Flying in France 1974 - a near fatal cock-up

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CharlieOneSix
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Flying in France 1974 - a near fatal cock-up

#1 Post by CharlieOneSix » Mon Dec 04, 2017 4:28 pm

Having resigned from my job in Ireland in December 1973 I found a job as personal pilot to a property millionaire near Northampton flying his Bolkow 105 helicopter. It was a not an auspicious start as on 1 January 1974 the three day week came into force, there was a 50mph speed limit on the roads, petrol rationing was in force, heating in offices was limited to 17C, street lighting was reduced, the television stations shut down at 2230, there were rolling power cuts, the oil price had quadrupled – and to cap it all my boss decided that he could not afford to be seen in a gas guzzling helicopter.

The writing was on the wall for the job almost before it had started. The aviation manager – an exciteable ex-RAF Pole who had flown Lancasters in the Dambusters film - had the job before me but he had lost his licence on medical grounds. We managed to survive by doing the odd aerial work charter and then in the February I was off to do all the over water aerial filming for the feature film “Juggernaut” (Omar Sharif, Roy Kinnear, Anthony Hopkins etc). That lasted three weeks and I was looking forward to a few days off at home.

No such luck. I arrived back at my desk only to be told that the next day I was off to Crotone in the toe of Italy for a three month contract flying to an offshore gas rig. My boss said not to worry, he had sourced all the maps, charts etc, and had done all the flight planning. Like an idiot I trusted him.

My boss came with me for the jolly down to Italy. We had gone unserviceable so were late departing. We cleared Customs at Luton and set off under VFR for Beauvais – my first ever venture into French airspace. Halfway across the Channel we were told by ATC that helicopters could only fly at night under IFR in French airspace and I could not accept an IFR clearance – see note. I quickly diverted to le Touquet and landed in daylight. However Customs were nowhere to be seen as we weren’t expected.

Note: in 1974 there were no Helicopter Instrument Ratings unlike now. By undertaking exactly the same test as for the fixed-wing instrument rating you could get a Certificate of Instrument Flying Competence issued by the CAA - and I had this - which allowed you the privileges of an instrument rating but only in UK airspace as it had no legal standing elsewhere.

Next day Le Touquet Customs weren’t interested in us so having refuelled we took off for Reims where we refuelled again. We then departed for Lyon. After a while the weather deteriorated and I wanted to turn back but my boss pestered me as we were up against a contractual arrival time and he said that I had an instrument qualification so climb up – no-one would know it was only a UK qualification. Again, like an idiot I agreed. I had a quick look at spot heights on the topographical map and the highest enroute seemed to be about 700ft. It was February so the icing level was down but I could manage 2500ft okay so that’s where we climbed to and I set off towards Lyon where I knew the weather was clear.

I don’t have a map to hand but memory from 43 years ago says we were tracking towards the Dijon VOR. The cloud began to lighten and then to my absolute horror I saw the ground about 300ft below me! A schoolboy error – the maps were in metres and my mind was in feet!

So that day I learned never. ever to be bullied into doing anything in flying by superiors and to never get airborne without adequate slow time preparation. I should have known better as I had around 3000 hours at that time.

There are other stories associated with the Italian job – like getting arrested at Nice Airport because we had no entry documents into France from our Le Touquet diversion, like having Italian soldiers fire bullets over our heads whilst we were relaxing in the sun at Crotone airport, like negotiating with the Italian mafia and making sure that even though they were blowing up other machinery at Crotone Airport because of a contractual dispute they would spare my helicopter. Oh, what fun we had!
The helicopter pilots' mantra: If it hasn't gone wrong then it's just about to...
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Cacophonix
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Re: Flying in France 1974 - a near fatal cock-up

#2 Post by Cacophonix » Mon Dec 04, 2017 4:46 pm

I trust that you have submitted that excellent and exemplary ILAFFT piece to Pilot magazine CharlieOneSix? If you haven't you should! It involved so many factors relevant to pilots of all levels of experience in aircraft of whatever type and I imagine that they would publish it immediately as is. You surely have a book locked up within the context of your civilian flying experience which I hope to read one day.

I had a ILAFFT piece about my icing experience in IMC published in the 1990's ref. me flying as an over confident much younger fool (on the basis that I am an older but slightly wiser fool these days). I'll see if I can find the offending magazine in the loft sometime and post my confession of shame here for all to see.

Thanks for that. As always it is a bloody pleasure to read a really good flying post on this site.

Caco

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