Aeroplane – June 2018

46 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE JULY 2018

possibility of cumulonimbus around

Goose Bay itself.

“As we were approaching the

mid-point, we began to encounter

cirrus cloud as we started our climb

to 30,000ft when the drop tanks had

emptied. Initially I thought it might

be some isolated cirrus which would

soon clear. But it became evident that

it was not, and that it was becoming

RAF 100 TRANS-ATLANTIC VAMPIRES

thicker. My previous experience of

fl ying in cirrus at these altitudes was

that the visibility in the cloud was

quite suffi cient to allow us to fl y in a

reasonably loose formation at about

100 to 200-yard spacing, but this

cirrus was reducing visibility, by the

minute, to below that.

“Oddly, I thought, neither of the

section leaders was closing up on the

Mosquito, and, from my ferry work,

an internal alarm began to sound. I

straightaway swung over from my

far port position, fl ew under the

section leader and Red 2, and took

up a close-formation position on the

lead Mosquito. After a pause, the

others then followed suit. It was not

as bad a situation as might be found

in monsoon heavy cloud, but when

there is a fear that if you don’t do

something to avoid being stranded

on your own over the Atlantic with a

useless navigation system, you are a

damn fool not to act quickly.

“The Vampire leader then called

for a continuation of the climb to

35,000ft to get above the cirrus, but

when our climb rate had fallen to

zero, the cirrus was still there, and was

probably stretching up to 40,000ft;

he then called that he was going to

descend to get below the cloud and

into the clear. So down we went and

my heart sank with every foot of

lost altitude; if this carried on much

longer, we were not going to have

enough fuel to reach Goose Bay.

“At 18,000ft the penny dropped

when it became evident that the cloud

was sloping right down to deck level,

so a call went out for us to clamber

back up to 30,000ft. We had no means

of calculating accurately the extent

of fuel lost by this deviation from the

fl ight plan, and each of the Vampire

ABOVE:

Bluie West One,

14 July 1948: the

fi rst two groups of

jet fi ghter pilots to

cross the Atlantic.

The signatures are

those of the USAF

F-80 contingent.

VIA K ATIE JONES

AIRCRAFT AND PILOTS

Blue Section

Sqn Ldr R. W. Oxspring VT871 Blue leader and overall Vampire leader

Flt Lt E. W. Wright* VT868 Blue 2

WO S. Evans* VT869 Blue 3

Red Section

Flt Lt F. G. Woolley VT863 Red leader

WO R. J. Skinner VT873 Red 2

WO W. C. Wood VT864 Red 3

Other pilots

Sqn Ldr R. N. H. Courtney* Deputy Vampire leader

Flt Lt C. I. Colquhoun* Solo aerobatics

Flt Lt N. W. Heale* Solo aerobatics

* — pilot attached to No 54 Squadron for the tour

42-49_AM_No54Vampires Squad_July18_cc C.indd 46 04/06/2018 06:59