Warringah
Radio Control
Society Incorporated (Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984) THE FOSTERS CAME IN
HANDY IN DARWIN
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| Warringah
Radio Control
Society Incorporated (Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984) THE FOSTERS CAME IN
HANDY IN DARWIN
|
| Our second trip to repatriate Aussie POW's was in Liberator A72-114,
which had flown many hard hours at RAAF Tocumwal as a training aircraft,
particularly on circuits and landings.
Flying first to Mascot, we loaded wooden crates containing Red Cross supplies which were stacked in the bomb bay and rear fuselage; they joined our most important cargo - a carton of four dozen Fosters beer. This scarce commodity would be welcome in Manila, especially if some of the POW's wished to renew acquaintance with an old friend after years of separation. On the overnight flight to Darwin, oil pressures on all four engines were slightly below normal and No.4 engine ran a little hot. After a 2:30am take-off from Darwin for Manilla, we levelled off at the cruising altitude of 10,000ft, and noted that No.4 still had a high cylinder head temperature needing a richer than normal mixture. About 5:30am the oil pressure on No.3 engine began falling, and skipper Ken was barely able to feather the airscew before the needle read zero. It wa sstill pitch dark, and the navigator's plot put us over the Banda Sea, south of Seram. The nearest landing strip was at Ambon, but in the area were many unfriendly Japanese troops who hadn't accepted that the war was over. The obvious action was a smart U-turn and head for Darwin. A loaded Lib on three engines has been described as "a crude form of levitation", and 114 fitted this concept. Down from the usual 165mph cruising speed, it was now struggling on 150mph and losing height rapidly, despite increased power on the three engines. After half an hour we were down to 6,000ft, and basic arithmetic suggested we'd be swimming inside the next hour. Darwin was three hours away. Still more interesting was the news that our radio operator couldn't make contact with Darwin or anywhere else. Our choice was to run the engines at even higher power or jettison some cargo. With No.4 in mind, we opted to get rid of some weight. The flight engineer and I went aft and started on the task. There was a small hatch in the floor, just large enough for the crates to be squeezed through. The Fosters, sitting inconveniently alongside the hatch, made the job more difficult, but we had our priorities right. With 500kg of cargo gone, the Lib's tail rose enough to increase speed to 155mph and reduce descent to 1,000ft per hour. More good news came at 7am when our radio operator's mayday calls were acknowledged by RAAF Labuan and relayed to Darwin, who placed a Catalina on readiness. All three engines were giving marginal performance and No.4's temperature was well over the limit. Hydraulic pressure for undercarriage, flaps and brakes normally came from the now dead No.3 engine, and the subject of landing required some thought. We could only hope that the emergency system would do its "one-time" trick. We had 2,000ft altitude left as we approached Darwin. Ken had the navigator and radio op. go to the waist gunners' stations with their parachutes and attach the harness to the gun mounts. If 114 looked like failing to pull up, he would instruct them to stream the parachutes as airbrakes. On the downwind leg the wheels dropped and locked, but the flaps did not function. Going round again was not an option and Ken was committed to a landing. Instead of the normal 135mph approach speed, he'd go in at 155mph and risk blowing a tyre at touchdown speed of 145mph inspead of the usual 110mph. We were never to know our landing speed because the airspeed indicator decided to call it a day and fell to zero. Ken pushed the nose down a little further for Mum and the kids, and touched down right on the end of the runway at probably 150mph. With limited braking power, we used the full three kilometres of runway. The parachutes weren't needed. We left 114 in Darwin and a few days later hutched a ride south in a 23 Squadron Lib. During our stay in Darwin that troublesome carton of Fosters was pure gold. Perhaps there's a moral to this story. If you're planning a motoring holiday to somewhere like Cairns. don't take Mum's shopping car. Alan Place
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