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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 0485.PDF
FLIGHT. 9 March 1950 In the heart of the Kenya big-game country : wardens and film men hold a consultation on the helicopter's possible effect on game. HELICOPTER OVER AFRICA . . on to mention his solo continuation. I had (he writes) a compass that had been loaned me, but I soon found that it had a leak and was no good. I had a small pocket com- pass, and that is what took me across Africa. Anyway, to make a longer story short, I finally got to Stanleyville after flying through rain and dust and getting lost several times and having to wait for gas to be sent to me on two occasions. At Stanleyville I loaded up with enough baggage and gas, 58 gallons total, to make a pack-horse groan. I carried it as far as Nia Nia, about 250 miles. From Nia Nia on to Truma- everything was fine except for the engine tacho- meter generator, which I changed there. All the way across the Congo I ran into very bad dust conditions, heat and rain. Only two of the places I stopped at had hangars, and the rest of the time the ship sat out in the rain. When I got to the Uganda border I took the blades and tail boom off and loaded the ship onto a truck. We hauled it all the way across Uganda, because they would not give permission to fly at under 2.500ft. We had no way to carry the blades, so we filled gunny sacks with grass and set the blades with their leading edges on these and lashed them down. Those poor blades suffered! The tail boom was lashed to the top of a car and came through without too much damage. Just the other side of Uganda, I put the ship together again and flew it to Nairobi. On the way I went over an 8,600-ft pass. Outside Nairobi I had to cross a 7,000-ft pass, but the wind was so strong and so rough that I had to wait until next morning. At last I made Nairobi all right. From there we went on safari for three weeks, and the ship behaved beautifully. For the picture, I had to make a landing on a truck ; I got it on O.K. but nearly piled up getting off again. On my way back to Nairobi I had trouble with the same 7,000-ft pass as before, and just about cracked up a couple of times because of down draughts. However, I finally got back to Nairobi again, and now I am all finished. The ship has 98 hours on it and is going to be sent back to the States; as far as I am concerned that helicopter has earned an honourable place in a museum. I have done very little maintenance on the ship through- out. In the first place it hasn't needed it, and, in the second place, about half of my spare parts were lost on the way from Leo to Stan. When I assembled it at Leo it was just as smooth as when I had taken it apart in the States. When I got to Beni the ship had 59 hours. I tracked and balanced the blades there and found they were as close as you could get them. The tail rotor was just off At most of the stops, native curiosity soon overcame Suspicion and fear. The scene here is Bogoro, Belgian Congo, elevation 6,0OOft.
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