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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1535.PDF
750 —li-i £:,.... Met. forecast for Toulouse - Reims: cu-nims to 20,000ft, severe turbulence, heavy showers, hail and freezing level at 3,500ft. Otherwise wizard ROUND FRANCE ON BUSINESS... valley is a gateway from Mediterranean to Atlantic weatherand is liable to turbulence and rough winds. Pin-pointing difficult in the complicated country north ofBeziers. Soon, eight-eighths cloud at 7,000ft hid the sun as I left the hills behind over Mazamet. Suddenly noticed, from bonfiresmoke, a 90 deg shift in wind which considerably upset my track- keeping. Temporarily only approximately aware of position, butcontinued to Toulouse and its unmistakable river patterns. Thursday evening. Toulouse - Reims. Route: Toulouse, 10n.m. E. of Limoges, 10 n.m. S.E. of Chateauroux, Montargis. Distance: 383 n.m. Highly unstable weather with 25 kt windsfrom west and cu-nims up to 20,000ft giving violent rain- and hail-storms. Decided at first to leave as early as possible to givemyself time for diversion, but was told that winds would drop later and arranged to take off late, leaving myself 20 min sparedaylight at the other end. Limoges and Chateauroux homers said to be excellent. The first 160 n.m. would be over hills ranging upto 2,000ft. The forecast chart is reproduced above. Having allowed myself a bare 20 min daylight at the otherend, I was called back from the take-off point to complete some paper work. Despite agile taxying and running, my daylightallowance went west. Flew out past a biggish storm and headed north. Brilliant visibility under four-eighths cloud, but strongwind giving over 10 deg drift and rain storms dotted over whole area beneath towering cu-nims. Making less than 120 kt. Storms more frequent and larger as hills rise under constantcloud-base. Several whoppers just off track. Pass Cahors and Gourdon at 800ft. Then find a 15-mile front of dense rain stormunder a mighty cu-nim right across track just north of Brive la Gaillarde. A detour round this will lose me my daylight allowanceand mean a diversion. Railway zig-zagging across my track dis- appears in dense rain. Turn left to follow another railway toLimoges, but this likewise vanishes. Turn farther left and try to plot course across rolling country. I think I see some horizonthrough the centre of the storm, which means it must be of short duration, so I turn into it on the original track but am immedi-ately engulfed in heavy hail and rain: the radio goes wild with static and I turn away. Flying 250ft above ground and everything suggests a 180 degturn, but a last glance over my shoulder shows that horizon beckoning again. Fix my position absolutely, chose a heading:check compass: set altimeter arbitrarily 10 millibars lower: check fuel: circling for some minutes now and my Day-Glo paint mustbe attracting attention. I straighten up and fly into rain and hail; completely blind for a few seconds, with water bubbling up fromunder the windscreen. Can see only blurred bright green of the hills close below and then break out into brilliant visibility againwith large hailstones pinging on the windscreen through clear air. There is no way of avoiding them so I keep well down in myseat and pull goggles down to shield my eyes, just in case. A few more minutes and all is calm and serene again. For two morehours I fly on in spectacularly good visibility, navigating by hill ranges and other features I can see from 20 miles away. Chateauroux on my left, Bourges on my right; the country fallsaway into a flat plain. I cross the Loire with a ground-speed rising steadily beyond 116 kt. Later it reaches 136 kt and my day-light allowance looks better. But it is terribly cold, even at 2,000ft. A long tract of snow or hail on fields and roofs at onepoint. Judging my height by eye from a known spot-height, when I was still flying at a few hundred feet, I reset my altimeter andfound I had to reduce no less than 20 additional millibars! The wind was doing queer things near those storms. Crossing the two rivers at Montereau, east of Fontainebleau,I pass through a long line of rain with a line of anvil-headed cloud above it. The sun is setting, but only 80 more miles to go8t 136 kt. All seems serene when I see another large storm right where Reims ought to be. Sure enough it forms a solid barrieron the hills south-west of Epernay, but I see another horizon through the middle and press on immediately. Nothing could beas unpleasant as that earlier storm. In the rain I lose track of landmarks and break out in the clear again over Epernay. A few days before I was told that the tiny Max Holste airfield"lies either here or here" and two ink marks were made on my map south-east of the town. I soon recognize the little field,and notice the strong wind blowing a thick plume of factory smoke straight down the grass runway. A first pass to checkthe surface from 10ft. The sun is setting behind some storm clouds and rain is approaching fast. A tight circuit, but onfinals a littie Jodel two-seater cuts in front and disappears into the smoke along the runway. I don't blame him for getting inout of the rain. Another circuit, dodge into the smoke from the side and at 20ft strike turbulence and the windscreen is suddenlyclosed in by rain. No time to delay so I hold on power and lower the Gemini gently down, watching the little white markerspassing close by on the left. Finally the wheels touch and I cut. I reach the open hangar, and turn tail-on to the doorway. BeforeI have switched off I am pushed in out of the rain. Friday morning. Reims - Totissus le Noble. Route: straightto a point half-way between Bretigny and Orly. Distance, 90 n.m. A morning flight before the cu-nims had built up. Headwinds,occasional rain, routine flight. Saturday morning. Toussus - Bernay. Route: straight line. Distance, about 65 n.m. Delayed 20 min to clean two oiled-up plugs. Routine flight. On finals, I notice a piece of brown paper on the runway. It turned out to be a lamb, which stood stock still as I passed within 10ft of it. Saturday afternoon. Bernay - Croydon. Route: Le Touquet landing for fuel and Customs), Dungeness, Tonbridge. Total distance, 185 n.m. Scheduled to fly to Dinard, but a front iscoming in, with lowering cloud and thin rain. It seems useless to go through the front to Dinard and then return through it toEngland. I want to pass the South Downs before ceilings get too low. So we take on 13 gal of fuel and bowl up to Le Touquet at136 kt with a strong following wind. Visibility not good but improving steadily. Le Touquet organization is amazing. Aporter meets us with a baggage trolley as soon as we stop. We brief for refuelling, pass Customs, stamp the carnet, pay landingfees, get weather briefing, make flight plan, buy brandy and regain our refuelled Gemini and are off the ground again exactly25 minutes after touching down. That is real service. Cloud is lowering steadily over England and I fear that it willsettle on the hills south of Croydon. There is still a 4,000ft ceiling over the Channel and we cross at 3,000ft in 17 min, hitting"Dungy" on the nose. Half-way across we notify Touquet and change to 126.7 Mc/s. London control comes up Strength 5,giving the actual weather states all over south-east England every 20 min. It is still passable, but deteriorating, and by Tonbridgewe are forced down to a few hundred feet. We scrape over the escarpment south of Biggin Hill, but Croydon itself is still "fullyV.F.R." Land; engines off, switches off; rush off home. Stage London - Paris Paris - Bordeaux Bordeaux - Martgnane Marignane - IstresIscres - Toulouse Toulouse - Reims Reims - Paris ... Paris - Bernay ... Bernay - Le Touquet . Le Touquet - Croydon Totals Dist. n.m. 180 260 292 15160 380 90 65 102 83 1,627 Est. time hr min 1 30 2 10 2 25 1 20 3 10 0 45 0 32 0 51 0 42 13 25 Time on track hr min 1 30 2 35 2 10 0 201 40 3 05 1 00 0 40 0 45 0 45 14 30 Av. kt 120 100 135 96 123 90 98 136 111 112 Fuel gal 22.1 39.4 30.6 26.0 25.1 13.1 41.6 10.7 208.6 Av. gal hr 14.7 15.3 14.1 13.O f.14.4| J14.3
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