FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0678.PDF
vp> FL MAY IST, 1947 CONGO BOUND 5 hr 15 min. and was extremely un- comfortable owing to the, excessive turbulence. A landing was made at the R.A.F. airfield where luckily the runway was dead into wind, and there was no need to use brakes. I spent the whole of that afternoon replacing the brake cable. Having no soldering apparatus to make a nipple to fit on to the brake shoe I had to make do with a knot tied in the end of the wire and fhen squashed flat in a vice. It held firm for the rest of the journey- At Kisumu, Bond left me as he was going on to Nairobi. I was very sorry to see him go as he had been an excellent companion on the trip, and although he had never flown in light aircraft before, he was a will- ing pupil, and as early as Castel Benito, he was flying the aircraft for short intervals while I eased my cramped legs. After an hour's flying the next morn- ing when I was over a particularly desolate looking piece of land just on the south-eastern tip of Lake Victoria the engine gave a loud bang, but continued running although I thought some- what roughly. It was probably my shattered nerves momentarily affecting my hearing, and on arrival at Tabora one of the East African Airways' mechanics had a look at the engine and diagnosed a broken impulse, starter spring. He assured me it wouldn't affect the run- ning of the engine, although when one is flying over thick jungle, miles from anywhere, the thought of anything amiss, however small, is liable to cause a certain amount of worry. Formidable Country Next morning at daybreak I took off for Albertville in the Congo. I was asked to keep a look out for an Auster belonging to a W /C. Langton who had set out from Uvinza (halfway between Albertville and Tabora) the previous day, but hadn't arrived as expected at Tabora. I saw no trace of an aircraft, and Uvinza was covered in low cloud. From here to the edge of Lake Tanganyika there is some truly formidable country; thick jungle and deep ravines amid high ground with no signs of human habitation. Lake Tanganyika is reputed to be full of crocodiles, and I was somewhat relieved to make land on the other side. Albertville has one grass runway, and like every other airfield in the Belgian Congo there is no flying control staff, no landing fee to be paid, usually no wind sock, and some- times no petrol. At least one has somewhere to land! There seemed to be every grade of petrol except 73 and 80 at Albertville, so having enough left in the tanks, I took off for Kabalo after being advised by a kindly old Belgian always to pour the petrol through my hat when refuelling in the Congo! There is just another grass strip at Kabalof but this time I managed to get 73 octane petrol. Here I was also lucky enough to meet a Belgian ex-K.A.F. pilot who had landed in a Proctor engaged on charter work. He gave me valu- able information as to the best route to follow to Leopold- ville. Taking off from Kabalo my engine cut, but quickly picked up again. I think it must have been a little water in the petrol. Next stop was Luluabourg where I stayed the night. I nad believed the Belgian Congo to be one thick mass of jungle; but from Albertville to Luluabourg, although there were patches of jungle, the country had more of the appearance of rolling downland. A forced landing could be put down almost anywhere without damage to the aircraft. Many potential customers showed great interest in the Auster. decided to wait for a later model. Two reluctantly There are two strips at Luluabourg ; one a tar runway four miles from town, and the other a grass strip nearly in the centre of the town. Next morning I followed the river to Port Franqui, and then on to Banningville. I decided to take this route instead of flying straight to Leopoldville as the direct route would have taken me over some pretty wild country. Another reason was that since crossing the Equator my compass had become inaccurate by about 20 degrees on east-westerly headings. I later confirmed this when I swung the compass at Leopoldville. From Port Franqui to Banningville, a matter of 300 miles, there are emergency landing grounds, surprisingly well kept, every 40 kilometres. Banningville consists of a few houses and an airstrip. At the time 1 landed it was of rather soft mud owing to a recent fall of rain. Here I refuelled from the four 4-gallon cans of petrol I had been carrying since Kisumu. I thought at first it had been the metal cans which had been affecting the compass, but after their removal the 20-degree error was still apparent. After a hurried lunch with the local com- missioner I took off on the 160-mile hop to Leopoldville, arriving there at 2 o'clock on February 22nd, having flown 7,033 miles in 13 days, and in a total of 76 flying hours. Reception Hitch On arrival I handed the aircraft over to Major Duncan- Smith, the Auster agent in the Belgian Congo. App ently I had arrived at siesta time, and as the Major had -arranged a reception after siesta for my arrival, he asked if I would mind taking off a little later and arriving all over again in order that the aircraft could be met by the Press. I was asked also to give a small demonstration, which I did much to the displeasure of the local Directeurd'Aviation who, not without some justification, confiscated my licences on landing and grounded me for dangerous flying over an airfield! The Press were particularly annoyed over this little incident as they had all been promised joy rides in the aircraft when it arrived. Consequently when the papers appeared next day the Directeur d'Aviation was subjected to a certain amount of abuse in print. He later apologised and returned my licences! (In next week's " Flight" F/L. Weaver will give somedetails about flying in the Belgian Congo, and a short descrip- tion of a trip in the Auster pom Leopoldville to Benin Cityand Lagos, British Nigeria. He concludes by tabulating the essential information regarding each airfield which he visitedbetween Lympne and his final landing at Leopoldville.)
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
