P3Dv4 Around the world at 175 days part 30! England! London and Carlisle

[joefremont 98]

July 16, 1924: While in Paris the flyers “met more generals, ambassadors, cabinet ministers and celebrities that we had encountered in the rest of our lives”.  They had lunch with General John J. Pershing, american commander during the great war, accompanied the President of France to the Olympic games, who offered to bestow on them the French Legion of Honor but they had to decline as they were forbidden from accepting foreign decorations without the consent of congress.  So without having any real time off, by 11am the morning of the 16th they were in the air bound for London.  As they flew two airliners joined them, followed by a French fighters, all flying in a loose formation toward the England.  They climbed above the clouds to 7000 feet.  Through brakes in the clouds they could see the English channel below, the clouds thinned as they got closer to London and they landed at Croydon Airport.  It took some time for the London bobbies to control the enthusiastic crowd, but once the welcomes were made and the planes serviced they were taken to the RAF club at Piccadilly, where they were given excellent quarters.  Later that evening, at a dinner hosted by the top officials of the British Air Ministry, Lt. Wade fell asleep, snoring at the table sitting between a General and “Lord Somebody”.

September 19, 2017:  For the next leg I am going to use the de Havilland Dove. The de Havilland DH.104 Dove was a British short-haul airliner as successor to the Dragon Rapide biplane. The Dove was a popular aircraft and is considered to be one of Britain's most successful postwar civil designs, in excess of 500 aircraft being manufactured between 1946 and 1967. It was also used by the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and a number of overseas military forces.  The model was made by JustFlight.

The weather started off great, no winds or clouds,  and a temperature of 6.1C/43F.  I headed north at about 4000 feet but soon the clouds started to build as I approached the channel and I dropped to 1500 feet to keep the land/sea in view.  After crossing over into England the clouds cleared and I had a nice flight into London.  Since Croydon is long closed I landed in London City airport after a quick view of the sites over the center of the city.  The 178 nm took 1.1 hours.

Here are a few pics:

Ready for takeoff.

Glamour Shots.

Clouds ahead.

Heading out over the channel.

England!

London!

Sightseeing!

Landed.

July 17, 1924:  The next morning they were back at the airport and in the air.  They flew over the Tower of London, Parliament,  Buckingham palace and other famous land marks before heading north toward Brough near Hull, 165 miles away.  A number of small planes came up and few briefly in formation with them before waving and flying away.  Finally they landed at the aerodrome of Blackburn Aeroplane company, where they would replace all the engines, convert them back into seaplanes and prepare there aircraft to cross the Atlantic, what was most certainly going to be the most dangerous part of the entire trip.

July 17, 2017:  For the next leg I will be using the Gloster Meteor.  The Meteor was the first British fighter jet  and only Allied jet to see combat in World War 2.  While not as fast or as aerodynamically advanced as the German Me-262, it had much more reliable engines and ended up having a fairly long career, over 3900 were built between 1943 and 1955.  The model I am using today is and F8 and was made by JustFlight.

The weather for my next flight was good, 6 knot winds, clear below 20,000 feet, and a temperature of 16.0C/61F.  Took off from London city and headed north at about 5000 feet.  At times I went up to 7000 feet and descended down to 2500 feet to avoid the clouds, I finally landed at Carlisle Airport, the 231 mile flight took 35 minutes.  Only after I was getting the information together to write this post did I realize I had mixed up the GPS code, going to EGNC rather than EGNB and was about 75 miles off course.  Oops!

Ready for takeoff.

Heading north.

Interesting clouds.

Trying to keep the ground in view.

Heading north.

Selfie!

Trying to find the airport.

Secured.

Thanks for reading,
ATB.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Wonderful screenshots, just flew home from London in June.  Brings back memories.  The first aircraft has such an odd look, don't know that I have ever seen it before.

John

Edit: I also visited London in 1984.  The highlight of that visit was watching Peter O'Toole perform in the play, Pygmalion.  I was just a few rows from the stage, he put on a terrific performance, really engaging with the audience.  It was great to see such an acting legend!

 

[woodhick 504]

De Havilland could build such beautiful aircraft, and then they built the Dove.   Not the best looking airplane IMHO, but it's a fine selection for your long range adventure.  Interesting series.

[weeksy 45]

Great series of posts and screenshots!

There's a static de Havilland Heron (4 engine plane developed from the Dove) outside the former Croydon Airport terminal buildings.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I believe I saw something quite similar to the Dove at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson several years' back.  A museum worthy of a visit if you can get to that part of Arizona.

John

[HaraldG 559]

The D.H. 104 is a fine design imho. Nice to see it here. Wonderful story and pictures, as always. I'm looking forward to your atlantic adventures!

Regards,

Harald

[joefremont 98]

I agree its not DH's best looking design but its very good for the role it was designed and I have enjoyed flying it.    Its larger cousin the Heron is on the schedule for the next leg.  I was looking for other post war british civilian but of the aircraft I have this is one of the better models.