AEROPLANE JULY 2018 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 47
pilots must have known that he was
facing the distinct possibility of a bail-
out, at best over the barren Labrador
tundra, at worst into the sea... On the
run-in to the coast, the cloud cover
beneath us was complete, and incessant
calls, it seemed, were coming from the
Vampire leader to the lead Mosquito
to give him time-to-go to landfall. An
‘argument’ developed between them
when we crossed the coast.
“The Vampire leader wanted to
descend immediately to establish
contact with the ground, but was
persuaded by the Mosquito leader to
remain at height; the distance to go
was still in the order of 100nm and
fuel was really running low now. I
knew that we needed some reserve to
allow us to de-ice the canopy before
landing, and that it would be touch
and go. With about 50nm to run, we
entered a cloudless region and peered
ahead for a sight of the airfield at the
far end of Lake Melville, over which
we were now flying. Ahead we could
see heavy cumulonimbus backing
Goose Bay. It was now nearly dark
and we had no night-flying equipment
other than navigation lights. It was a
race to get in and beat the cu-nimbs
before they reached the airfield. At
last we were overhead and the whole
formation broke up into individual
aircraft, the pilots desperate for the
heavy canopy icing to melt away
and worried about the number of
teaspoonfuls of fuel left in the tanks —
and the fear of colliding with others.
“There was tremendous relief
when the wheels greased onto the
runway [though Blue 2 burst a tyre
on landing] and we had all gathered
in the RCAF hangar in the semi-
darkness to celebrate that we were the
first jet pilots to cross the Atlantic! We
had landed two hours and 55 minutes
after leaving Bluie, 10 minutes longer
than our flight plan limit. The official
total flight time from Stornoway
to Goose Bay was eight hours 18
minutes. I reflected that we had beaten
the USAF F-80s by just a single leg of
the route. Sure, we had some bad luck,
mainly with the weather, but I also
saw flaws in the planning — which is
easy to say with hindsight.”
It had been a great achievement.
Now the RAF’s 1948 North American
tour began. A formation display was
given at Goose Bay the next day. On
16 July the Vampires flew via Mont-
Joli to Saint-Hubert near Montréal
and then Trenton on Lake Ontario,
their base for nine days. Displays
were to be given at Trenton and —
operating from the de Havilland
Canada factory airfield at Downsview
— over the water in Toronto. For de
Havilland, this proved very valuable.
Royal Canadian Air Force auxiliary
squadrons, a report to the Air Ministry
stated, “had had a series of accidents
in Vampires which had seriously
undermined the Service and Civilian
faith in the aircraft”. The Trenton and
Toronto shows changed that.
The tour’s US leg began on 25
July, when the Vampires arrived at
Andrews Field near Washington
DC. The schedule, both in terms of
flying and social events, now became
ever busier for the British contingent.
“The calendar for 26 July had us
down to do a display at Andrews
Field for the assembled USAF troops
in the morning”, Wood remembered,
“to be followed by a transit to
Greenville in South Carolina in the
afternoon. The morning display was
timed to begin at 10.00hrs, as far as
I can recollect. However, with all
The navigation cards and personal maps used for
the first two legs of the deployment, from Odiham
to Stornoway and then Stornoway to Keflavík.
VIA K ATIE JONES
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