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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2427.PDF
FLIGHT, 28 October 1960 671 and 21 in, retrims, closes the cowling flaps and makes his decisionwhether to join the Indus valley or to turn back to base. Only if the route is strictly VMC may he continue, and the minimumcloud height for pressing on is 9,500ft. Today, fortunately, cumulus cloud streets are forming at about 11,500ft and we con-tinue north to Jalkot, from where we shall follow the grey-blue waters of the Indus, 6,000ft below. Craggy rocks now stretchupwards either side of us, bearing in oppressively on the aircraft's red-painted wing tips, and razor-sharp spines slide breathtakinglyclosely beneath. Looking forward through the screen, each time it seems that, unless the nose is lifted, we shall never clear thenext spur, and I marvel at the steady, undramatic flying of the PIA pilot, who drifts the DC-3 along just comfortably clear ofeach successive ridge. He points out an alternative route for getting home, minimum altitude 19,000ft. From Jalkot we turn a few degrees right again and head towardspoint "B," ten minutes' flying time exactly from Jalkot. The peaks on either side now reach jaggedly and cruelly upwards to 16,000ft.One in particular, a bare, uncrevassed wall of unyielding rock, stands in perpetiatm as a cloud-wreathed memorial to the crewwho lost their lives a few years ago. If one were needed, this mountain wall is a grim reminder thaton this route there is no room for taking chances with the moun- tain weather. It is said that the pilot slipped out from Gilgit asmist began to drift in over the top of the valley, and that as he followed the Indus home to Rawalpindi the clouds ahead closed in.He turned back, but soon there was cloud ahead of him again. No VHF radio telephony is possible in the mountains, but the sub-sequent short, grim history of that ill-fated flight was dutifully transmitted on W/T by the radio officer who is a member of everycrew. There was a slender chance that if the DC-3 could have reached its ceiling of about 21,000ft it could have cleared themountains and headed south for the plains. Blind, and flying tight circles, the pilot climbed up through the valley in cloud butstruck the top of the peak before he broke clear. Shaken by this story, recounted across the cockpit above thereassuring roar of the DC-3's R-1830s, I am relieved that the valley ahead of us is opening out and that above it the sky is aclear summer blue. As we turn a corner in the valley, suddenly, astonishingly, aheadrises Nanga Parbat—the Naked Mountain—its lofty peak alone in the cold, bleak snows. From 10,000ft we crane our necks to see itas it stretches impossibly high above us to 26,660ft. As we draw abreast of its lower slopes we are passed by the PIA DC-3 returningfrom the first sortie of the day, twinkling in the sun high above us, heading out over the direct route home at 16,000ft. The sky which amoment ago appeared so blue is now rapidly clouding, and Nanga Parbat becomes cloaked again in the ambient mystery of herenshrouding clouds. We have now been flying for one hour and twelve minutes, and from our Olympian heights we throttle backand start the let down at a steady 600ft/min. Ahead now lies a distinctive Y junction of rivers and valleys. To the right thebrown Indus flows down between steeply sloping mountain walls from Skardu. To the left the blue Gilgit River adds its glacialwaters to the Indus. This marks our route to the airfield, and as we approach the junction at 7,000ft we branch up the valleyand call the little airfield on our VHF. Again comes the simile of the big dipper: we have left thesnows behind and are dropping down now over a valley where cultivated patches of green are dotted about in the brown sandyshale. Capt Baluch circles the town for me and points out the polo field, remarking that it was in the Gilgit Agency that the gamewas invented. We turn comfortably within the confines of the valley walls, drop flaps and wheels, slide over a ridge and descendsteeply to wheel on under power on to the shale surface of the Gilgit runway.Next month a new metalled strip is to be opened and this will be used next year by an F.27 Freightship which PIA is intro-ducing on this run. Apart from the many advantages which the (Concluded on page 684)
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