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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0404.PDF
After 12 hours airborne: a beach-stroll on West Island, Cocos Keeling) Group. A-roving by Hastings THE THI RTY - THOUSAND-MILE MISSION OF W J 3 3 0 By H. F. KING, M.B.E. Hastings WJ330. .OREA is a country of many distinctions, not the least being that it is an uncommonly fine place to leave—if one can do so with an easy conscience. The means of our own recent exit, after some experiences which we hope to recount in future issues, was a Dakota of No. 30 Transport Unit, R.A.A.F., which delivered us with admirable despatch to Iwakuni, Japan. At this teeming American air base live two Good Samaritans, in the persons of F/L. W. G. Bishop (Officer Commanding Royal Air Force) and F/O. J. A. H. Sorrell, the equipment and air move ments officer. For their counsel and aid in procuring further trans portation we—writer and photographer—sent up an immediate and urgent bleat, the outcome of which was a promise to intercede on our behalf with W/C. C. S. G. Stanbury, D.S.O., D.F.C., captain of a homeward-bound Hastings of the Royal Air Force Flying College, Manby. We went aboard next morning with movement orders for Kai Tak (Hong Kong). Thenceforth we had expected to take passage in a courier Valetta, bound for Singapore via Clark Field, in the Philippines; but faced with some delay and with the uncertainty of a trunk-route connec tion at Changi, we needed no second invitation from W/C. Stan- bury to follow the fortunes of Hastings WJ330 for the remainder of the trip—by way of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Mauritius, Entebbe and Idris (North Africa). The tale which hangs thereby is prefaced with a brief account of the Manby-Iwakuni flight given us by the wing commander when (in the current idiom of the trip) we were able to "latch-on" to a beer at Mauritius. Though the officially specified object of the mission was a study of the Korean air war, the round trip of 30,000 miles afforded a per fect opportunity for the students aboard to broaden their flying experience. Their names will leave no doubt that this was already extensive—W/C. R. W. Cox, D.S.O., D.F.C., A.F.C.; W/C. K. H. Mackie, O.B.E., D.F.C.; W/C. S. B. Grant, D.F.C.; Lt. Col. W. H. Brown, U.S.A.F.; S/L. J. H. Dempster, A.F.C., R.C.A.F.; and S/L. D. Bower, M.B.E. W/C. Stanbury was not only captain of the aircraft but leader of the "syndicate," or study-group. His crew were : F/L. A. G. Brown, D.F.C., A.F.C. (assistant to captain), F/L. H. T. M. Williams (navigator), F/L. R. M. Hamilton (signaller), F/Sgt. Woods (flight engineer), and, as ground crew, Chief Technicians Campbell and Tipper and Senior Technician Millard. The Hastings C. Mk 2, with only 7i hr flying behind her since being drawn from an M.U., was standard in all respects except that the starboard toilet had been made over as a wardrobe. This was a convenience in more than one sense, for it greatly facilitated quick-changing from blues to K.D.s, to winter clothing and back again—with a few mufti sorties thrown in. And so that off-duty crew members and pupils could "get their heads down" (or, as Col. Brown might express it, "get in some sack time"), a bank of four stretchers was installed aft. The tankage of 3,172 gallons was reckoned to give a range, to dry tanks, of 3,100 miles, when flying for range rather than endurance; and this was a conservative figure, for we covered the Cocos-Mauritius leg of 2,670 miles with 700 gallons remaining. Throughout the flight a "range" technique was used rather than the constant-power or constant-speed formula; but to avoid com plicating the navigator's work unduly by the recommended method of reducing speed by one knot for every 2,000 lb of fuel used, the first six hours of each leg were flown at 165 kt, the second six hours at 160 kt, and the remainder at 155 kt.
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