By Rob Orbell (Chief Pilot)
It was with quite a heavy heart that I set out to fly the
Salisbury—Entebbe—Salisbury sectors of the last Zambezi
Service on September 30th. I remember quite well the very first
Zambezi Service. This was the first "Coach Class" Service ever
to be operated from this part of the world to England, and little
did we realize the potential and the popularity which was to
follow so rapidly.
On our departure from Salisbury I was handed letters from the Mayor
of Salisbury to the Mayor of Valetta (Malta) and to the Lord
Mayor of London. Our Chairman (now Lord Robins) also handed me a
letter from the Board, wishing us luck.
Despite the fact that we had operated a proving/cum/training flight
about six months previously, there were a number of problems
encountered en route, but we managed to sort them out as we went
along. On the third day we left Wadi Haifa early and landed in
Malta well ahead of schedule. By this time the passengers were
getting to know each other and there prevailed a "holiday
spirit" which was to be a regular feature of the old Viking Zambezi
flights.
The last night-stop at the luxurious Phoenecia Hotel at Valetta was
quite a night ... for the passengers. I can say with a clear
conscience that, despite all their attempts to inveigle the crew
into joining the party, we were so anxious that the following
day should go according to plan that we all retired at a most
respectable hour!
The last day was quite a memorable one. There was considerable
weather to be negotiated over the Massif in France, and London
itself was far from clear. We were limited in radio equipment,
having barely sufficient VHF frequencies to cope on "Airways" over
Europe and England. Our de-icing on the Vikings was at best only
"anti-icing" equipment, and as such was inadequate for the extremely
rapid build-up of ice which we encountered whilst negotiating
frontal weather conditions. I recall anxious moments peering out of the frosted cockpit windows and watching the
leading edges of the wings as the ice accreted steadily whilst the
de-icing fluid contents dwindled all too rapidly! I remember well
our first call to ''London Airways", and the courteous and efficient
acknowledgement and instructions. It was bitterly cold in the
cockpit, and we could not coerce the cockpit "heating" to produce any heat! We
were looking rather like a R.A.F. crew on a bombing mission, as we
had to wear oxygen masks to reduce background noise on the old type
microphones which we used in the early days! Every member of the
crew was doing his best to ensure the successful arrival. A little
"fiddling" of power settings was necessary to make up lost time, and
it was with considerable satisfaction that we touched down at London
Airport, dead on schedule, following a most efficient Radar
"Talk-down". There was a hush in the cockpit for several moments
until Captain Strange (my co-pilot) came out with a cryptic and
rather unprintable remark as we were taxying in, and we realized
then that the first Zambezi Service had arrived and we could
relax!
The return flight which we operated a week later (Captain Hodgson
and his crew having taken our aircraft back while we
"slipped"' in London), went according to plan, until we landed at
Juba in the southern Sudan. We were ahead of schedule, and
everything was working like a charrm. Just as we were about to
embark, however, I was handed an urgent signal by the Air
Traffic Control Officer to the effect that all Vikings were
"grounded" till further notice, and that I was to await
instructions and on no account to proceed beyond the point where I
received the signal! Despite some very fast talking, I was
unable to "persuade" the A.T.C.O. that the signal had not been
received by him till I was just airborne, when I could have
pressed on to Nairobi! So there we sat . . . for five solid days ...
in jolly Juba! We became more and more depressed as the days
passed. There were some enlightening moments, but they were
few and far between. One morning at breakfast a Sudanese waiter
brought a ladies' handbag, soaking wet, to our table. It had just
been retrieved from the local swimming pool, and it seemed that some
scoundrels had actually thrown our Hostess (Jeanne Aylwin) into the
pool, fully clothed, during the night.
I spent most of the time concocting signals to the Operations
Manager. I even suggested that I fly the Viking "solo" to Nairobi .
. . but all to no avail. My signals were ignored, and I was not
surprised, on our eventual return, to find that the Operations
Manager did not speak to me for some months!
Seven-and-a-half-years lapsed until I took off from Salisbury last
week to fly the very last of the Zambezi Services. This time
in Viscount R.M.A. "Malvern" (VP-YNA), with, as usual, a pretty full
load of passengers. As we flew northwards, we received several
messages of goodwill, all couched in nostalgic terms.
The northbound flight to Entebbe was un- eventful. and I handed over
to Captain Flote and his Crew there. Captain Flote operated
through the night to Benina. where Captain Barlow and his Crew took
over to London. Captain Wilson and his Crew operated from
London back to Benina, and then came on as passengers, leaving the
two Hostesses (Miss Clarke and Miss Gardiner) to return to London from
where they caught the Comet to Salisbury.
The spectacle which confronted me when Captain "Hurry-Hurry" Flote
landed at Entebbe southbound (ahead of schedule!) was one
which I will not forget easily! The aircraft seemed to be bulging at
the seams.
There were masses of passengers on board. I remembered the
Operations Managers parting instructions to me . . . "Get as many of the Crew back to Salisbury as possible, because we
are desperately short." I was beseiged from every quarter by Crew
members who had vital need to get home for a variety of reasons
which were amongst the most original I have ever heard! It
seemed that the Crews already on board had made the most of shopping
facilities on the last Service, because there were numerous parcels, camel
saddles, bunches of bananas, suitcases and so forth stowed in
every available corner of the fuselage!
After considerable wrangling with E.A.A.C.'s, Traffic Supervisor, I
closed the load sheet with sixty-one souls on board (of which eleven
were Crew!). I managed to clear sufficient room in Hold 1 to "stow"
Jock Elphinstone in there, and every available seat was
occupied in the cockpit and in the cabin! To crown it all, a
tropical storm broke over the airfield just as I was about to embark the passengers. This delayed
us somewhat, but once the rain eased off. we went aboard. I had
visions of needing an oversize shoehorn to get everything in, and
perhaps some tyre levers to get the doors closed.
We took off in the rain, and I remember seeing a pair of very
apprehensive eyes peering anxiously from Hold 1 as we opened the
throttles! However, all went well, and we landed back in Salisbury
only a few minutes behind scheduled time on Sunday night, and so
ended the epoch of the Zambezi Coach Service, Salisbury/ London—for
the present at any rate.
 |
Above.
Mr. Frank Collier, BOAC Manager, London Airport, and Mr. Bob Rose,
CAA Manager, London, with the crew who brought VP- YNA from London
on our last Zambezi service on the 1st October, 1960.
Left to right: Mr. Frank Collier, E/O Jack Dunklev, F/O 'Robin'
Hood, A/H Pat Gardiner, H/Supt. Vi Clarke, Capt. Mike Wilson and Mr.
Bob Rose.
End
Extracted and recompiled by Eddy Norris from the
SCAANER of
October 1960 publication which was made available by Dave Vermaak
Thanks to Dave for sharing his memories with ORAFs.
Comments are always welcome, please mail them to Eddy Norris at
orafs11@gmail.com and
they will be loaded to this article.
(Please visit our previous posts and archives)
Ref. Rhodesian Aviation |
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