When it comes
to making instant coffee, the manufacturing and advertising gurus
of such a product have no idea of the meaning of the phrase unless
they had witnessed Lionel V.P. preparing an inflight brew. The
DC-3 VH-AGU was grounded at Giles, W.A. awaiting a replacement
engine and Lionel and his Bristol 170 "Frightener" VH-AAH
were engaged to deliver a spare P&W R1830-90B engine from Mascot
to Giles. Accompanying him were the crew to do the engine change
who included the Managing Director Bunny Hammond, Works Manager
Jack MacDonald, Electrical Foreman Les Sheffield, the company's
two top apprentices Barry Kerr, Clive Gibbons and myself.
(* Also on board the Bristol Freighter was Peter Woyzbun, Adastra's
Chief Geophysicist. The operating crew of VH-AGU comprised Jack
Howard, Bruce Gregory, Les Snape and Jim Hilferty).
To relieve the boredom of the delivery flight, I climbed the ladder
to the cockpit and got into the R.H. seat next to Lionel. Not
long after, L.V.P. announced it was coffee time and produced a
Birko water heater to which were attached two electrical leads
terminating with alligator clips. To my side was the main electrical
panel being fed by two high amperage generators driven by the
Bristol's 2000 H.P. Hercules engines. SSHIZUP---SSHJZUP the clips
grabbed the 24 V. service terminals known only to Lionel and seconds
later the Birko was producing clouds of steam and loud gurgles.
SSHTZUP---SSHJZUP disconnect clips, coffee already in mugs and
hey presto - the coffee is made. Pity we didn't have a loaf of
bread aboard as there were enough sparks flying about to make
a couple of rounds of toast. I didn't have a stop watch either
so I can' t say how long the operation took, but it can be said
for sure it was Instant Coffee! Water boils at lower temperatures
as height is gained, but we were not flying so high that this
fact detracted from the flavour of the beverage. However, I have
no doubts of the remedy Lionel would have used had this been a
problem.
Bill Mitchell
27th. November 2003
* Supplementary
note added 13AUG06 in consultation with Bill Mitchell, Trevor
Sheffield and Kevin Pavlich.
|