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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1534.PDF
29 May 1959 , . 749 1,600 Nautical Miles by Gemini By MARK LAMBERT THESE are some notes on a businesstrip round France which I recentlymade in Flight's Gipsy Major-engined Gemini, G-AKHC. I used I.C.A.O.1 : 500,000-scale maps, flew V.F.R. all the way, and calculated in nautical miles andknots, although the A.S.I, reads in m.p.h. The last joint of my little finger is 7 n.m.long on this scale and I carried a pocket slide-rule giving sine values for drift calcu-lation and a five-inch scale down one edge. Still-air cruising speed was just under 120 kt—two n.m./min—and I marked every 20 n.m. along my pencilled tracks. I hadabout 15 V.H.F. channels, but no navaids as such. The important point is that I was able todo a full day's work every day, sleep in a comfortable bed every night and still covermy 1,600 n.m. in a week. Each landing, except at Le Touquet, was made to keep a business appointment. A table overleaf givessome general figures for the trip. Sunday. Croydon - Toussus le Noble. Route: Tonbridge,Hastings, 4m. E. of Dieppe, Toussus. Distance, 180 n.m. Sunny weather with haze and favourable wind. Sea-crossing of 30 minin haze, virtually on instruments until I climbed to the haze-top. Land-fall 2 n.m. E. of track. Visibility deteriorated to less than amile before suddenly clearing at the Seine over Les Mureaux. Toussus like a seaside resort and teeming with aircraft. Monday evening. Toussus - Bordeaux/Merignac. Route:straight line. Distance, 260 n.m. Jacques Noetinger, well-known French pilot and author of excellent new book, Un Pilote Quel-conque, accompanied me to Bordeaux. He obtained clearance and met. forecast while I warmed up engines. Estimated 20 minof daylight to spare at Bordeaux and reckoned on a headwind and 3,000ft cloud-base for the first pan, clearing to sunshine andcalm. In fact we made a ground-speed of just under 100 kt all the way (regularly checked by slide-rule and watch) and thevisibility deteriorated steadily. Arrived at dusk. Exhaust flame from the oil refinery on island in Gironde made useful pin-point.Airport beacon seen from seven miles. Wind on landing 23 kt almost down the runway. Tuesday evening. Bordeaux - Marignane. Route: Toulouse,Castelnau, Beziers, Montpellier, Marignane, substantially follow- ing the Garonne, Midi Canal and Mediterranean coast. Distance,292 n.m. Of the alternative routes following the broad valley past Carcassonne or the narrow one to the north past Mazamet, Ichose the former because it added only five miles to the distance. Bordeaux met. said there was an occlusion east of Toulousegiving favourable winds, but low ceilings with intermittent rain for the first part of the journey and a possibility of 400ft ceilingsin rain in the valley. After that they warned me particularly of severe turbulence and vertical gusts in hilly areas with atramontane blowing down from the Lespinous mountains to the Mediterranean and a strong mistral coming out of the Rhonevalley. But cloud cover would substantially disappear in this area. They were dead right. I took off in dull weather and flew indreary rain past Toulouse. The landmarks were excellent but weather became more and more stormy, with heavy showers.The rising hill-tops began to disappear in cloud. Some time after I entered the broad valley I found heavy showers ahead and tothe left but could see the Pyrenees rearing up in bright sunshine 30 miles to the south. Slight detour past Carcassonne. The architecture is already dis-tinctly southern, with pale houses and thick red-tiled roofs. The sun beckons just past that last disgusting storm. Ground-speednow well up at 130 fct. But the turbulence becomes uncomfortable. I struggle for someminutes to extract my camera from my case on the back seat, take %ht measurements and shoot a few pictures of that last stormwhile I fly with my knees and the Gemini bucks crazily about. Then I climb to 7,000ft and into smoother air. The Mediterraneancoastline opens up before me and, allowing still some 15 deg drift, I only bother to plot ground-speed as I follow the coast. TheMed. looks angry. Partial cloud cover appears; climb over the first two steps to 9,500ft and then go through it intermittentlyuntil I turn south-east over Montpellier for the last leg. I throw away my maps when I see Marignane from 50 miles. Ground-speed now steady at 136 kt.' Let down at the last minute to avoid the turbulence of themistral lower down, call Marignane and land in a warm, bluster- ing 25 kt wind. Stop immediately, but told to continue to end of "Flight" photograph runway, so I take off again and fly there. Finally, I park in frontof a huge two-bay concrete hangar in a warm Mediterranean twilight. Despite the sound of my engines no one appears, so Iget out and walk around. Still nothing stirs. The lights of the main parking apron are a mile away across the long, parallelrunways. Finally I find a very small door in the hangar and knock. A nervous French voice calls, "Qui est la?" without opening.Suddenly the complete futility of the situation strikes me. I've dropped from the sky to this vast dead hangar in a warm gale.What on earth can I say to identify myself to this disembodied voice? Then its owner opens the door as he finishes buckling onhis revolver. A second guard watches me while the first makes innumerable, midi-accented telephone calls on a rustic instru-ment. But at last everything clicks, the Gemini is dragged under the shelter of an F-84F on the vast hangar floor and I retire toa pleasant hostelry in Marignane village. Wednesday afternoon. Marignane - Istres. Distance, 15 n.m.The mistral rises again soon before take-off. A ten-minute hop across the Etang de Berre and I struggle with Istres Tower radio,but the area is notorious for parasites (static) and I cannot read a word. Presuming on the mistral I land northwards on theimmense 18 km main runway, only to find the wind fully across. No joy at all on the radio, so when I see two Noratlas lining upfor take-off at the other end of my runway I turn tail and flee! I had landed in the wrong direction. A small French fire-enginedoes a champion cross-country sprint towards me and a man clinging to the side beckons me to follow. We reach the C.G.T.M.hangar, where my French host meets me. He is still wearing his flying suit after making a dead-stick landing southwards in a SuperMystere on the runway I had just violated! Wednesday evening. Istres - Toulouse /Blagnac. Route: Mont-pellier, Mazamet. Distance, 160 n.m. This was to be a relatively short hop back along the route I had followed from Bordeaux.The same rough winds with clear skies gradually clouding over at about 7,000ft west of the mountains. Radio was still totallyparasite, as I climbed away over a sad graveyard of abandoned Espadon and Baroudeurs. Made straight for 6,500ft to clear themain turbulence and soon slide-ruled a ground-speed of 98 kt, which I held for the whole flight. For the first few minutes Ikept a weather eye on a shark-like U.S. Navy Skywarrior which was making a rather wayward air test around me. Because Iwas flying straight into sun, I could see very little ahead. Abandoned the southerly valley past Carcassonne and flewalong the ridge south of the Mazamet valley. Remind me never to try that Mazamet valley in bad weather. It is narrow and deepand has a wicked 200ft-high barrier of hill right across it half-way along. Spot heights either side are about 3,000ft. The Carcassonne "Flight's" Gemini at Marignane. The heading picture was taken at 8,0()0ft while flying south-east past the Camargue marshes to Marignane "Fliaht" photooraoh
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