It's happened to you...

[Ralf Roggeveen]

It is Christmas Eve here in Nottingham, the Sheriff, King John & Sir Guy of Gisborne are holed up in the castle, having banned all celebrations. Norman soldiers stalk the streets, intimidating peasants. Robin, Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlett, Alan A Dale, Maid Marian & the Merry Men are busy feasting on the king's venison down in Sherwood Forest. They have made a huge roaring fire out of a couple of oak trees, also the property of King John; I can see it burning from here...

But I'd better not leave the Carters up there at 19000 feet, even if they are snoring away in their special "SleepAir" seats.

ATC gets busy as we approach Gander. Incidentally, when we briefly went back over the US, we got Boston Centre for a while; this shows the crossing from Quebec into Maine:

After that we got good old Moncton again, which you may remember from the Speedbird RTW. Talking of Speedbirds, we overheard this above Newfoundland:

Think it was another Seven Seas, but it can't have been the same one we left behind at Dorval. Approach map for Gander showing most of Newfoundland:

Descending there. View on Final:

The flaps are down two notches, but that is still a bit fast at only 600ft. Nor do those red lights bode well, 8 degrees out! But I did get it onto the concrete.

Perhaps over-compensated a bit too far to the right. There are our main landing lights deployed - they hadn't yet been turned on in the previous 2-D panel shot (switch above the Autopilot). Here's the terminal:

Some attractive AI:

That must be Speedbird 632:

And we park in our place next to him:

Dirk & I were just agreeing that it was good to break the flight up into smaller sections like this, when our Stewardess, Miss Schripsema, came into the cabin, very agitated.

'Oh Captain Roggeveen! Something terrible has happened!' (This scene is getting to be an occupational hazard on these flights).

'What is it, Henriette?'

'We've RUN OUT of Gouda! I can't understand it; there was enough to fly half way round the world when we left Houston, but now - for the first time ever in the whole forty year history of KLM - a Dutch aircraft is completely out of one of the national cheeses... It's almost unbelievable; and on my watch.'

It was a crisis, we'd never be able to replenish stocks here in Gander; but I kept my cool and simply asked the most important question:

'How are we for Edam?'

 

[tgibson]

Hi Ralf,

LOL! Out of Gouda on Christmas Day (at least around here it is) - what a disaster! Those Carters...

BTW, I have seen the Northern Lights in default FS9, but it's rare.

A little plane spotting:

The DC-3 taking off at Houston is Continental Air Lines, departing for Austin.

The Trans Canada (TCA) aircraft on the tarmac at Montreal was another Viscount. They were the first North American airline to buy them, and gave many other US airlines the confidence to buy them too. There was also a Quebecair DC-3 there.

On take off you were followed by a TCA DC-4m, a Canadair produced DC-4 with RR Merlin engines and pressurization. They were called Argonauts by BOAC.

Right now you are parked next to an Eastern Provincial DC-3, which provided local service in the Maritime provinces of Canada.

Happy Holidays,

Tom Gibson
CalClassic Propliners
www.calclassic.com

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Hi Tom! Thanks for i/d'ing your AI - we have a few nice ones coming up at the end of this leg (Shannon), especially for fans of Pan Am... You will also see that I took your advice about rearranging the DC7 files, improving the virtual cockpit and giving us...

...steps! Yay! (and chocks).

It will be recalled that the plan is to break Montreal - Schiphol again, flying Gander - Shannon which is supposed to take about six hours.

Due to the notorious MS Atlantic IFR glitch I had to navigate myself, flying a heading of 90 - 110 degrees all the way. The idea is that once we get to Shannon, the next stage, into Schiphol, will at least get proper ATC guidance. That was a Trans Canada Viscount leaving just ahead of us, they became Air Canada in '64. What was this parked on the other side?

An Eastern Provincial Airways DC-3; they're now part of Canadian Pacific. (Mustn't forget to switch that autopilot off before we start to taxi). Here we are following the Viscount out to a bleak runway:

Outside view:

It may not have been quite so cold, but we have had similar weather here in England over Christmas - I spent some time shovelling snow like Philbert Desanex, and scattering the ashes from last night's open fire to give some grip on the ice, both for pedestrians and cars.

He's just leaving. This shot shows us heading out to sea, leaving the North American mainland behind - next continent Europe!

It had just reached cruise altitude of 19,000 ft. Mrs Carter does, in an uncharacteristically aviation-minded moment, once mention being at 24,000 ft; but I stayed low due to (justified) worries about our descent on the other side.

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Having spent Reality Boxing Day morning rearranging my DC-7 files, didn't leave Gander till after lunch, around 14:00 hrs. Here it is in level flight and still in daylight:

Wonder if I'll ever be privileged to see the MS default Aurora Borealis? (Do have a job to do with a Canadian Pacific DC-6 even further north, so may yet get lucky). Anyway, having left so late, of course it went dark again:

Subsequent legs will be shorter, and I promise they'll be flown in daylight too! On a real flight the stars do look fantastic from the middle of the Atlantic (or presumably any big sea). Think I once before told the story about sitting beside a stupid (British) policeman on a Virgin transatlantic flight and remarking, halfway over, 'Look how beautiful the stars are,' to which he replied 'Well they should be. It's night.'

What a sad man. It was just a few days after 9/11, which pinpoints the year... anyhow, let's stick with the 20th Century:

It was dark. We did hear a little bit of radio chatter on the way over, something about Pan Am 707s, which seemed exciting, though I didn't actually see any other aircraft till we were over Ireland.

This map shows our approach and the whole of the British Isles, in fact most of Western Europe including Iceland:

Britain isn't really that big compared with France & Spain, but the British managed to make sure that everyone usually uses the Mercator projection which not only puts the UK bang in the middle, but also exaggerates its size! The universally-accepted Zero (Greenwich) Meridian does of course run through London, so it makes sense, as does GM (Zulu) Time. Here's a little light relief:

KLM stewardess Marie Cref-Coeur has just delivered the Barakats' baby boy! (Luckily for everyone concerned, this was not on one of the Carters' flights). Anyone recognise the aircraft interior? It may be a DC-7. Presumably the baby decided to arrive well in advance of his ETA, but it seems surprising that a heavily-pregnant woman was allowed to fly. Wonder if they called him Douglas?

Not that I was worried about babies; without IFR, getting in touch with Shannon in plenty of time to make the approach descent was more important! But by the time I did make contact...

...we were too close and too high. Bah! A BIG loop and descent to get in late, around 20:55, annoying as we were spot on time in both previous legs.

The moment of crossing the coast of Ireland:

Oddly enough, there was much more light down there in the rather sparsely-populated West of Ireland than we saw that time from the Comet near Tokyo. Very strange.

Of course, if you are Dutch you may also be worrying about the critical cheese situation. Miss Schripsema was convinced that it would be an everlasting disgrace to arrive at Schiphol without any Gouda, but I believed that we still had one last chance to redeem ourselves and KLM One-niner-five-seven...

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Got down onto Runway Four Zero, but slightly overshot and had to come back and cross the other, One Two Zero, which proved surprisingly busy at that time of night. Here's a Pan Am 707-120, which I only saw quite nearby when we were both still up there (you'll forgive me for not having taken a picture before; I was busy):

Makes a change to be in a propliner looking out for the odd jet, rather than the other way round, if you see what I mean. And this is a clearer view of him:

We had to wait there for not just one, but three lovelies:

A fellow-Seven Seas, again Pan Am, and - joy of joys! - a KLM L-1049B! (You know what they will have on board apart from sensible Dutch folk). Another shot of the 7C in Pan American livery:

Despite the long flight, having to make elaborate manoevers AND being late, didn't mind waiting for that particular beauty pageant to go by.

We dutifully followed.

Here we are parked at the end, next to the 70'. Can't remember where the other DC-7 was going, just parking on the other side I think. In this shot, below, you can see the Dutch Superconnie parked further down, and is that a TWA leaving?

One of the attractions of Shannon was the World's first ever Duty Free, opened in 1951:

Bridie Murphy holding back the crowds. Mrs Carter would probably have enquired about a doll in traditional Irish costume, though it looks as though she might have had to settle for a cuddly dog toy. National costume dolls really will feature in Mrs C's narrative (along with further praise for her addiction, our national product), but she makes no mention whatsoever of booze or ciggies, both of which were more popular in the '50s than even cheese.

Trust the Irish to invent Duty Free, in fact God Bless them for it. Mrs RR & I were once on the ferry from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire, the port of Dublin. An old Irishman came up to the Duty Free, hoiked two empty suitcases onto the counter and proceeded to fill both with bottles of whiskey.

We certainly got our AI's-worth that time! Thank you, Tom.

Morgen Schiphol, as Dirk said, while Henriette rushed off to catch up with the Chief Steward from that Dutch L-1049.

 

[tgibson]

Hi,

No problem, glad to help. Be sure to press Shift E 2 to open the cargo bins (lit at night if you use the baggage compartment light switch in the small overhead or just press L to turn all the lights on), and Shift E 3 to open the crew door too. The cargo and crew need to get out too.

That Pan Am DC-7C is a freighter (note the blocked out windows), and was probably banished to the freight ramp.

Hope this helps,

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Like this:

Went back at dawn to check those doors. Nice !

All the Americans have departed in the night, but this interesting Irish International Connie was at Gate 7:

 

[tgibson]

Looking great, Ralf.

Looking forward to the rest of the trip!

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Eihh - eham

The best is yet to come...

Exciting contemporary picture of Shannon, possibly with an emphasis on the romantic possibilities of Esso:

The artist has left all product placement, apart from that of his commissioner (yes, Esso), out of it, but I'd say that was an Irish International Connie. Be there, or be square! Amazing what you can do with a peat bog.

This is the plan for Shannon to Schiphol:

My main problem with the DC7 has been getting it down properly, so wisely chose Low Altitude Airways, 11,000ft. It takes about two hours, flying in over South Wales (the original, not the New one in Australia), Bristol, southern England and pivoting on London itself for a straight run across the bottom end of the North Sea into Amsterdam.

Once you've set up the flight, the Seven Seas faithfully fires itself up as soon as you go to it:

This cheeky yellow Cub had to wait. The Shamrock Connie from that Esso ad apparently still taking on passengers at the teminal:

And we're off just after 10:30:

You can see that Shannon is in a remote spot, convenient for noisy old propliners coming and going at all hours of the day and night. Nearest large city is Limerick, a bit further up the River Shannon. It's in County Clare, and we also overflew Tipperary, Kilkenny and Wexford. You soon leave the eastern Irish coast behind...

...and quickly sight Wales in front:

We are crossing the St George's Channel towards Pembrokeshire. (The Comet 4 in last year's Speedbird Round the World approached Wales further to the north, over Cardigan Bay). It is quite a mountainous country, but the south's generally flatter.

Coming to Great Britain...

 

[tgibson]

I always feel a bit more secure once I reach Shannon and solid ground again.

I am thinking that the Connie in the Esso painting is probably a Pan Am L-049:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Pan-Am/Lockheed-L-049-Constellation/1220382/L/

Hope this helps,

 

[Jagdflieger]

I hope that our stalwart passengers were able to pick up some good Irish whisky from Miss Murphy at the duty free store for the trip to the continent. Not sure how well Irish will go with Dutch cheese, but I'll try the combination tonight!

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Glad you're eating the story, Jagdflieger! I'm afraid that alcohol did not pass the saintly lips of the Carters (despite the fact that Our Lord turned water into wine).

Jumping the gun a bit, but just before their first European excursion from Schiphol, Sarah Elizabeth records that

After being seated for our noon meal we had a menu given us - a large variety of meats, and what most people enjoy. But we, being vegetarians, chose cheese, fruit, and 7up's. Holland has some of the best cheese in the world, and I would say they never left any kind out. (p.38)

That is quite complimentary, but unfortunately she also insulted our country almost the moment they arrived, as you shall see.

I thought that Connie looked a bit green, Tom, but you're right - it does say Clipper Express [?] and the thin stripes are certainly Pan Am's style.

Anyhow, we now get quite an interesting flight over the south of England (the St George's Cross flag used by churches & sports fans just England, not the whole United Kingdom).

The Bristol Channel which turns into, or rather, flows out of the quite big River Severn. Bristol itself, where Bristol aircraft and swish cars come from, is a bit further south. A large airfield up ahead:

I think it's RAF Lyneham, used by Transport Command. In the 1950s it would have had things like HP Hastings'; in the early '60s they built a big terminal and even kept VC-10s, presumably for troop deployments. Brize Norton in Oxfordshire is similar, you also see big transport choppers lumbering around there. At that time we made a slight heading change shortly before spotting an even bigger airport:

Heathrow of course. This is a wonderful view of Wolfgang Gersch's 60s Scenery from 11,000ft, plus Tom Gibson's Cal Classic AI clearly visible down there. Obviously there are more terminal buildings nowadays. Incidentally, the new runway is planned for those empty fields to the north. By that time, as everyone knows, aeroplanes will be silent and run on a magic gas which enhances the ozone layer and scatters rose petals wherever they fly...

Good news! The Carters will be going there, so we shall have a closer look round before long. This time we fly by and also, of course, pass London:

Our port wing is pointing at St Paul's Cathedral (shown in a postcard in Speedbird follows the swallows a few weeks ago), Buckingham Palace behind the tail. You can't see the Heliport or small City Airport from this height, but the large white blob at the top of the S-bend in the river is the wretched Millenium Dome, now called the O2, at last a success as an enormous concert venue. The Greenwich Meridian, Zero, deliberately runs right through it, an interesting fact that they foolishly forgot to make any capital out of in the disastrous dumbing-down which took place when it was first opened for that Millenium. Remember the Millenium? A lot of clichés have passed under the bridge since that, but it seems like only yesterday...

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Subtracting forty years from the Millenium we return to the Good old Days of the Cold War. Our flightpath follows the River Thames to its enormous tidal Estuary; Essex to the north, Kent below us to the south:

Map to show the run-in to Schiphol:

The narrowest point between England and France in the Strait of Dover is where the Channel Tunnel takes trains under the sea. You can also see Belgium there to our right between France and Holland. Obviously we didn't have to go through any of their airspace, but were handed straight from London to Amsterdam Centre.

First sight of home:

It is FLAT. When my mother was a little girl she was afraid to leave Holland because she thought people would fall over backwards as they tried to walk up a hill. Much of the country including, of course, where we are about to land, has been reclaimed from the sea by building dykes and polders.

It was funny that we didn't see anybody taking off or landing at Heathrow (they must have been busy having tea), but aircraft did start popping up over the European mainland.

I was still worried about not being low enough for the approach and commited the cardinal sin of descending a little before being told to by ATC!

This Britannia streaked across in front of us at only 3000ft (remember overtaking one in the Comet?):

I'll just have to blame Dirk for messing up radio contact with Schiphol Approach!

Late again! But we did eventually do a reasonable landing on Runway 22. (Note the altitude):

Turning off, still with all the flaps down, towards a Virtual Paradise for '50s Planespotters...

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

The military seem to have hung out at this end of the taxiway in those days:

Think it's an F-104D Starfighter. I once followed one to the end and saw him shoot up like a rocket in front of me! Behind the first building down here are two Royal Netherlands Air Force transports and another fighter:

An F27 and a C-47? Someone will correct me, I'm no expert. One of our sister 7Cs and a Superconnie waiting in the wings:

A couple of Cubs in GA parking:

Don't faint! Don't start drooling! Don't get bored of Connies! Plenty more pictures to come.

We pass another sister, PH-DSM, Coral Sea. You may be pleased to learn that I'll be taking the Carters to some of their destinations in other aircraft types, so we'll be getting much closer looks at some of those Convairs and Lockheeds (and maybe even a DC-3, who knows?). That Russian monster seems to be sitting there every time I drop by!

Whazzat? A Tu-104A perhaps. I love the way he's parked so close to the Pan Am Boeing. Quite apart from what's outside, just take a peek in the hangars:

Even the Tower shots are crowded and amazing here...

(Bits of 4 Dutchmen, one Yank, an Irishman & 2 Commies can be seen in the one above.)

...and I haven't even parked yet!

 

[tgibson]

Great shots Ralf - and that is one of my favorite plane spotting places in Europe too. You don't get more planes to look at anywhere else in Europe but London and Paris.

Yep, a Dutch C-47 and F.27 indeed. The Fokker plant was located right there at the airport (off to the right when looking at the terminal from the ramp). BTW, that was a KLM DC-6B next to the Super Connie (it has 3 bladed props). I think KLM must have had the most varied collection of propliners of almost any airline in the world at the time. Everything from DC-3's to L-188 Electras (the only ones in Europe).

Thanks,

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Realised it wasn't a DC-7 by the Connie, but was looking at the engine cowlings & didn't think to check the prop blades. Anyway, parked beside this Canadian...um...this Canadian...Britannia 102?

Here we are in a neat row:

You can spot a few spotters on the terrace in front of the tower. This seems to be where they were in reality:

Little Cees up there? (at least they'd managed to shift that Tupolev). Not forgetting the non-aircraft hardware that Wolfgang has put in; those yellow-&-red Shell refuelling tenders for example:

Tower view of us parked:

Did I forget to switch the lights off? Is the Pole an Il-14? We will be going Behind the Iron Curtain with the Carters, so should get to see more Soviet Era stuff. I'd just taken this 'final' overview picture...

When someone arrived to fill the two vacant parking spaces!

...another 7C; and look beyond him...

...'nother Connie coming! A foot below sea level too. Here's a better shot of it:

And there it is parked:

I could sit there all day, just watching them coming & going. My wife says that I do...

Coming soon: Mrs Carter's big insult to Holland. The Carters go north. The Carters go east. The Carters go south. General cheese situation throughout Europe (1959). Some different aeroplanes & airports...

[Someone please put me out of my misery about the Pole; it isn't an Il-14, is it?]

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

The idea of the prize that they had won seems to have been for the Carters simply to get a lot of free flights from KLM, presumably for an agreed period; though they still had to pay for their own accomodation and, I suppose, for some journeys with other airlines. Here's a reminder of their epic:

Both Glenmore and Sarah had, when younger, been missionaries in India, so they weren't exactly new to long-distance travel. Yet they, or at least Sarah in her book, remained remarkably naive about foreign destinations. The very worst example of Mrs Carter's innocence (or ignorance?) comes the moment they step off the DC7 in Holland:

Our plane came in at Schiphol Airport, just outside busy and historic Amsterdam, for a nice, smooth landing. As the motors died away we realized we were really there.

No, we never had people in wooden shoes to meet us. They wore clothing just like ours and dress styles the same. Holland is a progressive country. The shops and stores were filled with busy shoppers. The large department stores were interesting. At that time, mainly small cars were something new to us, and the bicycles used by young and old made a new scene...

Where did she think they were arriving? Albania? I can only presume that this was written in answer to stupid questions that were asked back home in Texas. I hope that most Americans nowadays realise that Western Europe is extremely similar to the United States and has an almost universal high standard of living, democracy, respect for individual freedom, the rule of law, lack of corruption, etc, etc. What the American Founding Fathers so poetically described as 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' in fact. It may be that World War 2 was still quite fresh in the Carters' memories and they expected Europe to be more primitive and backward than it turned out, but to be surprised at finding Holland in 1959 'progressive' really is, well, surprising!

Anyway, the Dutch got some swift revenge thanks to the Carters' local 'paper:

Just then our names were called out over the loud-speaker. There was the KLM photographer. He said "I have been informed about your trip and we want your picture for The Houston Press. Not expecting to be photographed, we certainly did not look our best and felt no better. we couldn't turn down the honor afforded us, though, so we did as we were instructed. Cameras and KLM bags were carried along to make everything look official.

(Note that, despite what she said above, people coming off twelve hours in a '50s DC7 look a lot less frazzled than those disembarking from an hour & a half in a 21st Century Airbus).

Welcome to the Land of Cheese! :d

Anyway, the first part of their itinerary was to go north to Scandinavia. They actually stayed overnight at the (surprisingly progressive) Airport, and left for Stockholm the next day. Mr & Mrs C were members of a mysterious 'organization' which she often mentions; not, it seems, the Central Intelligence Agency, but an international evangelical Christian group. It may be that some of their funding came from this. They certainly visited its HQs in several places they went.

The idea was to fly direct to Stockholm with a brief stopover in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the way. in the event, they didn't land at Copenhagen due to fog, though they visited it on the way back. I've decided to do it the other way round: going to Denmark first, then Sweden, then all the way back from there to Holland. Here's the route Schiphol to Kastrup (EHAM - EKCH):

 

[extrudinator]

I'm embarrassed to admit that many Americans had the idea that Europe was a primitive and backward place, due to the effect of the war. This idea came from (you guessed it) advertising. Many charity organizations depended heavily on images of "bombed out Europe" to raise donations. CARE was the worst offender--they convinced me in the sixties that Europe was so bad off that civilization would probably never be fully restored.

It was all done in the name of raising a buck for "charity" (and paying a few salaries, of course). Years later, I was shocked at my ignorance when I visited Europe. Equal to the U.S., you say? I'd say a bit more advanced--especially the plumbing!

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

Well, must admit that I've heard Europeans say some pretty stupid things about America too, but that's most interesting to learn. Of course the Marshall Plan was very important in helping rebuild Europe after the War. Such things must have been fresh in Mrs Carter's mind.

Not sure how accurate this is, but decided to take them to Scandinavia in...

...a Lockheed L-188 Electra. (This is Graeme Porter's repaint of the Mike Stone base model which comes in Eastern livery. You can also get some nice Californian ones from you-know-where, but will always need Paul Stroger's panel too).

As you can see, checked it out in fog, like the Carters had.

As the 188A dates to 1958, and we've seen plenty of AI ones in the 1959 traffic, this seems a possibility for short/medium haul flights at the time. The 'barber pole' scheme here on PH-LLE in truth dates from a few years later, 1963.

Chilly Connie. Only the most hardened spotters will be up on the terrace today.

The '63 aircraft (or at least the panel) is well-equipped with radar and navaids which would make it quite easy to land at Kastrup in these conditions. Mrs Carter tells us that their pilot, who bore the lucky name of Lindberg, said "As soon as we know where we are going to land I will tell you." This brought a good laugh from the passengers. Then he explained. The fog was so dense that we couldn't stop at Copenhagen on our way to Stockholm.

It seems unlikely that they were in anything so ancient as a DC-3, though she does also mention that When we took off we were a bit chilly until the plane got warmed up. It may have been a Convair, but I'm saving the KLM one for warmer climes where they definitely went in it.

Here's Kapitein Lindberg's murky view from the end of RW22:

Radar not yet switched on, but it does work if you've got FSUIPC installed...

 

[Ralf Roggeveen]

That from was a practice run I did on New Year's Day, but for the actual flight this morning stuck with fair weather in the hope of some nice scenery.

Very busy around 11:00. This was an interesting GA AI which moved off at that time:

A Grumman Goose (which would have been equally happy here when it was still sea!). But it was me that was the goose because I went to the wrong runway . They'd given me 22 again, but I automatically taxyed up to RW1. This was silly; but we did at least see some interesting AI on the detour.

Good crowded Tower view including a Pan Am Stratocruiser, not previously observed:

KLM Seven Seas and a DC-6 next to each other:

He may be off to the East (or West) Indies, Java or Curacao. Down at the 'military end' found a visiting NATO ally:

German warplanes weren't so welcome 19 years earlier, but I guess this is possible in '59 (wonder what TG might say about it?). that Irish Fokker Friendship seems to like chilling with the warbirds, it's often there. When I realised my mistake, turned round and went back, only to get stuck behind a sort of Mexican Stand-off between these two:

Looks like the Russian's still in his place too. More and more of my countrymen were now starting to move out:

Luckily I was still in time for my slot.

You may have already noticed in the earlier foggy shot from near this spot how RWs 27 and 22 cross each other here.

More soon...