My most interesting flight.
NY
From Brussels to Norfolk, Va via Sabena in the 80s.
Landed at JFK, then over to New York Helicopter for the transfer to Newark via LaGuardia..
Flew over Manhattan at 1,000-1500ft-ish - over Central Park - magnificent!
sv
Landed at JFK, then over to New York Helicopter for the transfer to Newark via LaGuardia..
Flew over Manhattan at 1,000-1500ft-ish - over Central Park - magnificent!
sv
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My first (and so far only) flight in a Big Doug: in the Red Bull DC6B, from the ILA in Berlin to Salzburg, on 13th June this year. Here's a link to a photo I took during this "somewhere over southern Germany."
JetPhotos.Net Photo » N996DM (CN: 45563) The Flying Bulls Douglas DC-6B by Michael Blank
JetPhotos.Net Photo » N996DM (CN: 45563) The Flying Bulls Douglas DC-6B by Michael Blank
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During my annual week's CCF camp in 1957 at RAF Waddington, the station was full of gleaming new white-painted Vulcans. A friend and I, unable to resist the temptation, sneaked up the ladder of one in a hangar on the Sunday (hardly a soul in sight) and sat in the cockpit. We read the Pilots Notes in a smart ring file between the seats and were both astounded to see under "Performance Limits" that the Limiting Mach No was "1.01 in a shallow dive", backed up by the small "bugs" set at 1.01 on the Machmeters. Only many years later, on reading Tony Blackman's book on test flying the Vulcan, did I realise that this was the Indicated Mach No, and the tin triangle wasn't really supersonic! Seems the Vulcan instrumentation had a largish position error. (Sorry for that thread drift, but confession to what was probably strictly forbidden snooping at that time is a relief!)
Back on topic, my "most interesting flight" also occurred at that camp, a heart-stopping half hour "air experience" flight in a Canberra T.4. The pilot carried out a couple of practice GCA approaches, then let me handle the controls for 5 or 10 minutes. My only flying experience that year had been a gliding course at Halton, so I went directly from a few solos in a Kirby Cadet Mk II to an exciting bit of dual in a twin-jet bomber trainer. Quite a difference!
Back on topic, my "most interesting flight" also occurred at that camp, a heart-stopping half hour "air experience" flight in a Canberra T.4. The pilot carried out a couple of practice GCA approaches, then let me handle the controls for 5 or 10 minutes. My only flying experience that year had been a gliding course at Halton, so I went directly from a few solos in a Kirby Cadet Mk II to an exciting bit of dual in a twin-jet bomber trainer. Quite a difference!
Last edited by 603DX; 28th Nov 2010 at 12:55.
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Mine has to be an hour or so in a Hunter T7, out of Stornoway, during a JMC/Neptune Warrior exercise in the late '80s. IIRC, we went with another Hunter and FRA DA20 to find HMS Illustrious. Pilot was ex-RAF Pat Saunders - he still out there ? A memorable morning.
Working with Bristow Helicopters in China. We had a short operation up at Tanguu in North Eastern China supporting a rig in Bo Hai Bay. The night time temperature was down to -26 C and the daytime we had to fly across about fifteen kilometres of pack ice en route offshore. Come January 1997 the contract came to an end and the aircraft, a British registered AS332L, GTIGP had to be returned to Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.
The crew format was that there was a European captain and a Chinese co-pilot who had a CAA endorsement to act as co-pilot. All the domestic ATC and most of the writing was in Chinese but my FO Wang was also excellent with his English so we did not need to carry an interpreter. He spent a couple of days at Tanjian ATC sorting out the route and flight plans whilst I scurried around the Imperial Palace and the Great Wall.
The great day came and we launched. In China all routes are controlled and even a helicopter has to fly airways. So we did and the minimum altitude was 8.000ft in the middle of a Chinese winter with no formal anti-icing kit on the aircraft. All we had was an icing detector and intake heating. The clearance we were supposed to fly to was the same as the North Sea; ie, it was OK to fly in icing conditions as long as you could descend to warmer air. I could not guarantee this so it was a case of suck it and see.
It was fine when we got up there. The Siberian High was well established so the cloudbase was way up above. Eastern China in winter is without doubt the most desolate looking place you could imagine. Anything that is not white with frost or snow is the same dull grey. Flat, featureless scenery with an unending patchwork of small fields stretching from horizon to horizon. About three quarters of the way to Xuzhao we hit some light freezing rain. Poor Wang had never experienced any sort of icing before and he was having kitten as the centre windscreen started freezing over. The aircraft itself was unaffected by this but he got on to Airways and obtained a shorter routing plus a descent to our refuelling airfield.
Xuzhao was a typical civilian/military airfield. We were flying on a Chinese company callsign and the last thing they expected to taxi in was a British registered helicopter with a foreign captain. On top of this Tanjian had not forwarded the follow up flight plan so we were stuck. Two Chinese Air Force chaps with guns accompanied us up to the tower so that Wang could sort things out. The control tower was literally ankle deep in dog ends and you could hardly see out of the windows. What I could see was a dreary colourless city which looked liked the last place in the world to night stop and rows of Mig 17s and IL 28s parked in a compound just off the airfield. Wang, after nearly two hours negotiated our further routing not to Shanghai as planned but via Changzhou. The minimum altitude was now down to 4.000 ft so he was a lot happier.
We refuelled from an old but absolutely immaculate bowser and punched off South again. We arrived at Changzhou and as I turned off I noticed that we were going to taxi in front of a row of H6 (Tu16) bombers. As I passed them I thought that there was something odd. Eventually it clicked. The entire hardstanding was brand new and the aircraft were surrounded by ground equipment in immaculate order. There were tyre marks on the pristine concrete from trucks and other vehicles but there was not a single aircraft tyre scuff mark. The aircraft had been parked there and had not moved.
Changzhou terminal building must be the most beautiful in the world. Built to look like an Imperial Palace with a Chinese pitched roof and water features all around it. An excellent meal in the restaurant and then we took off for Wenzhou, our night stop. It was dark when we took off. This was not a problem for us but it was for the Shanghai Area controller. He could not believe that a helicopter was at 9,000 ft, at night, flying IFR from one place to another. You could not keep him quiet. Every time someone else came on to the frequency he would pass a long warning about these madmen in a helicopter flying in the dark. Eventually we went down the long ILS to Wenzhou, which is on the coast a bit north of Taiwan. There I night stopped but the Chinese company decided that Wang should stay with the operation in Wenzhou and FO Jing would fly with me to Shenzhen.
The route from Wenzhou to Shenzhen I had flown before and it involved a refuelling stop at Xiamen. This time we had a Chinese engineer in the back bumming a ride. One has to be very careful on this route not stray east of the centre line of the airway because of the presence of Taiwan. It was a lot warmer so 8,000ft was not a problem. Arrived at Xiamen, confirmed the flight plan and off to lunch.
At 14.00 hrs we called for start clearance; we were told to hold. After twenty minutes we switched off to save the battery and trotted over to ATC to see what the delay was. Apparently the Chinese Air Force had started an exercise at Shantou and all none scheduled traffic was prohibited. A bit of a bind but I knew that all CAF exercises finished at 16.00 so not too much of a delay. 16.00 hrs came and went and no movement on Shantou. There were several conversations going on but it was looking as if this exercise was not going to finish until midnight so it looked like another night stop. I did not mind, Xiamen had a lot going for it. Jing and the engineer were not so happy, going home had a higher priority than going on the razamataz in Xiamen.
There was a long conversation between them and then the engineer disappeared. Ten minutes later he came back with a case of Coca Cola and a carton of cigarettes and started handing them around the ops room like Father Christmas. In no time they pulled out a map showing us a SPECIAL ROUTE that avoided Shantou altogether.
Twenty minutes later we were on our way.
The crew format was that there was a European captain and a Chinese co-pilot who had a CAA endorsement to act as co-pilot. All the domestic ATC and most of the writing was in Chinese but my FO Wang was also excellent with his English so we did not need to carry an interpreter. He spent a couple of days at Tanjian ATC sorting out the route and flight plans whilst I scurried around the Imperial Palace and the Great Wall.
The great day came and we launched. In China all routes are controlled and even a helicopter has to fly airways. So we did and the minimum altitude was 8.000ft in the middle of a Chinese winter with no formal anti-icing kit on the aircraft. All we had was an icing detector and intake heating. The clearance we were supposed to fly to was the same as the North Sea; ie, it was OK to fly in icing conditions as long as you could descend to warmer air. I could not guarantee this so it was a case of suck it and see.
It was fine when we got up there. The Siberian High was well established so the cloudbase was way up above. Eastern China in winter is without doubt the most desolate looking place you could imagine. Anything that is not white with frost or snow is the same dull grey. Flat, featureless scenery with an unending patchwork of small fields stretching from horizon to horizon. About three quarters of the way to Xuzhao we hit some light freezing rain. Poor Wang had never experienced any sort of icing before and he was having kitten as the centre windscreen started freezing over. The aircraft itself was unaffected by this but he got on to Airways and obtained a shorter routing plus a descent to our refuelling airfield.
Xuzhao was a typical civilian/military airfield. We were flying on a Chinese company callsign and the last thing they expected to taxi in was a British registered helicopter with a foreign captain. On top of this Tanjian had not forwarded the follow up flight plan so we were stuck. Two Chinese Air Force chaps with guns accompanied us up to the tower so that Wang could sort things out. The control tower was literally ankle deep in dog ends and you could hardly see out of the windows. What I could see was a dreary colourless city which looked liked the last place in the world to night stop and rows of Mig 17s and IL 28s parked in a compound just off the airfield. Wang, after nearly two hours negotiated our further routing not to Shanghai as planned but via Changzhou. The minimum altitude was now down to 4.000 ft so he was a lot happier.
We refuelled from an old but absolutely immaculate bowser and punched off South again. We arrived at Changzhou and as I turned off I noticed that we were going to taxi in front of a row of H6 (Tu16) bombers. As I passed them I thought that there was something odd. Eventually it clicked. The entire hardstanding was brand new and the aircraft were surrounded by ground equipment in immaculate order. There were tyre marks on the pristine concrete from trucks and other vehicles but there was not a single aircraft tyre scuff mark. The aircraft had been parked there and had not moved.
Changzhou terminal building must be the most beautiful in the world. Built to look like an Imperial Palace with a Chinese pitched roof and water features all around it. An excellent meal in the restaurant and then we took off for Wenzhou, our night stop. It was dark when we took off. This was not a problem for us but it was for the Shanghai Area controller. He could not believe that a helicopter was at 9,000 ft, at night, flying IFR from one place to another. You could not keep him quiet. Every time someone else came on to the frequency he would pass a long warning about these madmen in a helicopter flying in the dark. Eventually we went down the long ILS to Wenzhou, which is on the coast a bit north of Taiwan. There I night stopped but the Chinese company decided that Wang should stay with the operation in Wenzhou and FO Jing would fly with me to Shenzhen.
The route from Wenzhou to Shenzhen I had flown before and it involved a refuelling stop at Xiamen. This time we had a Chinese engineer in the back bumming a ride. One has to be very careful on this route not stray east of the centre line of the airway because of the presence of Taiwan. It was a lot warmer so 8,000ft was not a problem. Arrived at Xiamen, confirmed the flight plan and off to lunch.
At 14.00 hrs we called for start clearance; we were told to hold. After twenty minutes we switched off to save the battery and trotted over to ATC to see what the delay was. Apparently the Chinese Air Force had started an exercise at Shantou and all none scheduled traffic was prohibited. A bit of a bind but I knew that all CAF exercises finished at 16.00 so not too much of a delay. 16.00 hrs came and went and no movement on Shantou. There were several conversations going on but it was looking as if this exercise was not going to finish until midnight so it looked like another night stop. I did not mind, Xiamen had a lot going for it. Jing and the engineer were not so happy, going home had a higher priority than going on the razamataz in Xiamen.
There was a long conversation between them and then the engineer disappeared. Ten minutes later he came back with a case of Coca Cola and a carton of cigarettes and started handing them around the ops room like Father Christmas. In no time they pulled out a map showing us a SPECIAL ROUTE that avoided Shantou altogether.
Twenty minutes later we were on our way.
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 8th Oct 2014 at 19:39.
Fareastdriver,
brilliant tale. Ah the effect a few 'goodies' has on lubricating the system'
brilliant tale. Ah the effect a few 'goodies' has on lubricating the system'
