As a first shared adventure, I would like to introduce Sir Alan Cobham, a great aviator with a vast range of flying ventures and services to aviation. Today, I can still see his legacy on a regular basis as his company aircraft route out to sea. My home county of Dorset echoes with links to Sir Alan's past.
In 1927 Sir Alan planned, not for the first time, a trip to Africa. For this journey he would be in a larger aircraft, the Short Singapore Mk1 flying boat. His trip to circumnavigate Africa, planned to depart from Short's works in Rochester, overfly London to wave to the nation high over the city at 2pm sharp, a lofty "GOODBYE" before turning left and flying on to the south of England home base to arrive on the Hamble River.
This short first leg was not without some not too serious adventure and mis-adventure. To quote one of his crew, commenting with a back drop of shouts and cries to "cast lines and get out of the way you ***** fool", "This is nothing compared to the normal arrival of a flying boat in an unsuspecting creek or river as we go south".
The stage is set.. 17th November 1927:
We are preparing for the initial flight from Rochester, following the Thames river via goodbyes over London, the river is to provide a possible landing site should we need it (flying over land in a flying boat, poses similar concerns to flying over water in a land plane). We then turn left for a forty mile overland hop to Hamble, Southampton on the English south coast.
In the modern world, Google maps and consultation of historical sources indicate where in Rochester Sir Alan might have departed from. We will produce a flight plan but leave the weather input until just before departure on the day. We will be considering fuel and heights, although most of the flight will be at low level, in fact, the Singapore rarely ventures above a nominal 5000ft. If we had weather information for the period, we can dial that into FSX, however I like to use real world weather where possible, just to give that little uncertainty and navigation anomalies. here is a link to the real world weather and cloud provider that I use, it is free in the UK and a nominal £5 or £6 annual fee if you leave the UK and wish the service to continue in FSX abroad. Open Clouds
Log notes: 24/10/21 [17/11/27]
As Alan Cobham arrived and boarded the Singapore moored and already running in the Medway, I too have entered the simulator aboard the Singapore gently floating in a moderate, south wind, early winter lunchtime light.
Today has been fairly leisurely, an inspection of the weather chart for this 17th November1927 has allowed a judgement to be made on what we might expect, perhaps Sir Alan might have thought "mmm there's a surprise, no rain for a change" as this year had a dreadful record of rain and storms. Perhaps Noah might have contemplated a flying boat in '27?
We are sandwiched between a low pressure out over the west coast of the country and high pressure to the east in the North Sea and eastern English Channel. We have a fairly moderate overcast day of 10 deg C temperature and winds are an nominal 10 kt SSW direction. Just right to help ensure that G-EBUP is off the water well before the M2 viaduct and high speed rail link crossing that span the river barely a mile ahead. Built in 1963 and developed by 2003, this had not been an issue for Sir Alan and his Crew.
"Uniform Papa" or "U for uncle. P - peter"? The phonetic alphabet has just been adopted this very year (1927), but it seems there were still considerable differences in levels of adoption within countries as well as internationally. Many military forces continue to use their own adaption that had been slowly evolving since WWI.
You might like to download this and play on repeat quietly in the background whilst you read this first part of our departure before the engines roar. Water Ambience (best set to repeat in your player)
Noting the time; 13:35, we must not be late for our 2pm London goodbye. A very limited pre flight check is carried out as there are no flaps, undercarriage, variable props or brakes. We can do a full and free control operation test, something that works even on the PC as I had forgotten to plug my rudder pedal USB in! Temperatures and pressures are all good, the gauges mounted on the engine pylons and duplicated in the cockpit. We slowly throttle the two virtual R-R Condor engines and monitor the gauges, given more room and in the real world, I might have carried out some high speed taxying whilst testing individual magnetos (two per engine), however the Singapore 1 has no water rudders and turns in a confined space are not possible, even with one engine off in the direction of turn as far as the sim is concerned and most likely for Sir Alan to some degree.
We begin to move, the control wheel is held hard back, much the same as a tailwheel land aircraft. In our case it keeps the water spray well aft as well as inviting the almost ten tons of aeroplane up out of the power sapping water to transition onto the planing hull.
We have now applied full power and the whole aircraft comes alive, she lifts gracefully to skip across the surface with a little balancing forward pressure on the control wheel to make the most of our new found nimble skim over the glittering surface. After less than twenty seconds of thrilling ski ride, we launch into the air with a light tug to unstick the water's last outstretched finger tips. We climb, shallow at first to build speed to 65 or 70 mph and then climb more steeply, clear of the looming M2 viaduct.
As the high speed rail link of today sweeps beneath our northerly tilted wings, we are an elegant white sailed tall ship leaving the race of the virtual modern world beneath us. Perhaps those who travel over the Medway approaching 200 mph in a real world modern train, might one day glance up and think of these outstretched wings setting course for an African adventure almost a century before.
We turned back over Rochester and gave a wing waggle as much as is possible with this very slow roll rate and high yaw requiring great big rudder inputs. I think it must have looked more like a large bull like swagger than a crisp farewell gesture.
Now to set for London at 2pm on a run up to tower bridge. This has been a new experience for me, I am not quite so relaxed on the part of the trip. The Singapore is very easy to fly as long as everything is pronounced and progressive. I feel it is best not to rush any maneuver, especially descending! The area is very alien to me, I have never visited the Rochester and London east area and I don't know London at all well. The weather had been brighter than expected and the river line made it easy for me to offset for drift although I should mentally note this for my route out toward Reading as the full crosswind effect will be giving me a bit of a push north.
Alan Cobham writes how the Thames is ideal for flying boats, and I have to agree with this great expanse of runway ahead of me, potentially very relaxing... but later he comments and withdraws trhat statement as he makes his way up the river between great tall buildings next to the 100 ft wingspan and I too agree. Sir Alan dropped down to 500 ft, something I was not prepared to do even in the Sim, 625 ft at 70mph was my lot! As the Shard and other high rise buildings swept by my wingtips I was happy to climb back up to 1000ft or so. I could imagine Lady Gladys standing in the cupola behind me, hair wildly flailing and a waving hand to match as we said goodbye to London, see you again soon!
From here I had a pretty good time re-enacting this now fairly relaxed virtual flight. I continued lazily westward toward the Staines lakes having peered down at Big Ben to read the time before finally straightening up over the Battersea and Chelsea area.
My wife, Bryony, came along to look over my shoulder at about this point. She was born in Chelsea although she didn't ever live in London for very long before her family moved to rural Wiltshire.
What I found intriguing, was how the overfly of London had really captured her attention, she drew a chair up next to me and became quite engrossed. To see this, quite demonstrated the potential lure of simulation. She had already been reading Alan Cobham's book (a nicely aged and battered 1932 reprint of his original 1930 account "20,000 Miles In A Flying Boat").
We held a westerly course very loosely until Windsor Castle, I had over corrected for the wind, picking up the castle a little more south than intended over such a short distance. I have to say that I was now getting into an area that I knew considerably better than the east. My navigation was becoming a little sloppy because I knew that setting south from here would simply bring me out on the south coast and an easy flight along to Southampton, with local knowledge, clearing weather and the absence of any airspace restrictions (as far as I know for 1927) I could just point and fly without a care to radios or infringements... that I do envy of Alan Cobham and all aviators of this period. In fact I am too carefree enjoying this flight because I should have been strict on monitoring my drift and the general tendencies of this lovely aeroplane so that I might be able to have better knowledge when I leave for France and on south tomorrow (subject to weather as I am conscious of the damp warm air coming up from the south west... maritime air... which might mean fog for tomorrow?)
In no time the English channel is before us and to my right the sunlight is glistening on the Solent, we turn starboard, I can imagine our marvelous white outstretched wings baring their underneath to the water reflected sunlight, we must look very majestic. Slowly we float down over the Hamble and have a good look at the adjacent Southampton estuary ready for landing, making sure all is clear of shipping and noting that Ken has some marker bouys out. We call ahead our position with Dits and Dahs of Morse code and state our intention, perhaps a little cheekily we also dit-dah ahead to put the kettle on .... a nice cup of tea please!
We swoop around over what will be the Empire Boat base and head more or less into wind for finals to land. Finally with a little right wing down and top rudder to help us with the slight wind off the starboard bow, then straighten up, floating, engines whispering, floating, holding off, a little trickle of power from the big R-R Condor V12 engines and finally we touch Southampton water just a little before the Hamble.
A moment before Uniform Papa sinks off the plane, I try to rudder over toward the Hamble, but it is too late, without adding a lot more power and more fuss she is not going to turn to port... I was too slow and relaxed. No matter, the tender will come a take us in tow to the Fairey Aircraft workshop frontage for our overnight and final preparation for tomorrows big trip when the expedition properly starts with Leg 2. Very much more serious from then on.
There is always a particular feeling when I unlatch a door or window, or simply sit in an open cockpit a moment after shutting an aircraft down. The various instruments wind down and the engines tick as they cool. But it is the silence.. the feeling of achievement; very deeply inhaled and held for just a moment. That is a very special time.
On the other hand by contrast, Sir Alan and crew were greeted by a most willing, but uninformed, motorised Yacht charging toward his rotating propellers. Seriously concerned the Singapore crew gesticulated to stay back, finally a stern, "punctuated" shout from Alan to stay away did the trick, Lady Cobham felt it time to return into the Salon as a matter of manners, Green the engineer assuring her this is perfectly normal when a flying boat arrives.
Ultimately the situation resulted in a near garroting of the yacht's well meaning helper in a dinghy as the rope took up slack and the official tender launch, whilst competing for position, colliding with the yacht which by now proudly had the Singapore in tow!
Ahh nice cup of tea...
Please note, as with the post, this video is a work in progress please revisit regularly.
I am working toward gathering all permissions and thank those whose material I have used to help in my illustration. I will give a final credit and bibliography before completion of the post.
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