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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0235.PDF
FEBRUARY 19TH, 1948 FLIGHT LastxOut NO FOREIGN TRAVEL AFTER OCTOBER ist"was the headline which met my eyes one morningat breakfast. My wife saw it also, and putting down her coffee remarked, " If we are going to make our trip we'd better hurry." Friday, September 26th, was the first date on which we could start, and all the money we had left on our allow-. auces was -£25. A long session with the bank produced three five-pound travel cheques for France, and ten pounds in Swiss currency. Things were beginning to take shape. A Proctor I was hired from Newman Aircraft of Croydon, and the thousand and one forms filled up. (It may be of interest to note that the latest flying maps for the route available are made up from information gathered in 1940 and 1941.) As the date of our departure approached, so the lasting f^ood weather began to disappear, until by Wednesday 24th it really looked as if winter was setting in. Weather reports changed every few hours, and a state of instability was in the atmosphere. Friday morning arrived with low cloud, slight drizzle, and all the other warm front append- ages. Even the weather experts at Dunstable were not optimistic, and as I had developed a full head cold, we decided to put off our departure for a day. Saturday morn- ing was foggy. The telephone rang incessantly, until at ten o'clock we decided to try it and set out for Croydon. Heref met our next setback as the airport was on Q.B.I, and r machine unable to get in from another field. However, it took an hour and a half to fill oatathe necessacjr forms, The author and his wife with the Proctor was made. which the trip 4 Flight to the Continent Before the Final Ban Was Imposed Bv ROLAND GILLET SUNDAY AT THE AIRFIELD : The open-air restaurant at Relp, Switzerland. and since there was a chance of improvement in the weather we could wait. At last, at two o'clock the aircraft arrived, and I took a last check on the weather. Lympne was giving a 2,000-ft ceiling, and five miles visibility, but the other side of the Channel was dead as all the teleprinters had gone on the blink. The ten o'clock actuals were the latest available, and they indicated improvement, so we decided to start. After all we could always come back to Lympne. (Famous Last Words !) Although at one time during the war I had been m command of a squadron equipped with Proctors, it was five years since I had flown one, and as I got into GAHDJ I wondered how much I remembered about them. I didn't have long to wait, for after a final check, and a few minutes warming up, I received a green light from the Tower. I opened the throttle, and in a few seconds we were racing across the green grass of Croydon. 50 m.p.h.—60-70, and we were in the air. Once again I felt that sensation of freedom which only aviators are granted. It is hard to describe, but to me it is what gave the air forces of the world a different mentality from the other services. Memories of Other Days . :*•• •;'/."'•• _.- Turning to the south east we headed across Kent for tin: coast. It was funny to be flying over Southern England again, and my mind went back to 1940 when, with guns in the wings, and much more power in the engine, we roamed those same skies, but with a very different motive. I had climbed to 3,000 ft, but by the time we were over the hills, I was forced to reduce to 2,000. Ahead the sky looked ugly. Low stratus in waves, and every now and again a shower of rain. From now on our method of pro- cedure was rather like going downstairs, as all the time we were having to lose height in-order to get under approach- ing cloud. As we came to Dungeness, the ceiling had dropped to a little less than 1,000 ft and the visibility to two miles. We had a short discussion, and deciding if it dropped to 500 ft we would turn back, we set off across the strip of water which for generations has held back the invaders. Normally I would not have thought of crossing the Channel on one engine at that height, but somehow, with October 1st approaching at a rate of knots, I was spurred on. The altitude of the clouds dropped and dropped. It began to rain hard, and most of the time we were on our self-appointed low limit or just under it. Finally it got very bad, and I had just made up my mind to turn back, when for a second the sky opened up, and right in front of us, I saw Cap Gris Nez.- It was only a flash and then all closed in again. " That was France," I shouted to my
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