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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0731.PDF
FLIGHT, 30 May 1958 747 AND HOME BY TRAIN The Tale of a Ferrying Trip By C. GAVIN-ROBINSON Qantas Super Constellation passengers em- barking for Sydney at Darwin's new terminal. A T the end of December last year I was given the job of flying/\ as co-pilot of a de Havilland Heron which was to be ferried •*- -*- from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Bahrain, on the Per-sian Gulf. This is the story of my round trip from London to Christchurch and back by means of (successively) Qantas,T.E.A.L., N.Z.N.A.C., Heron Series I G-APJS and lastly B.O.A.C. The journey began on December 27 at Airways Terminal,Victoria, where I collected my ticket for Qantas flight No. 713 due to take off at 11 p.m. Determined to start us off well on ourway to the other side of the world, the B.O.A.C. coach driver covered the distance from the Terminal to London Airport in 35minutes flat, which must have beaten par for the course by some margin. We then had some time to wait at the airport, and I founda chair in that sort of limbo where lost or confused passengers wander near the B.O.A.C. ticket desk. Some of my future com-panions were nearby, and I noted with alarm that a woman was carrying a child of two. I am fond of children, but the very youngoften wail for long periods when confined in aeroplanes, and my fate is usually to be allotted a seat within uncomfortable earshot. Eventually we were processed according to the law and con-veyed by coach to the Super Constellation Southern Wave. In common, I believe, with the rest of the Qantas fleet of these air-craft, she was fitted with wing-tip fuel tanks, those impressive lumps of streamlining with a sinister little hole at the back whichsomehow make the Connie, normally just another great big aero- plane, look like something worthy of the space age. At 2300 hr precisely the door was closed and the engines started.My seat was on the starboard side of the small after-cabin; and there, sure enough, just across the aisle and lying quietly in thearms of her mother, was the child. I will dispose of this par- ticular infant by saying that despite apprehensions, and exceptfor two squally patches, one near the Bay of Naples and the other over Turkey, she behaved remarkably well, feeding without fussand sleeping peacefully in the special crib provided on board until she was removed from the aircraft at Singapore. Life-jacket drill and the passing round of sweets completed thepreliminaries, and we took off and climbed to 19,500ft, which was our height for the leg to Rome. After coffee and sandwiches thelights were turned down and we stretched out in our comfortable "slumbercttes." Before going to sleep I peeked through the curtains to see whatthe weather was doing and noticed how an ingenious use had been made of the tip tanks. On the inner side, visible to the passengers,the name QANTAS had been painted; and this was illuminated in red at intervals of about a second by the rotating beam of the col-lision beacon on top of the fuselage, the effect being similar to a flashing red neon sign making "QANTAS . . . QANTAS . . .QANTAS" all through the night. There were thunderstorms over the Alps, and in spite of thestorm-warning we hit a small patch of turbulence; the "ship went wop with a wiggle between" for a few minutes, and after thatwe were in the clear. The crew was changed at Rome, where we had a drink andsome biscuits, and the last of the night passed during the 3i hours' leg to Istanbul, where we breakfasted on bacon and eggs.A large anticyclone was over Turkey, and in fact the whole trip from Istanbul over Ankara, Kirkuk and Baghdad to Bahrain wasmade in perfect weather. It was on this part of the route that the change in time became noticeable. Somewhere over Iraq lunchwas served. Greenwich time was 1230 (on the 28th), which accord- ing to our tummies was the right time for the meal; but locally itwas late in the afternoon, and in a further hour-and-a-half the sun set. Eating to English time was abandoned after this, dinner beingserved as early as 1645 between Bahrain and Karachi. At Bahrain the rest of the ferry crew joined me. We tookoff for Karachi at 1615 G.M.T. and for the next twenty-four hours the trip was without incident. Karachi and Bombay were over-flown at night, Colombo (Ratmalana) the following day and Singa- pore at night. At Singapore there is a descriptive little noticewhereby those seeing off passengers are directed "To the Waving Gallery." At 1750 G.M.T. on 29th we landed at Djakarta. Disembarkingwere two young accountants from London. They were new to the tropics—in fact, I think it was their first journey of any lengthabroad—and what with the stuffy humidity of the hot night, the reports of disturbances in Indonesia and the numerous steel-helmeted troops who patrolled the airport with Sten guns at the ready, they did not appear to be accepting their surroundings withmuch relish. Our next stop was Darwin, which we reached soon after dawn.Frequent heavy rain showers were sweeping across the field, making things pretty dismal,but the smart new air-conditioned restaurant and a good breakfast redressed the balanceand welcomed us to Australia. A joining passenger at Darwin was a cheerful elderlygentleman with both legs and one arm paralyzed; as he could not negotiate the stepshis invalid chair was raised to door level by a fork-lift. This was my first visit by air to Australia,and I was hoping to see something of the country during the flight to Sydney, which wemade at 15,500ft; but for almost the entire route the ground was obscured by stratuscloud. Night fell before we reached Sydney, Qantas Super Constellation "Southern Wave" at Dubbo on the morning after diversion from Sydney.
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