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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0225.PDF
FLIGHT, 20 February 1953 223 RECORD-FLIGHT DIARY F/L. Whittington''s Own Story of the Canberra Trip to Australia NATIONAL anxiety over the disastrous floods has kept most peoples' minds preoccupied—with the result that the remarkable flight from England to Australia by F/Ls. L. M. "Dick" Whitting-ton and j. A. Brown in a Canberra P.R.3 passed from the news paper headlines and our thoughts, their achievement receiving less recognition than would normally have been the case. We have recently received a most interesting diary-letter of this momentous flight of 22 hours 21.8 seconds, written from Woomera by the pilot, F/L. Whittington. His description is reproduced as received: its telegraphic style is best left unadorned. To avoid confus'on, it should be pointed out that both take-off and arrival times are quoted at the beginning of the account of each stage. AS you may imagine, we have been kept on the trot with the fullest possible hospitality, both at Darwin and here. LI will try to give you a precis of our trip, which was really quite fun—and reasonably uneventful, thank goodness. We had a very well-organized met. briefing, thanks to Mr. Meade and his staff. A good trip forecast for Fayid. Quick word with London Approach Controller, who gave permission to climb on track. Midnight Comet to Singapore cancelled, so no help from them; that was organized with B.O.A.C.—Capt. Majendie and ops. officer, Mr. Noel Dayies. Slightly delayed at T.O., but only 5 min late. Official time (Mr. Dismore), T.O. 083544. Landed Fayid 1305 (4.30 hr). Climbed to cruising altitude (42) and pressed on at average G/S of 440 kt (506 m.p.h.). No V.H.F. aid en route—my intercom packed up (suspected microphone); had to get Tony to do R/T, and make frantic signs and write notes —most infuriating. Radio compass O.K., but A.P.I, packed up. Fuel consumption confirmed our previous tests. Cloud 8/8ths underneath until Switzerland—wonderful view of mountains and lakes. Made good landfall Egypt—and let down fairly rapidly to Fayid circuit. Also, on this leg my flight instruments failed ! No inter com, but before I could make Tony understand what was up they came on again ! No further trouble afterwards. Crowds of people—the whole station behind ropes to meet us; four bowsers— the full treatment, in fact. Nice meal and briefing nearby. Dis covered faulty plug on seat blue lead—no more intercom trouble. Brief for a good tail wind (over 100 kt). G/C. D. Finlay, C.B.E., CO. of Fayid, kept us up to scratch on schedule with refuelling —seemed to grudge me time to say goodbye ! Take-off 1358—up to 40,000, av. G/S 528 kt (609 m.p.h.) A/B time 3.45. Port flowmeter packed up at 1620. No reliable aids to nav (night effect?). Flew D.R. until beacon was picked up from Karachi. One or two QDMs, and descent—left rather late due to relative uncertainty of distance to go. Timed overhead 1729 hr by A.T.C., S/L. Barwood (friend of mine from Thorney days i) acting for R.Ae.C. Took 13 min getting de-misted prior to land ing. The full treatment again—met by S.A.S.O. and the CO., W/C J. D. Kirwan, D.F.C. after "stink bomb"* in cockpit. Quick do with health people, wash, etc., wonderful meal again—in a specially prepared room just near the aircraft. Shell refuelling— aircraft still O.K., ready in 18 min. We weren't! Critical Leg Rather important met. briefing for very critical leg. Winds forecast nil at first, moderate, then lull, then head winds up to 10-15 from Andaman Is. to Singapore. Realized good chance of having to use Butterworth—but not unduly worried. Prepared to compute fuel on one flowmeter and tank readings, but relying mainly on our graph. A/B at 1845—aircraft fogged with conden sation and dripping wet inside. Landed Changi 0125 28th—A/B time 6.40 (!) We realized this leg was the crux of the thing—if we could make Changi and have a short daylight leg to Darwin we'd be better off than going from Butterworth. The advantage was as much psychological as anything else. We flew strictly for range —determined to get every inch we could from a pint of fuel! Our height after constant—Mach cruise was higher than usual— not far from the aircraft's ceiling. The head winds were not supposed to increase with height. However, temperature became extremely low (forecast was — 70, actual was — 87!) and this reduced our T.A.S. by 15 kt or so. After some discussion—we decided to remain high—the increase in fuel consumpton being greater than the effect of loss of T.A.S. This proved to be a correct decision. We ended up with a fantastic a.m.p.g.—which was just as well. Log reads:—"Radio compass no good (static) until 2020. V.H.F. useless 2000. Temperature —67. T.A.S. 414kt. 2020 radio compass on Magpur—Small natter V.H.F. with them (strength 2, 180 n.m. *Some countries insist upon fumigation of aircraft interior\upon arrival. Crown copyright F/L Whittington at Changi, Singapore, with the station commander, A. Cdre. E. C. Bates. From here the Canberra took off on the last leg, to Darwin. away). 2038, crossed coast India. Severe upper air turbulence. 2110, Nicobar called on V.H.F.—unable to receive them (i to 1). 2145, T.A.S. 394. Very severe turbulence. 2200, Butterworth beacon on radio compass. 2240, near ceiling, —87. T.A.S. 387 kt. Seletar on radio compass. 2320, in cirro-strat, very high. 2340, dawn breaking—called Butterworth V.H.F., told them (after dis cussion on fuel, etc.) had decided to press on to Changi. V.H.F. and R.C bearings O.K. 0042, Singapore homer contacted. Gradual descent to try to prevent misting. 0120, Singapore. Straight-in approach to Changi, misting on finals, but got in O.K. Fuel computed to a nicety—very accurate forecast of what we should have—not a great deal actually, but just safe ! A few anxious chaps at Changi ! Arrived at Changi we were met by the CO.—now A. Cdre. E. C. Bates, C.B.E., A.F.C, and, of course, all the chums— including Doc. Roper. We had the full Press treatment—photos, small talk on wire recorder for broadcast—then off to wash and eat. Again a fine meal (breakfast), eggs and bacon—the lot! In every case we were briefed while eating. We were also greeted by A.V-M. Ackerman, S.O.A., F.E.A.F., on behalf of the C. in C, who was away on conference. By the time we had finished the boys had been ready for some time—they took 13 min to refuel! —No excuses for Boscombe hold-ups now ! They had pushed the aircraft round, so that I took off on reciprocal facing S., straight on to course. T.O. was at 0216 (Z). Landed Darwin 0644—4.30 hr. Stayed low (40) to avoid head winds, which were moderate. Met. was quite accurate; the intertropical front was well north of Darwin—we had got that information at London; we could hardly recognize it—very weak. A few isolated "boilers" had to be avoided, but in general it was a most pleasant flight—we could map-read the whole way. Av, G7S, 408 kt (470 m.p.h.). Crossed equator at 0250—no ceremony possible! Timed over Darwin 063743. Estimated average speed—using distance flown as 8,221 n.m.—(a) Elapsed time 375 kt (430), (b) Flying time 19I hrs=4i7 kt (480). They are our own figures ! We had another "stink bomb" to greet us at Darwin, but we were feeling so relieved, and a little bewildered, that we couldn't have cared less. Quick customs, etc.—full Press treatment again, B.B.C microphone; nausea! Met by W/C Cooper, D.F.C. (R.A.A.F.), the CO. A beer or two and steak meal. Couldn't sleep very well-^-I suppose we were too tired. They gave us the V.I.P. quarters for that night. Next morning we were asked to beat up the field at Darwin before leaving; did so, but the cockpit temperature was 140 deg— we were nearly sick ! Welcomed here after 2 J hr flight by W/C. Robertson (O.C flying) and S L. Tuck—a very hospitable crowd. Were pleased to receive a signal from Secretary of State for Air and Air Marshal Sir John Boothman. Give my thanks to all concerned including ground crews, who coped very well. Very hot indeed here—but dry, thank goodness.
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