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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 2226.PDF
FLIGHT, 21 December 1950 607 ANTARCTIC AUSTERS ... Ltd. An admirable crate designed and produced by the firmhoused one aircraft in a partially assembled state, together with all the spares and accessories in specially constructed cupboards.This box acted as a flight office, hangar and workshops at the expedition base. We had obtained ski equipment from North-west Industries in Canada and from Austers, and at the last moment a float assembly was designed and constructed by thefirm in time to reach us before departure. The expedition ship Norsel arrived in London in the middleof November last year and seemed to have no space whatever left for our equipment. But somehow things were sorted outand we found that the large crate stowed athwartships on the afterdeck fitted with inches to spare into the space assignedto it; our smaller crate was fitted in nearby. The twenty-eight-day passage to Cape Town passed unevent-fully, but the sea-water was finding its way into the small crate and doing a certain amount of damage to the aircraft partssecured to the floor. In Cape Town we realized that we would have to reduce thespace we occupied on board and also have to arrange one air- craft in a manner which would enable it to be flown either fromthe water or the ice at short notice. This meant having to build-up one and expose it to some of the worst weather inthe world. We worked hard on the quayside at Cape Town erecting the aircraft from the small crate and hoisting it onboard to rest on top of the large crate containing the partially assembled aircraft. With its undercarriage removed it wasscrewed down and lashed athwartships, protected somewhat by the boat-deck. Two days after leaving Cape Town the "roaring forties"greeted us with gales and heavy seas. The after-deck which carried the crate was permanendy awash in feet of swirlingwater. Its exit through the scuppers was obstructed by a num- ber of oil barrels, with the result that compression was set upand the floor of the crate began to give way. Thrown from side to side, we worked as best we could inside the crate torepair the damage and reinforce the structure of the crate by means of pit props. The salt water, too, was being literallysplashed around both aircraft. For a time the ship proceeded at slow speed, head-on to the seas, and gradually the weatherimproved. . Rendezvous with an Odour We now heard that our ship would hava to divert to 40 degwest to meet a whale-factory ship, thus adding another 14 days of passage through the " furious fifties." The careful packingand stowage, however, paid good dividends, and by the time we finally reached the ice a fortnight later, no great furtherdamage had been suffered. Up to this time we had anticipated being able to operate aski-plane from die pack-ice for our first reconnaissances, and noon after meeting the more stable conditions of the ice weturned the aircraft round into the fore-and-aft position, tipping it up on one wing to clear the funnel. Then, raising it upon the derrick, we secured the Canadian ski-wheel combination and installed the radio. But the ice this year was going to be difficult. Our firstattempts to make headway to the south were frustrated, and it was not long before we were held up, surrounded by tighdycompacted floes, unable to move in either direction. The surface of these floes was so rough and heavily hummockedthat ski-plane operations were out of the question. In diis unhappy position we remained beset for about a week. It was eventually resolved to try to break out once more intothe open sea, there to fly off the float-plane in the search for another route south. Moving slowly out of the ice again wecarried the float assembly down from where it had been stowed on the roof of the wheelhouse and placed it alongside the aircrafton top of the crate. Thanks to the skill of Sgt. Weston and Cpl. Gilbey, and the general simplicity of the design, we puteverything together in a few hours. The first suitable stretch of open water that appeared wasmade use of With quite unexpected facility I was lowered over the side in VX 127 and was shortly being rowed away from theship. Once cast off from the pulling boat I primed the engine and fired die starter cartridge. Immediately the engine startedand I found myself motoring along at about 10 knots. After five minutes' warming-up I decided that the experiment with thefloat-plane could no longer be postponed (neither F/L. Tudor nor myself had seaplane or ski-plane experience). Opening thethrottle I surged forward in a gathering cloud of spray, and after a series of uncertain movements with the control column foundmyself airborne after less than a minute. I was both surprised and delighted to find diat the aircraft behaved in every way as itshould and with great confidence I set off on the first recon- naissance. All ranks to the assembly of the second aircraft. The with hands greased against the cold, did a fine job of work The V.H.F. and the Marconi radio compass provided, respec-tively, excellent communication and navigation, and all the information that I transmitted to Tudor (acting as controller)was recorded on a tape-recording machine. Alighting was very straightforward and the aircraft, hoisted aboard once more,showed no signs of damage or strain. In the days that followed regular reconnaissances were madein varying conditions of ice and weather. Not always were we able to find good stretches of open water, and on more than oneoccasion both pilot and spectators wondered how long it would be before that submerged lump of ice finally penetrated the floats. On February 10th Tudor flew off in miserable conditions oflow cloud and snow showers and was able to give us the long- awaited news of a possible ice quayside. Later, in improvedweather conditions, he carried the leader of the expedition for closer examination. The site was pronounced fit, the shipwas made fast alongside and unloading began. We now had to transpose VX 127 from floatplane to ski-plane and to build VX 126 up from its partially assembled state in the crate. A mild blizzard prevailed for the two dayswe took for this work. The main components were quite straightforward, but it isnot until an aircraft is put together in a polar climate that one curses the invention and necessity of split-pins, locking wireand all the other oddments that go to make the finished article. The N.C.O.s, their hands greased, worked for astonishingly longperiods without complaint and without the need to seek shelter and warmth; thus, by the time the weather cleared, we had twoserviceable Auster 6 ski-planes parked on the ice "tarmac." During the next week, while the base was being built, weflew some forty hours, sketching and photographing the coast and crevasses, and sighting, 160 miles away, the nearest andonly outcrop of mountain peaks. The members of the wintering party were taken for flights round the area so that they couldhave some idea of the barren wilderness of ice that would enfold them for the next two and a half years. The aircraft remained serviceable all this time, in spite ofthe inevitably rough treatment they had'from the hard ripples, or sastrugi, in the ice surface. Our landing strip lay about 500yards to the south of the ship, and to reach it we had to taxi up a slope of about 1 in 10. Without brakes the descent wassomewhat hazardous and it was essential to have someone on the wing struts. The ski-plane would become airborne with fullload in about 300 yards with a wind of Force 4; with no wind at all the run was very much prolonged. Flying over this shelfice was quite simple when there was little cloud, but in over- cast conditions the cloud merged with the horizon into anindefinite greyness and depth-perception was difficult. On flights over the sea we repeatedly noticed new ice forming—a danger signal that temperatures were getting much lower and that it was time we left. We had done all we could to assistthe wintering party build their home and we had discharged the duties set for the aircraft. With one aircraft re-crated and theother on the fore-deck we set course on February 22nd for South Africa. I think we had been able to prove once again Scott's dictumthat the best equipment is only just good enough for die far South; but we had no complaints, and if required to do a similarjob again would not alter our equipment or technique in any way.
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