FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1139.PDF
FLIGHT, 19 August 1955 253 HELICOPTER SURVEY For an African Forest Railway: - A Pilofs Impressions ; 7 . By LEONARD THORNHILL, A.R.Ae.S. IN the Belgian Congo, for some four years, Sabena operatedthree helicopters for the Service de I'Hygiene of the CongeGovernment. Then, owing to an expansion of the work programme, the original S-51s were replaced at the beginningof this year by three S-55s, which, in addition to their normal duties, have been made available for charter. One of these recent charters was for a mining company inFrench Equatorial Africa, a combination of French interests and United States Steel Corporation, and called "Comilog." Theproblem facing this company is to link their manganese mine at Moanda, near Franceville, with about 200 miles of railroadto join the Pointe Noire to Brazzaville line at Dolisie. Most of the country through which the projected line is torun is covered in dense forest—the Gabon—and the survey work was far from easy. One of the problems was that for the last60 miles the forest was so undulating and threaded with small valleys and rivers, that two alternatives were open: To continuewith the railway following a few savannahs, a little to the west of the direct route, or to construct a cableway across the forestconnecting with a railhead near a place called Mayoko. The survey had, after almost two years of work, reached astage where a comprehensive evaluation and inspection of the proposed route was essential not only for the surveyors but alsofor would-be contractors, to enable them to form a more accurate appreciation of the difficulties with which they were likely tobe faced. Obviously, the only way to do this was by helicopter. There-fore, early one Sunday morning I set out from Leopoldville across the wide Congo River, in an S-55 registered OO-CWE to pickup passengers (amongst whom was a senior executive of the United States Steel Corporation) at Brazzaville, and from therefly them 190 miles westward to Dolisie, where there is a good airstrip from which Air France operates a regular service. Withme was my engineer, M. Van de Zavel. Our complement of six passengers and baggage onward fromDolisie did not allow my engineer to ride along with us, as we were already at maximum load. Arrangements were made forhim to go up by road in a station wagon, to Mayoko, almost due The clearing, in trees and 1ft elephant grass, near M. L'Avoine's house at Mayoko. The further clearance at one corner can be seen. The S-55 takes off with the author at the controls. north. Although the distance direct was only 132 miles, it wasnot until 24 hours later that he rejoined me, somewhat tired and dusty. Meanwhile, with Mr. George Clemens, Comilog's Americanconsulting engineer, beside me in the co-pilot's seat, we followed at treetop height the route of the proposed railway. The first50 miles was across the big Niari plain or "Plaine de Dihesse" where large herds of buffalo, frightened by the noise of thehelicopter, ran blindly in the tall grass. It was a magnificent grandstand view of swiftly flowing rivers,waterfalls—their cascading spray almost hidden by the trees— elephants scrambling up from the banks, and native villageswhose inhabitants rushed out, puzzled by the strange napping "bird" above them. Comilog's survey maps were accurately followed by my "naviga-tor" and in due course we arrived at Mossendjo, about 50 miles south of Mayoko. Here we landed to take in fuel which hadpreviously been sent up by truck. Within a few minutes of landing on this strip, the S-55 was surrounded by hundreds ofcurious natives. Refuelled, we continued, following the road to Mayoko. Unless we were flying directly over the road andtracing every twist and turn, it would completely disappear from sight, so thick were the trees. Mayoko, about 2,300ft a.m.s.l., consists of a half-dozen housesbuilt on a small hill by an enterprising Frenchman, M. Toto L'Avoine, who for some years past has been mining gold nearby.Near his house he had cleared a small square of ground, and on this we landed. The patch was surrounded by 7ft-high elephantgrass and tall trees. Having been shown our rooms, we met on the terrace ofM. L'Avoine's house for a very welcome drink. The view was awe-inspiring; in all directions, as far as the eye could see, anunbroken carpet of trees stretched away into the distance, merging into the horizon with the gathering evening mists. The next morning, with the aid of a small caterpillar bulldozer,we enlarged the strip, cutting numbers of trees from one of the corners. Humidity, high temperature, altitude and "no-wind"conditions, plus the impossibility of making a true "running take-off" compelled us to restrict our all-up weight to about6,850 lb when we left that afternoon to cross the last 60 miles of trackless forest to the mine. Flying as accurate a compass course as possible, we wererewarded by sighting two emergency landing clearings, which had been made by the ground survey party. After 50 minutesof flying, we arrived at Moanda, which is identifiable by a unique rock landmark, visible for some distance. The mine, situatedon the summit of a range of grass-covered hills, possesses an excellent gravel airstrip for its air link with Brazzaville—and alot of dust. To our delight, mosquito nets were provided at the rest-house,but we were somewhat disconcerted to learn that they were for protection against large biting spiders, which made their appear-ance later in the evening. This is typical lion country, and we were shown a fire extinguisher nozzle full of small holes, allegedto have been made by a hungry lion in the night! During the next few days, we made five trips across to Mayokoand back. On all of these trips my engineer accompanied me because, had any mechanical trouble developed, it would havetaken about four days to send a message round by road and then another four days for him to reach us. On several occasions we landed in the forest 40 km from themine to pick up and set down members of the ground survey party on their prepared strip. Some photographic work was donewith a Fairchild camera fitted in the floor of the 55, and alterna-
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
