Classic British Flight Sim

LOL the only thing we have a problem with is the service ceiling - Garry and a couple of the others have been
close to that altitude, Seriously I don't think I have taken it above 8000 feet during testing and from conversations
with ex freighter pilots with the possible exceptions the Pakastani Air Force Mk312 it seems highly unlikely
that any Freighter Mk21/31 or 32 went that high. However it is a delight to hand fly, and its akin to flying a
a double decker bus from the upstairs front left seat When you all see it, it will make you wonder that its
Garrys first offering in the model world but hopefully not his last.

Leif

As Leif says the ceiling is not something a service aeroplane would be anywhere near.

In reality the cross channel was flown at 1,000ft one way and 2,000ft the other.

The payload was the same as the Mk.31 with the 32 only differeing in that respect with increased volume.

It was the need to icrease the volume that led to the Superfreighter and Silver City never operated the 31 as it offered them nothing useful over the 21 as the inceased payload of the 31 was not needed and the extra power was of no use as that power was there for the extra payload they could not use.

So was born the 32 which as mentioned could carry three 14ft cars but they often carried four small cars. They used to deliver Minis four at a time.

Air Charter/Channel Air Bridge had six plus two of their three Mk.31's converted (G-AMSA,G-AMLP).

Later four of these were modified by having a smaller rear pax door added further back :think: . That appears to be increasing the hold volume but I am not sure of the reason for the mod.

Garry

Looking good, Garry !

Slightly off the actual simulation but it set me thinking about how the cars were loaded. I assume airline staff drove them up the ramps. Did they have any aids to get the cars in without bumping them into the passenger cabin?

Loading was done by airline drivers. There were no parking aids apart from the car's rear view mirror, and on at least one occasion, it was found that the car's brakes were defective (fortunately the pax hadn't boarded). Sometimes, with wide (American) cars, it was impossible to open the car doors sufficiently for the driver to get out once boarded, and he got a flip across the Channel.
It was rumoured that the licence for Silver City's cross-channel operation covered passengers "travelling with vehicles" only, and that therefore "foot passengers" should not be carried, but SC had a stock of old bicycles available to make the latter legal.
A SIlver City frightener once won a London-Paris air race, :o or at least the "scheduled air services" part of it (can't remember which Mark). I think the start was at Marble Arch and the finish was the Arc de Triomphe, and entrants could use any form of transport in between. An RAF type (2 motorbikes and a jet?) won the open class, but Stirling Moss drove a Jag down to Lydd(?) (no "70" limit in those days ), flew over to Le Touquet with it, and then put the foot hard down all the way to Paris thereby defeating those who'd put their faith in BEA or Air France.
As a Woolston kid I saw many BFs flying in a nd out of EGHI - even noisier than the Trislanders we get these days, though quieter than Aquila's Short Solents coming over our roof on finals....

Check this neat collection of pics i found



http://glostransporthistory.visit-glouc ... G-ANWN.jpg


http://glostransporthistory.visit-glouc ... Airfix.jpg

As Ferryman says they were diven on and reversed off

I know of one incident when a large car was transported with a broken engine.

They gave it a long heafty push up the ramp with another vehicle

It entered the hold and the driver hit the brakes....nothing..... :o it was servo assisted barakes. :doho:

It badly damaged the pax cabin but not the structure of the aircraft.

Garry

As Leif says the ceiling is not something a service aeroplane would be anywhere near.

In reality the cross channel was flown at 1,000ft one way and 2,000ft the other.


Garry

I have just check my log and see that I flew Le Touquet to Lydd [G-ANWM] on 28SEP65, and recored the block time as 0.20, and the flight as flown at 3,000ft.
This seems odd, as I would now have expected it to have been at "even" thousands of feet on a N.W heading - but in those days was there not a Cross-Channel Special Rules area with a corridor roughly centred on Lympne/Cap Gris Nez - might this have influenced the height at which the car-ferries operated, or perhaps I just got it wrong ?!

Also - I think it was the Bristol Freighter where an essential check to be made by the crew before descending from the flight deck [via an interior ladder] was that nobody had left a car parked below with the radio aerial extended !!

Richard.

Richard

The 3000 was not unknown but 1000 was the normal

In the CI area it is odd North and even South..I think it's a French thing.

The ladder was odd as they only had a single heater on the Super

Instead of putting on the left side it was on the right so the ladder had to coome out toward the climber and around the heater :o .

Looked sort of awkward. :think:

Garry

Please dont forget the NZ airforce and Safe Air Freighters.
www.adf-serials.com/.../Freighter/RF_NZ5906a.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/ivansplans/Freighter7.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/ivansplans/Freighter5.jpg
Cheers
Steve