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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1148.PDF
294 FLIGHT pi, ~:$ri)H£-r NORTHERN ROUTE Left, the inter-continental routes of Canadian Pacific Air Lines. "Empress of Toronto" at Sondrestrom, Greenland. Above, DC-6B indicate one of the differences between first-class and touristfacilities by dispensing packages of books of matches, embossed with the passenger's name in gold, to the fortunate firsts. Onementally deducted their probable cost from the $204,70 difference in fares on the Vancouver-Amsterdam trip . . . The confusion of my stomach and mind on this trip beganbetween three and four o'clock Pacific Daylight Time (local time in Vancouver), when a truly magnificent lunch was served. Thetrick was to lose eight hours between Vancouver and Amsterdam, keeping up a pretence of normal habits the while. To assistmatters, footrests and blankets were brought round at five o'clock, just after lunch had ended, and most of the passengers obedientlytook the hint and went to sleep. There were, however, a number of exceptions. Across theaisle, oblivious to the atmosphere of rest which pervaded the first-class cabin, an English couple were earnestly discussingserious topics. In the seats behind me was a young Canadian • newly married couple, quietly listing their reasons why theirwedding reception was much better than others they had attended. The girl, I remembered, had approached Jack Crump of C.P.A.L.,with whom I had been talking before the flight, to thank him for providing some information several months previously. Theyoung lady had at that time been preparing a College thesis on airline economics—a most unlikely sort of thing to accompanyred hair and freckles—and since then she had graduated with a First (hence the gratitude to Mr. Crump) and, the previous day,had got married. The two were now on their way to a two- months honeymoon in Europe. Across from these two, two separate young women were vari-ously occupied. The window-side one, having surely exhausted her supply of films in recording every aspect of the pre-lunchscenery, was churning out letter-cards at an amazing rate; while her companion, blanketed and footrested, slept eloquently withher mouth open. Representative of another type of traveller was the middle-aged married couple who sat in front of the two tall and untidy Britishers. For them, it seemed, the flight was complicated.Well-equipped with personal impedimenta—much of it contained in a Braniff Air Lines bag with a Japan Air Lines label—one orthe other was invariably moving, adjusting, re-arranging, or dis- placing either themselves or their belongings in the intervalsbetween restless sleep. They were no beginners in the travel game, though: the wife had declined the six-course Empresslunch in favour of two dishes of what looked like asparagus stalks; the husband had swiftly blocked up the ventilation slits with twopostcards from the flight pack which said "Welcome"; and at one stage they had the seat-arm off and stacked in their ceaseless questfor peace of mind. We were now passing over the incredible, interminable lake-spattered expanse of the "Barren lands" of Canada's Northwest Territories, having earlier crossed the flat sweep of the northernprairies. The thousands of small, intricately jigsawed lakes which stretched all around seemed to be patterned on a huge melon-skin surface. More lakes, and more barren marshland. Our first sight of ice came at 6.20 Vancouver time, when some of thelakes to the north were seen to be frozen. Then a hesitant whitening appeared to starboard, too, with a blue-black edgingwhich traced the shores of the larger lakes. A little later, some way above the sixtieth parallel, the scene below was completelywhite. This part of the route, approaching within 500 miles of themagnetic pole, is especially susceptible to magnetic errors and discrepancies. Compass errors of over 60 deg have been causedby magnetic bodies on the ground, and the change in magnetic variation over this sector can be from 20 deg west to 60 deg east. Our aircraft was carrying two independent stand-by gyros inaddition to the Bendix polar-path unit. The Bendix and at least one of the others were operating continuously throughout theflight. McLean and Douthwaite were checking the aircraft head- ing every half-hour by means of astro sights; and astro fixes ofOUT position were being taken every hour. Other navigational facilities—such as Loran, D.R. and radio ranges—were, of course,being used during the flight. After the astro checks the gyros were not re-set, but theirindividual rates of precession were noted and used in subsequent adjustments to course. I was told that the precession rate of theBendix instrument was between one and two degrees per hour. Following the direct Great Circle track to Sondrestrom, wewould by this time have been crossing the great Hudson Bay. We had taken a more northerly course, however, in order to takeadvantage of better winds, and so were continuing over land towards the north of the bay. "How many times could you fitthe British Isles into Hudson Bay?" asked the blonde, tired- looking Englishwoman of her husband. It seemed an excellentquestion. Throughout the flight, regular information on the aircraftposition, course, alterations of flight plan, and other details were being transmitted back to Vancouver, where our progress wascharted in the dispatch office. The flight dispatcher, who had initiated the planning for our flight with his pre-plan early thismorning, would now be noting our change of course to the north. At nine o'clock Vancouver time (midnight local time) CaptainLeslie announced that we were passing the northern tip of Southampton Island, which straddles the top of Hudson Bay.We were only 450 miles from the North Magnetic Pole, he reported, and we should cross the Arctic Circle in about 25minutes. We had then just passed over Roes Welcome Sound, a large stretch of water between the mainland and SouthamptonIsland—and the first stretch of open water since leaving the Pacific. To our left was Repulse Bay. Empress of Toronto purred on, and below passed wide rollingsandbanks of stratus, tinted a tepid pink by the northern sun, now low on the port horizon. The English couple had beguna new and strange occupation: the wife was filling in a diary, in great day-to-day detail, beginning three weeks previously. Icould not avoid hearing her intense questioning of her husband. "What time did you leave? . . . How did you come back? . . .";and, for the fourth of June, a bizarre reply which sounded like "Drove train back, drinking. . . ." That, one thought, must havebeen quite a day. At 9.22 Vancouver time (I had decided not to confuse mywatch until the last possible moment) came an electrifying announcement. "For your information," Capt. Leslie crisplyreported, "we are now crossing the Arctic Circle, at 22 minutes past midnight, local time." Almost with a click everyone's eyesturned to look down at this important boundary but, alas, the dotted line shown on all the maps just wasn't there. The passen-gers on the starboard side gazed down on a sheet of stratus (which looked just the same as the lower-latitude stuff), and those to porthad slightly better value with a glimpse of Foxe Basin (with ice), the channel which separates Baffin Island from the Canadianmainland. The occasion raised a ripple of excited chatter and some smiling nods across the aisle. "What did you do in theevening?" the Englishwoman asked. . . . Normally, Capt. Leslie explained, the Circle would not becrossed until about an hour and a half later. However, the more- northerly track made good on this occasion would also mean thatwe would not see the sun set (and rise ten minutes later); instead, it would be with us the whole way—which it was. Just to con-fuse things further, the moon at that moment began to come up on the starboard side. "Monday afternoon, cocktails. What did youdo on Tuesday? ..." The sight of the crags, mountains and cliffs of Baffin Islandwas perhaps the most dramatic of the entire first leg. Topped
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