There are
pilots much more experienced than I who could write about Avro
Anson operations, but perhaps having flown Ansons only in Adastra,
I might have had a few unique experiences. Then again, none of
us are getting any younger, and probably at this stage there are
few other retired pilots with Anson experience. I recall that,
if a problem was encountered in flight which required Air Traffic
Control or Flight Service to be advised, invariably the question
would come back "are your operations normal?" I usually responded
along the lines "I expect the landing to be normal." But on one
occasion with an engine failure, and having had something abnormal
happen on several consecutive flights, to the question "are your
operations normal?" I thought, well, for the Anson, this kind
of occurrence is not abnormal, so I simply replied "affirmative."
Ted McKenzie was Operations Manager for the period of my employment
with Adastra, and Ted checked me out on both the Anson and the
Hudson. I have never felt more thoroughly checked on any aircraft
than with Ted, a thoroughly competent and superior check and training
captain.
It would need to be a very lightly laden Anson to be able to maintain
height on one engine. While we never flew them overloaded, it
was accepted that, in the event of an in-flight engine failure,
power from the remaining engine could do no more than slow the
rate of descent. So the Anson fell into the category of having
a single engine performance but with two chances of having an
engine failure! With fixed pitch propellers, the windmilling prop
of a failed engine would create significantly more drag than a
feathered prop. But even if the Anson had been equipped with feathering
propellers, it's performance on one engine would not have been
remarkable.
During my period flying for Adastra, between 1960 and 1964, there
were two Ansons used on aerial survey work, VH-AGA and VH-BLF.
BLF had a few refinements such as electric starter motors and
electric landing gear retract mechanism, which made it a little
heavier than AGA. Retraction and extension of the landing gear
of AGA was by manually winding by the navigator. He developed
a strong arm for the 140 odd rotations of the handle. The navigator
also pumped down the flaps on AGA with the manually operated hydraulic
system. Both aircraft were "pensioned off" during 1962, so my
total Anson experience is not great. The Ansons were pensioned
off because the glue which bound together the laminated wooden
wing spars was considered to be time expired.
The Anson was very stable in flight and was ideal for oil survey
work. The aircraft normally carried a crew of three: pilot, navigator,
and either the magnetometer technician for oil surveys or camera
operator for aerial photography. The navigator sat alongside the
pilot in the co-pilot's seat for oil survey flights when photo-mosaic
maps were used, and he was prostrate in the nose compartment for
photographic navigation. Communication between crew members was
by intercom. With an engineer the calibre of Bill Mitchell servicing
the aircraft, the Ansons were most reliable.
When taxying, they were the most unstable aircraft imaginable.
Tailwheel aircraft are inherently unstable on the ground directionally,
and the Anson was more unstable directionally on the ground than
any other tailwheel aircraft I have flown. When turning, immediately
the turn is commenced, braking and often engine power was needed
to arrest the turn from tightening into a ground loop. Anyone
who has attempted to steer a houseboat, especially in conditions
of variable wind and tide, will appreciate the concentration and
constant corrections needed to keep straight, and so it was with
the Anson when taxying.
There were a number of unusual happenings while flying Anson aircraft
on oil survey work and several of these are mentioned in "Adastriana"
anecdotes. I was fortunate in having Bill Mitchell as the crew's
engineer on most occasions. Bill is an exceptional engineer, with
an impish sense of humour. He knew his aircraft extremely well
and, with VH-AGA, which had no starter motors and would normally
rely on a hand wound inertia starter, Bill had his own method.
To my recollection he never used the inertia starter, but see
"Adastriana" for Bill's
starting method. With typical Bill Mitchell modesty, he explained
that this system of engine starting had in fact been devised by
Des Hardy. But if Des devised it, Bill perfected it.
Even in 1960, the Anson was looked upon as something of a dinosaur
with its external rocker gear which required hand greasing every
ten flying hours. Occasionally one of the rockers would seize,
effectively resulting in a loss of engine power and rough running.
One cylinder without power might seem almost inconsequential with
6 other cylinders firing, (the Cheetah was a seven cylinder radial
engine) but this type of problem had all the indications to the
pilot of a total engine failure, so that down was the only direction
to go. On one occasion we needed to land at Kempsey with such
an engine failure. After landing, Bill assured me we would have
no problem in being airborne within a matter of minutes after
he changed the seized rocker component, so I went to the telephone
box on the aerodrome (no mobile telephones then) to submit another
flight plan. Our ultimate destination was Mackay in Queensland
and our next planned landing for refuelling was Archerfield. While
on the telephone, Bill explained to me that our generator drive
was unserviceable and that we would be without radio. I completed
the flight plan details, indicating to the Flight Service Officer
that we would proceed to Archerfield "no radio" and we were soon
on our way.
It was humorous the way the generator problem made itself known
to Bill. While he was attending to the rocker mechanism on one
engine, a local Kempsey fellow, apparently a farm worker chewing
on a piece of straw, asked Bill if what he could see lying in
the bottom of the cowling of the other engine was supposed to
be there. With some consternation, Bill saw that it was the generator
drive - and the Anson had only one generator.
On our arrival at Archerfield, rather providentially, there was
a graveyard of Cheetah engines and, with the owner's permission,
Bill soon found a spare generator drive. I'm not sure that the
"release note" requirements were in fact met on that occasion,
but we were soon on our way again to Mackay.
The last time I saw VH-AGA was a few years ago when it was suspended
from the roof of the Camden Museum of Aviation at Narellan, New
South Wales. I realised on that museum visit, that I too have
joined the aviation dinosaurs, because there were three other
aircraft registrations, of a Wirraway, a Vampire and a Meteor
aircraft, now museum exhibits, which I have recorded in my log
book.
Wal Bowles
10 September 2004
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