FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0532.PDF
44O FLIGHT April 22nd, Trans Canada with T.C.A.. Customs officer and an American policeman we we have known we were outside Canada. A large nis cunningly modified, is the only passenger handling build- ing, and there is little space for the necessary formalities for those passengers going into town. From a glance at the map it will be seen that long over- water stretches are avoided by the 17C.A. Dakotas by flying along the Radio-Range corridors. A dog-leg is flown on each stage, a slightly uneconomic procedure perhaps, but one giving greater emergency facilities, and convenience for establishing a straightforward Radio-Range network. By the time we had reached Fort William-Port Arthur, known to the crews as Lakehead, we were accustomed to the 2-hour to 2^-hour stages and I found them pleasant and not in the least boring, even though the whole landscape was snow-covered and almost without relief. Snow was falling fast as we landed beside the hill, well defined by red obstruction lights, which rises to 1,oooft from the boundary of the air- field. Only as we landed at Lakehead in daylight on the return journey did 1 appreciate the difficulties of operat- ing into that airfield. In a posi- tion 3.2 miles south-west of the air- field, the Radio-Range is used for homing at a safe height, and from the Range station a descent at 1,000 ft per min is made to 500ft over the air- field. The minima are strictly observed and contact must be possible over the airfield at not less than 1,000ft when landing on the 300-deg runway nearest to the hill. ON the specially drawn map in tht centre are shown the T.C.A.routes over Eastern Canada, and the numerous radio range stations with which aircraft are in constant touch. (Below). Taxying out from the tarmac at Malton Airport, Toronto, fermanent buildings are under construction. We had a bumpy flight through blizzards to Winnipeg straps on, and we climbed up through, the weather to about 12,000ft, collecting a fair amount of ice on the way. We changed over to Central Standard Time after leaving Lake- head at 9.20 p.m., and although the flight took 2 hrs 40 mips we had made up one hour and landed at 11 p.m. local time, with the temperature at 24 deg. below zero. Twenty minutes later the Dakota took off without us on the next stage west to Vancouver through those attractively named airports Regina, Swift Current, Medicine Hat and Leth- bridge, to arrive at 5.55 a.m. the next day. We had flown halfway across Canada, more than twelve hundred miles in 8J hours in easy stages, and we were not tired. The T.C.A. Dakotas are pleasingly furnished and decorated, and the silencing is particularly effective; the service in the air was excellent, the food was good and we were not periodically embarrassed by an equally embar- rassed captain trying to make interesting conversation about his own routine occupation—a practice of doubtful worth on British airlines. If the captain likes doing it—|
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
