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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 2124.PDF
FLIGHT, 14 December 1950 543 Three scenes on arrival at Ratmalana Airport, Colombo: the Sokol; greetings from officials; and the aircraft surrounded by an interested crowd. tank of the Sokol into the wing tanks when it ran dry prematurely. The air lock created gave me my first warning of its presence when the engine faltered and cut out. By the time I had cleared the fuel lines by use of an emergency gravity-feed tank behind the dashboard I was down to little more than a thousand feet and had already decided to "ditch" along the swell. At Maritza Airfield the following day the equinoctial winds had caught up with us again and we were obliged to delay our departure until they veered around to direction of the runway in the early afternoon. There followed a tur- bulent crossing of the island and I was glad to be back in the Aero 45 as we passed out of sight of land. We flew the leg to Cyprus on a course calculated from a rough back- bearing on the coastline and arrived at Nicosia on track two-and-a-half hours later. We contented ourselves with a short flight to Beirut next day in order to make an early start and cross the mountains which separate Lebanon from Syria before the clouds had time to develop to any serious extent. Into the Heat Our plan succeeded and we passed over the mountains, flying high, by nine o'clock the following morning. The desert appeared vast and bleak, with no sign of human habitation, until we reached H.3, a landing-ground on the oil pipeline. From H.3 we flew direct to Baghdad, and as we approached Lake Habbaniya visibility began to de- teriorate in a haze of dust which extended to several thousand feet. At Baghdad Airport we experienced a taste of the heat to come, for as we circled the runway on the downwind leg the sun blazed into the cockpits, turning them into furnaces and completely blinding our view. Our night-stop at Baghdad was made memorable by W/C. and Mrs. Beverley Barnard, who invited us to dinner, in spite of the fact that they had only just returned from Cyprus. W/C. Barnard, who is British Air Attache in Iraq, took considerable interest in our aircraft and went out of his way to afford us some old English hospitality—and not a little Scotch as well. Next morning we were airborne before sunrise, an effort prompted by recollections of earlier flights through the Persian Gulf in the heat of the afternoon. Our refuelling point was Kuwait, where we each consumed two quarts of iced water; the temperature was so high that the leather seats became unbearably hot, despite the canvas covers which we had slung over the cabins immediately after landing. Taxying out, we noticed that the oil temperatures were still in the cruising range and as we lurched and bumped along the sand strip, straining to leave the ground in the calm, oppressive heat, we began to yearn for those winds we had cursed so roundly in the Mediterranean. From Kuwait onwards our heavy loads began to tell on our take-off performance in the intense heat, and we evolved the technique of " staggering " the machines off the ground in the three-point attitude and wallowing along just above the runway until we gained speed. Under these conditions the take-off was accompanied by frightening noises from the undercarriages and, as the aircraft began to reach flying speed, the wheels would bind on the runway as though one had the tail too high. With its tailwheel on the ground the Aero 45 was difficult to keep straight in a cross wind, but the Sokol, with its steerable tailwheel, could confidently be driven down the runway at any speed, like a car. The arrival at Bahrein was followed by speedy manipula- tion of cockpit, engine and pitot-head covers. The tem- perature was even higher than at Kuwait and we could think of little else than iced drinks and air-conditioned rooms. From Bahrein we were faced with the unpleasant alter- natives of battling against head-winds across nearly 300 miles of open sea or of spending four hours following coast- lines wherever possible. Having chosen the latter course, we took off on Saturday, September 23rd, and proceeded to gain height, circling the airfield. The heat was so intense that we were obliged to seek suitable cruising conditions near 10,000 ft. By the time we had reached 2,000 ft the oil temperature of the Sokol had reached the red line and I was able to bring it within the recommended limit only by closing the throttle and gliding down for 300 ft. For half an hour I gained height by stages and finally caught up with the Aero 45, which had been circling overhead. With our oil temperatures back to normal we set off on the long and tedious coast crawl to Sharjah, against a 30 m.p.h. head- wind. Just in Time Our arrival, some four and a half hours later, was greeted with the information that " overdue " action had been taken on our account, an American air/sea rescue Fortress crew at Dahran having been alerted. We were sighted just in time to prevent the search aircraft from setting off. A mild dust storm precluded refuelling until after dark, and we spent our time sitting in the air-conditioned lounge and contemplating our chances of reaching Colombo by the 27th. Following a dawn take-off, we climbed towards a moun- tain range which barred our path with long, finger-like peak shadows that stretched out to beckon us on, to recede quickly as the sun mounted higher in the sky. On the long sea-crossing to the coast of Baluchistan we were heartened by the sight of several tankers steaming out of the Persian Gulf; it made the thought of engine failure seem a little less formidable. At Jiwani we carried out instructions given to us at Sharjah and flew low over the village to indicate to the Shell agent that his services would be required. Jiwani is a ex-R.A.F. airfield, and although the buildings are intact, with such notices as " Visiting Pilots Report Here," our arrival was greeted by the solitary figure of a Baluchis- tani soldier, who proceeded to turn the time-worn tee into the wind—after we had landed—and greeted us in perfect English. The control tower was locked up ar.d everything inside was covered with a thick layer of sand. No food or water was available and we were gratified to
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