Good night had by all in Faro, though rather too many G & T's for me - just getting my air legs then shock horror came out of Met at 11:30 and found that the flashy Honda had gone without us!
ENG Roberts says MA-DEE is as good as new, so at 12:00 we headed out, then when we had climbed to 14,000 ATC put us a new heading you guessed right, sent us back to Faro, every time we reinput the same happened there's a special name for that kind of Spanish gent'
I've flown many times from Gib to Hal Far so I cancelled our IFR Flight plan and went VFR.
I took her up to 36,000, she didn't like that too much and the view became a bit hazy so came back to 30,000 and after half an hour picked up the Algerian coast though here we were buzzed by a pair of French Air Force Mirage who came to see who we were, hope they got some good pics of MADEE
After a couple of hours we passed over Tripoli and another brought us to Benghazi, spent many happy hours there when I a young sprog over the desert we lost the ground to a Ghibli so came down and instead of pushing on to Maruh we decided to night stop at Gamal Abd El Nasser
(El Adem) ATC long gone so had not trouble finding my way to the apron.
This airfield has become quite featureless except for the water tower which still sticks up like a sore finger.
I remember the ABU Water Tower did the same until some daft charlie in an Argosy decided to beat up the Airfield but hadn't noticed the Water Tower that is until it was too late - killed the lot - poor blighters
A quick call to Abdulla Momud brought him hotfoot in an ancient Humber Shooting Brake to let us stay in his humble abode. In 69 he lived in a tent or rather 3 tents 1 for the men, 1 for the women, 1 for the Mercedes, in that year I attended his 4th Wedding I always remember his words then he said "Jonnie 1 wife no good, 2 wives fight, 3 wives 2 against 1 yes jonnie 4 wives best", well last night they made an old man very happy indeed.
On returning to the Airfield at 06:30 we found MADEE in a line up of six MIG-21's with russian crews dashing about, no one took the slightest notice as we calmly did our checks, taxied out and flew away east.
Soon we crossed the Quattra depression then came up to Cairo by 09:00 by 11:00 we were talking to Jeddah and at 14:54 we mad a textbook landing at Ali A.
OK Chaps crew just coming out from briefing just as the sun is coming up so as I wave good morning to the crew of a very smart Beech that came in overnight, I will sign off till I get another chance to mail you guys
Say who wrote this leg it's almost totally over the ocean I hate the ocean since I spent 3 days alone in a dingy somewhere near the Friesean Islands
think I'll rewrite this via Karachi
Have to say, your story had me laughing, enjoyed your encounter very much........ keep em coming mate.
BTW....... Sent you a morse regarding the password you requested, via carrier pigeon, it's in standard code, never know who may be listening on the jolly old wireless set.
Shhhhh........ I fear I have already said too much Oh, and shoot the pigeon....... he may squawk.
It's me again, Prune by name, prune by appearance, well I'm sorry to say that the prospect of miles & miles over water made me decide to go via Karachi.
Well that may have been a wrong decision as on our run into Jinnah Intnl (OPKC) 25L, we hit the the worst monsoon storm I've ever seen and what with it being dark and some charlie playing about with the airfield lighting (routine maintenance they said) we burst the port tyre on landing.
ENG says that the whole wheel is shot, the brakes have welded themselves together and he suspects that we've No I'll re-phrase that, I have bent the port U/C.
Eng says there are no spares and we'll have to wait till they can be sent out from blightey.
So there you have it.
Then in the bar I got talking to this RAF chappie who said they were enroute to OZ with a Nimrod MR1., on a goodwill flight and they will gladly take me along,
My Crew happy with that and when MADEE is fixed George Blossom my 2nd pilot with bring the old girl on playing catchup.
Once we were airborne with me in the righthand seat they headed south, I was a bit bothered so I asked the skipper where they were headed "Gan" he said didn't they tell you, then Coco's then a round robin of calls in OZ.
"By the way",says he "You got any hours on this beast?",
"No" said I "but I flew a couple of trips with John Cunningham on the old Comet 2".
"Well thats good" says he getting out of his seat, "You have her, I have to make a call down the back, that curry I had last night has given me the *****", and with that he was gone.
So here I am flying a big white beast just as if I did it every day...
funny ol' life isn't it!
ENG says that the whole wheel is shot, the brakes have welded themselves together and he suspects that we've No I'll re-phrase that, I have bent the port U/C.
Eng says there are no spares and we'll have to wait till they can be sent out from blightey.
Just don't disclose that you hit a MOOSE on landing and you will be forgiven, possibly.
"So they are! oh what fun, Ain't it Great to be alive and 200 miles from the mainland scouring these atolls for one lttle airstrip"
" What was that?"
"Some wiseguy said he left the ignition key behind the sun visor" then it went dead again"
"This is XRAY VICTOR 226 HEAVY CALLING MALE CENTER"
"26 Heavy understand you wish to cancel IFR, Please Confirm?"
"negative do not cancel IFR, 26 Heavy!"
"26 Heavy turn right 280 reduce Altitude to 5000, Airfield 35 miles in your 12 oclock confirm visual"
"Say Percy think you can put us down in one piece, that curry is still attacking my gut and my 2nd pilot went sick when we left Karachi
he's out cold down the back"
"Skipper in an emergency anything is possible"
"Ok Gan Tower 26 heavy with you 5000 feet to land"
"26 Heavy, cleared to land"
"Ok chaps, hang on this could be bumpy" ok theres the glide slope flaps 20% gear down, 1000, 500, throttle back cross the threshold hold the nose up air brakes out touchdown nice and gentle, nose down, idle throttles reverse thrust engines to idle taxi to dispersal pure textbook"
Big Cheer goes up " That calls for G & T,s all round skipper" " now where's that blasted ignition key
Have been sat here in the Cocos Officers Beach Cub supping a series of G & T's & thought I should tell you of our adventure yesterday.
We left Gan (VRMG) at 0500 and were soon cruising at 30,000 ft and were playing a game of Scrabble as GEORGE kept us on track for Cocos
(VPCC), with just the occasional input from us to allow for drift.
Suddenly a voice boomed out of the radio "GASTRUCK 50, 26 Heavy, You
wanting a fill up".
I suspect that the crew had forgotton that rendavous as they dashed about, I was even asked to remove my size 10' 's from the mantlepiece so that the boys could manouvre their nozzle in to the lowered hose basket.
All was going well until the was a loud "pop" and all four engines flamed out together and we fell away to the north lossing height rapidly. I had visions of bobbing around in a dingy surrounded by the shark infested waters of the South Indian Ocean for weeks on end.
The ENG was ripping off panels throwing swicthes and for what seemed ages nothing happend, the skipper struggling to keep this flying brick airborne, but as we passed 5,000 the engines one by one spluttered back into life and the beast righted herself and slowly clawed her way back into the blue
Ain't it exciting this flying lark
"I say Steward, we'll have another round of the same when you're ready, and have one yourself on Murphy"
What a couple of days I've had, since having arrived in Cocos.
I've left the RAF ripping the fuel system apart, so when a big blue 707 came in, I bought myself a scheduled flight to Darwin.
On the apron large as life sat MA-DEE so once we had rounded up the crew from all the bars & houses of ill repute in town, we flew out at 1300 enroute for Saipan in a raging blizzard I thought Australia was hot with loads of bushfires, not here.
All went well till it got dark and then as we crossed Papua New Guinea we lost all navaids, then the lights, all thing electric stone dead, so by dead reckoning and just a bit of luck by following a Piper Apache that appeared to be going in the right direction and was losing height we dropped unanounced in at Jacksons international, Port Moresby.
Here we managed to hire a Learjet so by a bit of jiggery-pokery with a paintbrush in a quiet corner of the airfield she became MA-MCCN and rather than go through all the ATC paperwork we deserted this hellhoe, as unexpectedly as we arrived and only called for IFR to Sendall after we well out of range of that dreadful place.
I have gotton to look forward to reading your posts, they have been a mixture of comedy, fact & fiction all rolled into one........... and I just love em.
maybe you should team up with Jaeg-, between the pair of you, your stories are a joy.
Jedoch viel, das wir Vorlesung Ihr Material genießen, erscheint es, dass Sie etwas vom ursprünglichen Thema von diesem Thema beeinträchtigen, vielleicht wenn Sie waren, das Flugzeug zu benutzen, das wir Zeit der Herstellen verbracht haben, würde es den Geschichten mehr credability bringen, den Sie schaffen. .... Der am meisten haben hier Schwierigkeit verstehend Ihre Erzählungen.
Translation:
However much we enjoy reading your material, it does appear that you are detracting slightly from the original theme of this topic, maybe if you were to use the aircraft that we have spent time producing, it would bring more credability to the stories you create..... Most here are having trouble understanding your tales.
End.
(I doubt you understood the above, only a few would, so you really need to introduce the Maddie aircraft to your stories, so that all can relate)
What's all this jabberwocky, I didn't know you spoke boxhead may be you can only write it, though not to understand it, yer understand.
A chap needs to ramble a bit to get his dUCKS in a row, and talking of DUCKS which we weren't, I've got say this..........
"GOOD SHOW" to Captain Chesney Sullenberger for his superb example of airmanship in bringing US Airways Flight 1549 safely down in the Hudson River, and thereby saving the lives of all 155 people.
"Sulley you are an example to us all"
Yesterday we escaped from Port Moresby & headed north following the jolly ol' fight plan supplied, when we arrived in the the Tokyo area we started getting passed from one controller to another, then on to another and so on.
These jolly ol' nippon chaps reduced our height by 10,000 ft then directed us on a roundabout route around the city limits took us 2 hours to get back on track, after that jolly ol' wild GOOSE chase we managed to pick up a Tail wind, must go as GEORGE requires my attention.
Ta Ta for now chaps,
mmm..mmm I know a gal in Kalamazoo.... mmm mmm I know a BIRD in Saipan mmm...mmm...
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Oh, and shoot the pigeon....... he may squawk.
