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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1305.PDF
FLIGHT, 1 September 1956 453 "In vineyard work . . . the spray had to be so fine as to resemble molecules of tog, covering the leaves ... on both sides." AN AIR WAR IN GERMANY . . . rain, the orchard-spraying was so successful that a projectedfurther treatment in fourteen days' time was soon found to be unnecessary. We were glad of this, for within the fortnight we were ableto be away in Bavaria, busy on our largest contract yet—one which, being a completely new experience, presented not incon-siderable difficulties. The Government of the Free State of Bavaria had an area of almost 16,000 acres of pine woodsthreatened with destruction by the dreaded pine owl caterpillar, which would have meant a loss of some 500 million marks. Thearea was vast and monotonous, being mostly dense forest from boundary to boundary, with only an occasional clearing whichmight or might not be readily discernible from the air. Hop gardens bordering the woods presented a further difficulty, forwe were to use diesel oil as a carrier base for the first time in our operations, so super-accurate spraying would be necessaryin order to avoid contaminating the hops. About 27 years ago, when the previous major operation againstthe disease was carried out in this area, it was done by pouring whole sacks of pure arsenic out of old-fashioned fixed-wing air-craft, contaminating fishponds, rivers, and grazing land. In the years that followed, several small-scale treatments of the areawere made with ground equipment, using ordinary petrol—a most dangerous process. In all, the woods were in a deplorablestate, the bare thin stems covered with creeping moss almost up to the small crowns. Having flown over the area and seen little else but a vastexpanse of dark green pines, no landmarks, nothing by whichto orientate oneself, I thought the job looked pretty difficult.The operational maps were a maze of blue- and red-borderedareas. However, over 300 red and white marker balloons wereready to be filled from hydro- gen bottles, to guide the pilot inhis exacting task of laying swath beside swath of the perfectlyclear but terribly smelly chemi- cal and oil mixture. Unlike thecockchafer, pine owl larva; breed in the centre of the forestsrather than on the edges, so the entire area had to be coveredmost carefully. If onJy 4 per cent of the caterpillars escapedthe entire operational success was questionable. As it happened, success wasjeopardized by a succession of unexpected circumstances. Tosum them up briefly, we first had a complete failure of the spray-ing equipment, because none of "The chemicals (D.D.T. com- pound and water) were mixed - . - and the helicopter's tank filled in eighty seconds." us had realized that the oil could cause swelling of the rubberwashers in the nozzles; then, when the operation nevertheless began at the appointed time, and all was going well, the pilotwas startled to find the marker balloons descending one after an- other—the oil was again the culprit, causing minute holes in thethin rubber envelopes; and, thirdly, the weather was against us —we could not spray onto wet trees, and often had long enforcedrest periods in the middle of the day. But the difficulties were overcome, the first by a series ofhectic telephone calls which eventually produced a set of plastic nozzles and the second by an appeal to Radio Free Europe inMunich, who willingly supplied us with a number of the plastic balloons with which they ferry publicity material over the ironcurtain (the pilot, accompanied by the writer, had a long and tiring flight to the isolated station on the Czech border to collectthe balloons). About the weather we could of course do nothing, but wemade fair progress, and at last the reports began to come in. They were good. In one area done, where about 40 trees werefelled for a thorough check, only two caterpillars were found alive out of an estimated total of 3,000. From landing site to landing site we worked our way throughday after day of hard work, until, after 13 days of operation and about 80 flying hours, with pauses because of bad weather, wehad completed the entire colossal area. And so Old Victor brought the pest control season in Germanyto a close, having successfully completed the strenuous demands made of him. He had flown over 140 hours in less than six weeks,immediately following a 2,000 hr check at Croydon under the watchful eye of veteran helicopter chief engineer Bill Shippey.No technical snags were experienced, OV flying faultlessly in the skilful hands of chief pilot Line Lord and Stan Holdaway (whowas, incidentally, flying these contracts within fourteen days of his return from an Antarctic expedition). Many letters of appreciation and recommendation were re-ceived from the German ministries for whom the contracts were carried out. The air ministries of the various "Lands" con-cerned were at all times most helpful. They allowed our pilots absolute discretion in the selection of landing sites (an actionhitherto unheard of in Germany) instructed airports to grant every assistance, and allowed positioning flights in weather bordering onI.F.R. conditions. And as these words are written, OW Victor, as becomes afaithful warrior, rests inside a Silver City Freighter to return from Germany to Croydon, for preparation by Autair, Ltd., forhis next big assignment—the Antarctic Expedition 1956-7. Next spring should see him back again, and fitted with spray gearhe will be engaged in Germany on his destructive pursuit of cockchafers and caterpillars. How we look forward to his proudand gallant return ...
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