Cont'd:
November 18th. Planned day of departure following yesterdays arrival from Rochester via Westminster.
Weather stepped in to the picture today, with howling gales from the south that would reduce their 500 mile journey to just 40 to 50 mph, to say nothing of the discomfort battling against the blustery headwind.
The following day wasn't much better. Sir Alan and his crew made a short exploratory attempt to depart for Bordeaux, but fog quickly wrapped around them leaving little option but to trace their route back from over the Isle of Wight and again down onto Southampton Water.
Finally, on a grey overcast November 20th 1927, they were able to leave the historic Hamble mouth and set a course to the Needles on the west of the IOW and then on southward. With the Aeroplane serviced and loaded and goodbyes given, they taxied away from the Fairey Aircraft works on the Hamble river mouth looking over their shoulder toward the incredibly historic naval and aviation area. I am sure that among the crew there must have been more than one thought that they too were destined to add another leaf into the rich Hamble history books.
Note, most images will enlarge if clicked upon. They can then be collapsed via an x in the top left corner.
Area 7 indicates the old Fairey Works Location. Please visit http://www.delscope.co.uk/aviation/hamble.htm to whom this map belongs.
Virtual Flight Log: 20th November 1927.
According to the weather forecast, the conditions are far more favourable today, although overcast and grey. We will be flying into increasingly warm air and light winds but rain is likely to become a reality as we approach that centre of pressure very close to our Bordeaux (Lake Hourtin) destination. Initially we should expect moderate winds from the South East and these are likely to reduce as we go south. I imagine it might be possible to encounter some mist and fog, always an aviator's worry.
As we set off please keep looking in, I will continue to document the flight:
Departure:
Here we go as we taxi out into our virtual Southampton water adjacent to the Hamble river mouth, I note the wind direction as the virtual Singapore I weathercocks into the wind.
Taking a poignant moment to look to my starboard landscape, in this virtual world there stands a 650' landmark, Fawley chimney has stood here for almost 50 years and has become part of the skyline for shipping and aviation, I have used it for a reference on my solo cross country Nav-Ex in the early 90s and many times since in the sim and for real. Sadly, as I was taxiing out for the flight yesterday (Sunday) morning, the chimney was no longer there in the real world, for at 7.00am that very morning it and the surrounding power station were dramatically destroyed in controlled explosions ready to make way for a 1500 home, new waterside Fawley complex. Good bye to a great landmark that many a traveler might have been relieved to see as they anxiously glance up from their charts... assuming they are not too close and below 650' of course!
I'm glad it will be with us in the sim for a few more years, although it is actually out of place as I accelerate the Singapore and coax it onto the step in this 1927 November 20th revisited.
If you are interested in the death of the chimney here is a short clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFx2n91glq4
We are clear of the water, it is my plan to orbit the chimney out of respect and climb to 2500' before setting 225 deg for the Needles (the wind is on the nose for this leg, but we will carefully keep an eye on the time to check the ball park wind direction and strength before turning left to Guernsey). Strangely I had a technical distraction that resulted in some sloppy, although safe flying. The virtual engines sounded different and this was odd. It seemed like the .wav file for full throttle had a slight break in each loop cycle. This resulted in a check of the gauges and a confirming look back at each propellor to make sure all was turning, we certainly had ample power. Throttling back made a difference and as I was by now above my intended height I rolled the throttle back to a lazy 1700 rpm and continued on.
At the Needles I turned left onto an initial 210 degrees and set out for a 100 mile sea crossing into rain and ever reducing grey overcast ceilings.
I had set the sim weather as close to Alan Cobhams trip as possible although I think his wind may have been stronger.
Sir Alan mentioned in his book that he applied the same navigation method as he and his co pilot, a fellow RFC officer named Worral, had picked up in the war. He doesn't say exactly what the method is but, I suspect it must have been similar to how I was taught as a ball park method when flying single handed with a thumb on the map. I had worked some scenarios into the flight plan before but I really wanted to do as much of this "on the hoof " navigation as I can to give a little more uncertainty and challenge. I roughly worked out the max drift possible for the aeroplane [nominal 0.75 of windspeed] as 12 deg with 16kt windspeed, having factored that into the known wind on departure. The wind was thought to be about 250 deg / 16kts.
Taking the three memorised figures (from my old instructor) of Sin 30 = 0.5, Sin 45 = 0.7 and Sin 60 = 0.9 we can make a simple calculation, in our case the ball park figure was 40 degree off the nose wind is equal to sin 40 deg which gives 0.7 of max drift, resulting in a nominal 8.4 deg drift. With this in mind and backed up by the flight plan scenario, we noted and made a turn into the wind of a nominal 6 degrees. My reason for 6 degrees was a compromise failsafe just in case the wind was less than expected we would be less likely to track out into the Atlantic, risking missing the channel islands altogether, but drift toward France, a much safer option in these conditions of poor visibility. Should there be any problem and the channel islands do not come up in the timing period, we can make an educated guess and turn to port to intercept the French coastline.
The flight continued and I watched the clock very closely. The sea was 85% covered by low misty cloud the rain lashed from dense cloud ahead. I strained to look out to the virtual sea as the time of waypoint arrival drew closer, and then, by incredible chance, I glimpsed a glow low to stbd just ahead of our nose. It was only in view for a moment, a rocky outcrop with a light house, but still surrounded by huge amounts of sea. An attempt to count the light interval as an identification failed as the lighthouse disappeared in the mist. Quickly I turned to the chart and there to the NW of Guernsey by quite a long distance I found the outcrop. I quickly "eyed" a new track on the chart and turned the Singapore a few degrees to port, beginning a careful let down through the mist before we arrived over any land. I once again strained my eyes for Guernsey and Sark. By turning a little more to port, I felt that increased my chance of landfall even if it were France it would be better than travelling too far to the west and missing everything!
Can you see the lighthouse just below? A lucky time to glance overboard and thank goodness for an open cockpit.
Finally the islands of Guernsey and Sark loomed into view ahead, quickly followed by the more distant outline of Jersey. I (along with Alan Cobham and all aboard), breathed a little sigh of relief as the trip today would be very much more straight forward from here... weather permitting.
I gave a thought of my own past as I swept by a mist covered virtual Guernsey, to use a phrase from author and test pilot Harald Penrose, the mist draped in the valley as a "discarded wedding veil". Not only a perfect description but in my case this was very apt as this island was the location for our bicycling honeymoon quite a long time ago.
The weather was really beginning to clear for the moment as we set off toward Brest knowing that even with a maximum possible drift, we would comfortably make land fall as the coastline will stretch right across the front of us, filling the horizon when we arrive at a nominal 2000'.
Ah, Guernsey ahead!
Having traversed the Brest peninsula, which once again bathed us in poor visibility, we aimed to set course along the Brittany coast.
Looking toward Brest in very poor low level visibility.
Now such things as distinctive bays and islands would make you think it no problem (I did!) with such obvious landmarks. The fact is, I turned a little early over a group of watery inlets at the beginning of the coastline interception and additionally the sometimes pretty dense, low mist that urged us to turn away and parallel the coastline, maintaining low level below the misty and rain clouds at a safer distance from the high edged cliffline. All made a contribution to our definite edge of the seat poise for a short while.
Finally things settled down having made a very further poor judgement of following an estuary and floodplain for a short while inland before I realised my mistake. Marshland looks very insignificant on the chart or map, it looks like land. Here below me the flooded land made a great impression of harbour and coastline for quite a way before I realised my mistake, hurriedly turning right overland toward what must be the real coastline beyond the mist.... mustn't it ? I am pleased to say that yes it was and we curved back southward assured of our coastline route as the mist began to lift.
So the moral of the story is don't become complacent. In theory little could go wrong simply following the water's edge. But, I had not allowed for goldfish bowl views, extensive flooded marshland and I had neglected the compass course and my biggest ally, the clock.
"Feeling very chastised. Point taken".
From here I carefully logged Brittany overhead time, and plotted for the expected La Rochelle and Gironde times of arrival. Noting fuel levels at La Rochelle as 25% remaining, very good as we didn't have to far to go as the light began to draw into an autumnal evening.
A few local photos of the Lake Hourtin which went on to be a haven for flying boats along with nearby Bicarosse, gave me a good insight into what to expect. We were due into the north of the lake which sits parallel to the coast by less than a few Kilometres, surrounded by dune beaches and pine forest.
Finally it came into view and we overflew from the coastline, turned back and into the wind for a gentle landing and taxi to where I thought we were meant to be, I was not quite in the right place which required the Singapore to be dragged (slewed) to the opposite shore for the night.
Here Alan Cobham and his crew had a great evening. Local restaurants fed and wined them to a high standard of merriness with good down to earth food and local wine. The crew happily made their way to bed, but what an adventure this unraveled. As if they had not had enough altitude for the day, they were confronted by huge tall beds typical for this historical area of rural France. The tallest crew member is nominated to give each of the shorter members a "leg up" atop the towering nest, finally he then had to resort to a chair and a leap of faith, at last to slump aboard his night time perch.
Brittany coast view from the bow cupola .... through goggles!
Lake Hourtin comes into view
Bicarosse post 1927, similar to the Lake Hourtin location although this may be a little larger and more grand.
To be cont'd with a new post Leg 3.
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