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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0482.PDF
498 FLIGH: Private Pilot's Dilemma By MICHAEL J. DIBLE The Proctor 2 flown by the author: a recent portrait. In the flight described in his article bad weather was encountered between Paris and Croydon. During the recent correspondence in "Flight" about the privatepilot, his trials and victimization, argued on the one side by a handful of private pilots and on the other side by airline pilots,instructors and controllers, many hard words were used about the M.T.C.A. The Ministry have, no doubt, followed the trendwith interest, but so far have not replied—perhaps because they are not sure who should do so. This article is offered as a personal description of an event inwhich force of circumstance led the pilot into flight conditions outside the limitations of his licences. He was well aware, at thetime, that what he had to do in order to ensure the safety of his passengers constituted a breach of regulations, and that know-ledge, in itself, did not help him. However, the article concludes with a description of the subsequent developments and it is leftfor the reader to judge how much of the criticism is justified. ONE Sunday in November I was in Paris with some friends,having flown over the previous day in the Proctor. Aboutlunchtime I had gone out to the airport, as pilot, to check over details and report back to the crew if the weather was suit-able for a return trip that evening. All was well, and the party, less pilot, moved off to watch a rugger match. Take-off wasscheduled for 1600 hr and we should probably complete the first part of the flight in daylight. After lunch, and a check over the aircraft and its equipment, afurther visit to met. gave much the same forecast, and so the flight was planned special VFR via the Pas de Calais and south-eastfree lane to Croydon. Weather in London was given as wind N.E., 20 kt; l,5OO-2,5OOft cloud-base; and a visibility of eight kilo-metres. Weak frontal activity was shown between Beauvais and Calais. After the take-off in the half-light, course was set for the coastwith a fair amount of turbulence low down but a cloud-base of about 2,500ft. As expected, due to the weak front, this deterioratedin patches to about 1,200ft. Map-reading went well and we were on track by the time we picked up the Le Touquet light, threemiles to the south-east and about five minutes late on E.T.A. because of a stronger headwind component. Shortly after that, while maintaining 1,200ft, all sight of lightswas lost in cloud, which was uncomfortable but not unexpected in that area. Though we had listened for the London weatherreports earlier, the range was too great for us to pick them up. On E.T.A. I altered course for Dungeness, assuming a quickglimpse of lights below to be Boulogne. (Probably they were Hardelot, seven miles south of Boulogne.) We now settled down at 1,500ft in eight-eighths cloud andtried to call London on the F.I.R. frequency. Our signals were reported as strength two, distorted. This was discouraging, as wehad been given strength five by the tower before take-off. Con- versation was slow and tedious. Just then the bomb burst. London gave the station weatherreports with casual abandon. There was no aerodrome open to us with an eight-eighths cloud-base higher than 600ft! Rain andpoor visibility were also mentioned. K Le Touquet had been open the decision would have been aneasy one, but there was no diversion between Croydon and Paris, now more than halfway behind—and in any case how would wefind it or be sure that the weather would hold fair? The Southend weather was not given, but was passed on request. This was four-eighths at 700ft. I cancelled the flight planto Croydon and filed another for Southend, at the same time asking for a radar approach. The navigator set about trying to raise theChatham range on the range receiver, our only other aid, with an idem, of MVM. There was no MVM. MVH yes, but no MVM,and it was no use willing four dots to read "M." To say that there was anxiety in that small cabin would be an understatement. Whyno Chatham range? Could we be miles out in our navigation? Was that in fact the Le Touquet light which we had seen 20minutes ago? Of that I had been sure, having made a list of all the marine lights within a 50-mile radius. Turbulence tossed the aircraft around, and the magnetic com-pass wandered about wildly (a Proctor is notoriously unstable in yaw). The A.S.I, stuck, then flickered sluggishly as water con-tinued to fill the pitot line. A fuel gauge kicked twice and returned irrevocably to zero, as some intermittent contact got the upperhand. I stared at the altimeter again to make sure I was not mis- reading it, swallowed hard—and returned to the worthy Sperryartificial horizon and directional gyro. But where were we? London came in again with Croydon's latest weather, whichhad gone up to eight-eighths at 800ft and 1.4 miles with smoke. That was the best of the lot (though only by 100ft) but, in addi-tion, I was familiar with Croydon and some of its procedures* and so I elected to continue to Croydon. Asked for an estimate,I made a wild guess and put the cards on the table by asking whether anybody's radar could see us, saying that our positionwas uncertain. I might have added "and most uncomfortable," but refrained. Although we carried 23 frequencies, none of them correspondedto any that were asked for. Finally, in desperation, and after silences which seemed to last for eternity, I was told to call theR.A.F. on 125.5 Mc/s. Pause for Reflection At this point there was a little pantomime with the torch. TheProctor's cockpit lighting leaves rather a lot to be desired, and a torch is essential. Pilot asks navigator for torch, who tells pilothe already has it! No, navigator has it! You know how it goes. When the beastly thing was eventually found (in the pilot's lapof course) 125.5 Mc/s was selected and a call went out into the night with the doubtful call-sign of "R.A.F." After the third attempt without reply, the priority was steppedup to PAN. One's sense of humour was becoming strained. Bitterly, with visions of dramatic unanswered farewell messages,we returned to 126.7 Mc/s to ask why there was no reply. London checked and said that the R.A.F. were still waiting for us onone-two-ONE five. Such was the quality of the radio. Incidentally, the Civil Air Pilot makes no mention of this fixerservice—which I think it might do, because there are one or two points which need clarification. But let me not digress. This was Uxbridge, and they too reported our signals verrweak, before asking for a long transmission. There followed another request for a further count and a hesitant voice then saidthey made us five miles south-east of Hastings—Class C. Class C means ± 50 miles! But that might put us on the other side ctLondon! Surely they could do better than that with a littb imagination, and I so dearly wanted to be told more exactlrEven if the operator did not believe it himself, I would. (At ths
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