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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1147.PDF
FLIGHT, 24 August 1956 293 NORTHERN ROUTE —From Vancouver to Amsterdam: Impressions of Canadian Pacific Air Lines' Over-the-top Service BY KENNETH OWEN 'WENTY-FOUR hours in Vancouver is too short a time This was my main reflection as Canadian Pacific's DC-6B Empress of Toronto taxied out from Gate 6 and across the apron. Ahead of us was the novel prospect of a polar-route flight to Europe, while behind me was a honeymoon couple and the memory of a day-short glimpse of Canada's sparkling west coast. I had arrived in Vancouver the previous morning by T.C.A. Viscount from Edmonton, which may not have been the most picturesque way to cross the Rockies, but was certainly the fastest and most comfortable. Much of that day I had spent at the airport, soon absorbing its unique atmosphere of expanding and varied activity. I had watched DC-3s, Cansos and Convairs leaving for places with names such as Kitimat, Uranium City, Yellowknife and Flin Flon; and I had sensed the airport's inter- national significance as a real cross-roads of Commonwealth aviation. Of the various operators and associated companies which jostle each other for space on Vancouver's airport, Canadian Pacific Air Lines are the largest. The airline's headquarters and main base are here, occupying some 300,000 sq ft. Prior to the introduction of the Vancouver-Amsterdam service, GP.A.L.'s trans-Pacific route from Sydney via Auckland, Fiji and Hawaii was well established, and part of the popularity of the northern route has been due to the fact that it completes a fast and con- venient network linking Australia, New Zealand and Canada with Europe and the United Kingdom. A much publicized if dubious distinction for passengers on this route is their ability to cross the Equator, the International Date Line and the Arctic Circle on one and the same service, and within four days. The com- pany's other main inter-continental service, intersecting this route at Vancouver, is from Hong Kong and Tokyo to Mexico City, Lima and Buenos Aires. My first contact with the direct planning of our flight from Vancouver to Amsterdam was at 11.30 on the morning of the flight, two hours before take-off, when I joined the crew for their detailed met. briefing. The assembling of weather information for the flight had begun much earlier, however—at about 2 a.m. —when special upper-air charts had been prepared in the air- port's met. section. The C.P.A.L. flight dispatcher had checked with met. a few hours .'ater, and had prepared provisional rout- ings in the form of a pre-plan; using the forecast wind-com- ponents at various altitudes he had calculated times and fuel consumptions at various engine powers. From the pre-plan, the captain had obtained a general picture of the probable effect of weather conditions on the flight, before discussing the later weather information at the 11.30 briefing. A first look at the charts indicated some doubt that we would be able to reach Sondrestrom Fiord, Greenland (the only normally scheduled stop between Vancouver and Amsterdam) in one hop. Although there would be tailwinds in the early part of the flight, followed by southerly crosswinds, critical easterly head- winds in the later section were forecast. After a half-hour session with the met. man, during which the various alternative routes were discussed, the crew returned to the dispatch office at C.P.A.L. headquarters for detailed flight planning. The range and fuel consumption for given headwind components were noted and related to the forecast winds, the effect of cruising altitude was considered, and meanwhile an accurate check of freight, baggage and passenger weights was being made to determine the find permissible fuel toad. The captain of the aircraft on this trip was to be Capt. Ralph B. Leslie who, just one year earlier, had flown the inaugural ser- vice of this same route. Previously chief pilot of the Sydney- Armsterdam sector, Capt. Leslie had also been responsible tor much of the preliminary flying and planning in connection with the opening of the new route. First officer was Ted Randall, one of a C.P.A.L. family (his father and brother are also pilots) who— despite the earnest efforts of the airline's publicity department- had never yet flown all three together in the same crew. Listed as second officer on the crew list was Capt. Bill Rox- borough, a check pilot who was making a familiarization flight on the northern route for the first time. Completing the flight crew—and doing most of the work in die flight-planning phase— were the two navigators, Bpl Douthwahe and Bill McLean. The final permissible fuel figure was 31,800 lb, 400 lb more than had initially been estimated, and Capt. Leslie decided to flight-plan to Sondrestrom direct, with Frobisher as alternate. One of two power techniques could be used: long-range economical cruise (normally used on flights of more than 12 hours' duration); or combination power, which meant beginning the flight at 1,240 h.p. and cutting down to 1,100 h.p. after four hours' flying. The distance to Sondrestrom was some 2,700 miles. It was decided to employ combination power. An easterly leg was to be flown across the Rockies to East Princeton, after which we would set course—the Great Circle course^—direct for Sondrestrom, which would take us north of Edmonton. The leg to Sondrestrom, it was finally calculated, would take 10 hr 37 min. From Capt. Leslie I heard brief details of the special tech- niques used on the northern route. The basic navigational prob- lems, he explained, were caused by the unreliable magnetic area in the region of the North Magnetic Pole (a region extending to a radius of over 1,000 miles); and in the convergence of the meri- dians towards the Pole in the high latitudes. Ordinary magnetic compasses and conventional map projections are of little use in flying accurate long-range routes in these areas. The answer to these problems had been found in the use of a directional gyro with a very small rate of random drift, together with the adoption of the Greenwich Grid chart system (in which headings given in grid degrees remain constant throughout a Great Circle route). Canadian Pacific, in common with S.A.S., the other northern-route operator, use the Bendix polar-path gyro, which is fitted with a high-latitude t»mpensator. Having filed the flight plan with the flight dispatcher, we moved back across to the terminal block, where I left the crew to complete their pre-flight formalities, and went to join the other passengers. For many of these Vancouver was simply a night- stop where they had landed the previous midnight, having boarded the Empress of Toronto at Auckland just three days earlier. A fair number were starting their journey at Vancouver, how- ever, and these were liberally equipped with eager friends and relatives. There was obviously still some novelty in flying the so-called polar route to Europe—at least for passengers and friends, if not for the crew. We jostled through the crowd at Gate 6 and boarded the air- craft. The popularity of this service was clearly no myth; 55 out of the 56 seats were filled. Scheduled take-off time was 1.30 p.m., but it was 1.45 before we began to taxi out, and two o'clock when the Pratt and Whitneys were opened up for the take-off run. We gained height for the easterly leg across the Rockies in a climbing circle out over the bay. This gave us a fresh view of the wide and handsome picture that is Vancouver in its own special setting of- mountains, coastline and the Pacific. Soon we had crossed the coastal range and the North Okanagan belt and were approaching the Rockies themselves. Much of the grandeur of the Rockies scenery was obscured by a mixture of cloud as we crossed the range at 17,000ft, but there remained the striking sight of some of the highest peaks jutting up above the main strato-cumulus layer. Steep islands with snow- covered tops, and smaller lumps on which, it seemed, one might quite easily stub one's toes. Capt. Leslie spoke over the cabin-address system, apologizing for the take-off delay, which had been caused by a malfunctioning tachometer. He was sorry we could not see more of the Rockies; they were very beautiful at this time of year. We would decrease height to 11,000ft after passing Edmonton, he said, in order to take advantage of more-favourable winds. A cabin crew of three was carried by the Empress of Toronto. There were two stewardesses, Patricia Stobart and Dolores Jordan, and one steward, Leendert van Eijk, whose home is in Amsterdam and who was previously with K.L.M. Soon it was time for them to take orders for drinks before lunch, and to
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