MacDonald, D.S.C., R.N., decided to under- take a solo air tour covering France, Italy, Egypt, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria. In his own D.H. " Moth" he started from, Stag Lane aerodrome and soon ran into thick fog south of London, but in spite of that preliminary disad- vantage, Paris was reached that night, and the Commander stayed there a day or two. On resuming, he went to Dijon and then Marseilles the following day, where he met Dr. Clavell of Basel, and Mr. Koepke, Director of the Societe Aviatik Beider Basel, of Basle-Birsfelden, who were flying to Naples in the former's light aeroplane. In company, the two machines flew on to Pisa and eventually reached Naples in very bad weather the day after. Commander MacDonald then left for Catania, Sicily, and eventually reached Benghazi by way of Malta and Tripoli. Authorities at Benghazi attempted to detain him owing to the unfavourable weather, but in spite of that he flew on to Aboukir in a 50-m.p.h. side wind, which took 9 hours. Cairo was the next stage, where he met Lieut. Bentley, A.F.C., then engaged in his flight from Cape Town to London. When at Amman later, terrific bumps were encountered in the neighbourhood of the mountains round Jerusalem. A night was spent at Rutbah Wells, and during that night a car collided with the back of the D.H. " Moth," which was left in the open, effecting damage to the starboard elevator. This misfortune involved a 300-miles trek over the desert by car to Baghdad for elevator repairs at the R.A.F. depot. He returned to Rutbah Wells and succeeded in assembling his elevator with the help of an Imperial Airways mechanic. When he eventually left for Baghdad, bad storms prevailed, which forced a return to Rutbah Wells, where, on landing, the tail skid shoe was broken owing to the huge stones scattered all over. The next attempt to reach Baghdad was successful. As the machine had been left in the sun in a temperature of over 150 deg. for nearly a week. Commander MacDonald consi- dered it advisable to have it looked over. At the same time a top overhaul of the engine was completed efficiently and good-naturedly by the Imperial Airways staff at Baghdad. In the meanwhile he wired to India for weather reports and learned that the monsoons would begin before he could reach there, thus making it inadvisable to try for Burma. He therefore proposed to return via Turkey. When resuming from Baghdad sand storms compelled a forced landing at Deir et Zor on the Euphrates. At Aleppo there was the necessity of getting permission to fly over Turkey, and whilst waiting for this he decided to return via Cairo. Accordingly, he left Aleppo, but had another forced landing owing to bad storms at Latakia, a night being spent there, followed then by the stage to Aboukir. A ten days' delay next ensued for the purpose of getting permission to fly over Tripoli. When he started again, engine trouble developed over the Bay of Sollum. Within gliding distance was the seashore, dotted, however, with little hills and boulders. There was, however, no alternative but to essay a landing, which was effected after clearing a low sea-wall. As the Commander was subsequently working on the engine, Arabs appeared over the hill, and he saluted them, Italian fashion, which resulted in a friendly attitude. They crowded round the machine with great curiosity, and even helped to change a tyre. Even a kick by the Commander on one of them, provoked by mishandling the tyre, was taken in a philosophical spirit. The favourable moment was then seized to write a message to the nearest Italian outpost, and this was, surprisingly, taken. The Arabic spectators waited to witness the take-off Jand Commander MacDonald decided on strategy. He let them believe he was going to crash as a spectacle. This amused them greatly, and roused their expectations, but, unfortu- nately, the Commander had unintentionally forecasted the truth, instead of fiction, for he hit a large boulder and crashed heavily, though, happily, without hurting himself. The Arabs were naturally gratified, and responded by providing a horse and escorting him to their camp. Then the situation became threatening, for the "prisoner" was placed in the centre of a ring, and a council of war followed. Hospitality was not altogether forsaken, however, for some execrable tea was provided, although he added an antidote for fear of poisons. 0 SOO 400 600 800 Tr,IDn, , KILOMETRES IKIHULI PRIVATE OWNER'S SOLO EFFORT : Our map traces the adventurous route followed by Lieut.-Commander MacDonald, on his own D.H. "Moth," which he essayed after only eight hours' solo flying. 779
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