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ICARUS NEWSLETTER
Spring2011
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We send our condolences to the families of the following absent friends:
Alan Biltcliffe Barbara Harmer Paul Hodgson
Eric Keevy Peter McKeown Colin McLeod
Peter Middleton Fred Openshaw Ray Piercey
Dave Pink George Roberts Paul Rowbottom
It is a shame that Peter Middleton did not live to see the forthcoming marriage of his granddaughter Catherine. He received a fine obituary in The Times, on November27th 2010which can be foundlater in the newsletter.
Sadly Barbara Harmer, the only woman to fly the British Concorde, lost her battle against a long illness and died on 20th February. She also received a fine obituary in the Times which can also be found at the end of the newsletter
Those of us who were fortunate enough to be at Airtours in the early years greatly miss Pete McKeown, who gained the respect and loyalty of us all whilst he led the Airtours team.
The first picture shows Captain Peterin Lufthansa uniform whilst opening up their routes for them. The second photograph shows PJ addressing those present at the Airtours 40th anniversary lunch at Brooklands, on6th March 2010. A copy of the eulogy given by John Mason at Peter’s funeral service is also appended to this newsletter.
The death of David Pink happened in unfortunate circumstances. He was walking in the DrakensbergMountains in SA with his wife and a guide in early February when the weather deteriorated and he was struck by lightning before they could reach a refuge. He sadly died four days later.
People News
It was good to hear from Chris Spurrier.I noticed that he had written a poignant article which will bring back memories of bad days in the “office” as co-pilots!
It was published in Guild News and Chris has kindly agreed for me to reproduce the piece here for those of you that do not subscribe to that publication. It is called “I learnt about flying from that”:
“I am sitting in the right-hand seat of a VC10 on the way to Addis Ababa and the events thatoccur are most unusual and more than somewhat interesting! Esteemed Commander (E.C.) is on his first trip post-command course and the aeroplane is going to the Seychelles, via Addis.
I am looking forward to a couple of days in each place (those were the days!). Addis in the 1970s is a rather nice place and a good time can be had by one and all. I am somewhat friendly with the station manager and there are a couple of pounds of best cheddar in my suitcase for his son, who has a craving for the stuff. This, it is to be hoped, will see a few beers float our way, sometime after landing. Then there is a rather nice restaurant called The Cottage where the waitressesare particularly sinuous Nubians, who wiggle in a most enticing manner. I was there only a couple of weeks back and the prospect of another evening at The Cottage is filling me with a rosy sort of glow and in fact all is pretty good with the world.
Or at least it is until abeam Khartoum, when our engineering consultant announces that we ought to shut down number 4 engine. There is not a lot of drama to shutting down an engine on a VC10 so we do that and our esteemed commander puts on his best pensive mode. Spare engines are thin on the ground at Addis but there is one in Nairobi, this being the time that BOAC scattered spare engines around the world for situations like this. Moreover Addis, being hot and high with a short runway is not the place from which to contemplate a three-engine ferry. So E.C. announces that we are continuing to Nairobi (NBO) – good decision so far!NBO isn’t actually our alternate but we can probably get there all right so frantic sums follow (no computer flight plans or INS in these days) so all manual calculations. There are three of us pilots, one doing the navigating with a sextant and lots of complicated stuff like log tables. NBO is about 600 miles further than Addis and HF comms are not very good over Africa so I am doing a great deal of shouting to arrange a reroute. This is all most exciting and I am more or less convinced that all concerned know what is happening as we steam off southwards. What I’ve not mentioned so far is the NBO forecast which says fog for our estimated arrival time. E.C. is a sanguine sort of chap so when I point this out to him he says “Yes I know, but the forecast for NBO always says fog for this time of day at this time of the year”. So we continue south and the sun comes up and we eventually get within VHF range of NBO. They seem surprised to hear from us but we are mostly expecting that. What we are not expecting is to be told to enter the hold as number eight to land because it is foggy! This is definitely not part of the masterplan, as we are becoming seriously short of fuel by now; also the pax are beginning to wake up and enquire as to why we are still airborne, rather than sitting on the ground at Addis. Only one thing for it – Kilimanjiro.
Kili is quite close, has a long runway, is rarely used and has no fog.So off we go again.This time it all works well and we find ourselves sitting on the ground with 140 pax, a dead aeroplane and a near-deserted airport. This has become a real adventure. We manage to get the terminal opened up and some breakfast sorted out with the cabin crew helping the locals with the service. Meanwhile E.C. is trying to find hotels. There are some, but they are ten miles away and there is only one 30-odd seater bus available – also, there are not enough rooms available! A new career looms for me and the other first officer as we set up a mini accommodation bureau pairing off all the singles to make the rooms spin out. There is an enormous amount of goodwill from the pax considering that they expected to be in Addis and the Seychelles, rather than Kilimanjiro. Anyway, we set off to the hotels after a very long day (night) before overtime payments had been invented. I still have a letter in my log book from a person high-up in cabin services dept thanking me for being a good steward by helping to serve meals on the ground!
Minimum rest is taken, after which we are back off to the airfield, minus the pax but with the cabin crew, for a three engine ferry flight to NBO. As I had done some 3-eng ferries in the RAF I am surprised that no one seems to think twice about this and there are no requests for permissions or dispensations as we do the sums. I wrongly assume that the E.C. has done at least one such take off for practice as part of the command course and we just do it. Very interesting it is too at that altitude! With the entire BOAC African schedule now in tatters, we finally deliver our aeroplane to meet its new engine and set off to the hotel, to await flying the serviceable aircraft back to London. No meal in The Cottage, no days in the Seychelles; but I learnt about flying from that!
I learnt that when the forecast nearly always says fog it is often because there nearly always is fog.I learnt that if you are going to initiate a long range diversion it is a good idea to have a spare diversion-for-the-diversion up your sleeve. Above all I learnt that flying commercial aeroplanes isn’t just about flying. It is very much about looking after your passengers in unexpected circumstances and taking control of your own destiny when you are somewhere out of the way. Don’t ask – just do it. Finally I learnt that there was someone in the higher echelons of cabin services who thought that pilots came under their control.
******
Mike Bannister has provided some information which will be of interest to those with a soft-spot for the Big White Speed Machine. Youwill recall the fine picture of Concorde G-BOAF over the Clifton Suspension Bridge in 2003,prior to Les Brodie landing the icon smoothly and accurately at Filton, to complete the very last Concorde flight. Since then it has remained outside, in anticipation of the building of a museum toprotect alpha-foxtrot from the elements. Although it has been open for public visits, the revenue generated has become insufficient to cover the day-to-day operating costs, let alone the funding of a museum. A recent BA annual inspection revealed the need to repair leaks and corrosion at various locations around the airframe and a maintenance/preservation programme will be carried out in the Airbus hangar at Filton before the aeroplane is returned to its existing outdoor location but without public access.There will now be a renewed effort by Airbus, BA, The Concorde Trust, members of the Bristol Aero Collection and other interested parties to find a permanent home for the aircraft where she can be displayed and preserved appropriately.
The work of the Trident Preservation Society has been brought to my attention by TerryHendersonwho was contacted by Neil Lomax, the preserver of Trident 3B
G-AWZK, now on display at ManchesterAirport. Those who consider the HS 121 Trident 1C to have been a masterpiece of aviation will no doubt want to follow the efforts of the resolute team, including Neil and project leader Tony Jarrett,who intend tomove the last remaining complete airframe (G-ARPO) to Sunderland. Papa Oscar was delivered to TeesideAirport (now DurhamTeesValley, formerly Middleton St. George) by DickBoasin 1983, which was the very last flight of a BA Trident. It resided in the Fire Training area of the airfield but survived complete as it was used for smoke and evacuation purposes, rather than as a bonfire. The intention is to dismantle the airframe into a kit of parts and to transport them to the NorthEastAircraftMuseum for re-assembly. Details are updated regularly on the website which carries the latest project information.
Flights to Remember…. (or forget!):
Not BOAC/BEA/BA incidents, but a brace of accidents involving three HS748s, thankfully resulting in no significant injuries to those aboard. The 748 or “Budgie” as it was affectionately known by our boys, was a work-horse of our airline’s Highlands and Islands Division, replacing the Viscount, and the type performed well in the demanding Scottish weather conditions and limited airfield infrastructure. These two incidents show that getting things slightly wrong and getting things slightly right are but a whisker apart. It is surprising that there were still several grass airfields in the south of England handling public transport flights in the mid 1960s and these two incidents occurred at two of them - Lympne and Portsmouth - although Lympne did acquire a concrete runway in 1967, as a result of frequent closures due to water-logging.
(i) Skyways Coach-Air HS748 G-ARMV 1630hrs, 11th July 1965.
The aeroplane was operating a scheduled Beauvais to Lympne, service as part of the Paris to London coach and air integration carrying 2 pilots 2 cabin crew and 48 pax. Lympne, near Hythe in Kent, had three mown grass strips and an SRA approach was available to the r/w 20 strip, with a landing limit of 200ft ceiling and 1100m RVR.
The actual weather was given as visibility 1000m in drizzle, cloud base 250ft and wind 220/18 gusting 26kts. The final instrument approach in azimuth, with height per mile advice being given by the Lympne radar controller, commenced at 4 miles from touchdown, when the aircraft was in cloud at 1100ft in turbulence. At half a mile from touchdown when the talk-down finished, the controller advised the pilots that they were lined up with the right hand side of the strip. The remainder of the approach was made visually, but the radar man continued to track the aeroplane and he observed it deviating further to the right of the extended centre line as it neared the touchdown point.
The captain subsequently said that he could see the ground from 250ft, and at half a mile out and 220ft, could see the far boundary of the field through heavy drizzle. 220ft was maintained for 3 to 4 seconds and then descent recommenced with full flap and reduced power when the turbulence became severe. The captain realised that the aircraft was going to the right of the strip but decided not to regain the centre line as it would require a turn at a low height. As the airfield boundary was crossed the starboard wing was held down to compensate for the port drift and the airspeed was fluctuating around 88kts, but as he closed the throttles the starboard wing suddenly dropped. Although aware that the aeroplane was descending rapidly, the captain was more concerned at restoring lateral level and only at the last moment did he attempt to reduce the rate of descent. The 748 struck the ground very heavily on its starboard undercarriage, with the impact tearing off the starboard wing, engine and undercarriage leg. The aircraft rolled over to starboard onto its back and slid along the ground inverted, coming to rest having swung through 180 degrees.
Fortunately the passengers and crew were able to exit the aeroplane relatively unscathed. Welcome to Lympne! The cause was listed as “a very heavy landing, following an incomplete flare from a steeper than normal approach”. Despite the provision of a concrete runway in 1967 ( still visible on Google Earth) the airfield closed and Skyways was absorbed into Dan-Air in 1972.
(ii) Channel Airways HS748s G-ATEK 1248hrs & G-ATEH 1434hrs 15th August 1967
Both aeroplanes were scheduled to arrive within 90 minutes of each other, at Portsmouth’s grass airfield, from Southend and Guernsey respectively and both crews experienced patchy low cloud and rain in the visual circuit. No information was given to the first aircraft’s pilots concerning the wet aerodrome surface conditions and the captain elected to land on the R/W36 strip. Following touchdown the aeroplane initially decelerated, but in the later stages of the ground roll it was apparent that it would not stop in the distance available and it came to rest, seriously damaged, on top of an embankment forming part of the northern airfield boundary. The19 pax and 4 crew used the rear door to evacuate the aircraft. Although the captain attributed this accident to the poor state of the aerodrome surface, the airport manager blamed it on a late, fast touchdown and assessed the aerodrome as serviceable.
The second 748 made a partial right hand circuit to the south of the city to land on R/W07 strip. The captain was aware of the poor braking conditions having landed at Portsmouth three hours previously, and was warned by the tower to expect poor braking – he was not, though, advised of the mishap to G-ATEK. He misjudged the first approach and after bouncing a number of times the aircraft took off again for an approach in the same direction following another right hand circuit. After a firm touchdown the aeroplane initially decelerated for the first two thirds of the landing roll but then deceleration became negligible. The aircraft slid until it broke through the perimeter fence, coming to rest on the main road, having sheared off the nose and main wheel legs on a raised banking at the side of the road. A rapid evacuation of the 62 pax and 4 crew was made through the main doors, which were at ground level. Fortunately at the time of the crash there was a break in the usually heavy traffic on this road. Although the actual fuselage of G-ATEH was only slightly damaged in the accident itself extensive damage was inflicted on the rear fuselage by unqualified personnel during efforts to remove the plane from the road before the arrival of an RAF salvage team with proper equipment.
Subsequently, in establishing the cause of the accidents, it became evident that the Portsmouth HS748 operation was unsafe at the permitted maximum landing weight whenever the grass was anything other than dry. This situation seemed to have resulted from the omission of necessary landing distance increments by the MoA which should have been applied in wet conditions at grass airfields, based on information calculated following tests in 1962, coincidentally, undertaken at Lympne! It is ironic that the UK authority had recommended to their counterparts in New Zealand that a 30% wet landing increment be applied at NZ grass airfields, whereas they did not call for an increment to be applied similarly in the UK. When such an increment was made mandatory shortly after the accidents the Channel Airway’s Portsmouth 748 operation was terminated as being impractical and uneconomic. The airfield eventually closed in 1973 and is now an industrial and housing estate. Channel Airways ceased operations in 1972.