'We all felt apprehensive as a solid wall of thunder storms arose before us on the horizon '

'We all felt apprehensive as a solid wall of thunder storms arose before us on the horizon '

Mike Mahon remembers the storm during the air race to Australia.

Mike Mahon

Trinity College Dublin

1969

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Mike Mahon

Work and Employment

Life Story

Bali

1960s

The Race was due to start on 17th Dec, but due to appalling weather conditions over the UK and France, the organizers postponed it for 24 hours in the interests of safety as some of the older aircraft were not equipped to fly in IMC (Instrument Met Conditions) and some pilots were not instrument rated. A complicated handicap system was imposed on the competitors - the slowest of the aircraft to depart first, which I think was an ancient Auster ( complete with camp bed and potty) flown by a Major M Somerton - Rayner of the Army Air Corps. Finally it was our turn, we lined up on the runway and were flagged of by the one - armed chief race marshal. Terry opened the throttle fully ,released the brakes and we accelerated slowly, due to our overweight, and finally raised the nose and turned eastwards towards Australia. We were off to down under! The en - route weather was terrible, a line of fronts still lay across France, however we landed at Nice without incident. We later heard later that another competitor, an Aero Commander had crashed in the Alps and all the crew had perished. When we landed in Nice, having come through some very nasty weather, we realized we had lost our HF radio trailing antenna, so now or communications would be limited to VHF with a range of only about 150nm depending on altitude. We were all wearing red flame proof flying suits and while Terry and John were refueling, I made my to the terminal for the usual formalities, customs, landing fees onward flight plan etc. I was accosted by airport police. 'Vous etes militaire?' I tried to explain in broken French that we were in an air race to Australia, but was dismissed with a Gallic shrug and the words, 'Vous etes imbecile' Terry's wife had insisted we carry parachutes, which he had borrowed from the RAF. How we were meant to get out of the small cramped cabin and through the narrow door was a mystery. We dumped the parachutes in Nice intending to pick them up on the return trip. Our next stop was Athens which was uneventful. Quick turn - around and then airborne for Luxor in Egypt. Most of the other aircraft intended to route through Syrian airspace, but we learned later that the Syrians had refused permission for American or Australian aircraft to transit their airspace at the last minute, so many had to re - route. The weather on departure was still a problem and we encountered some icing problems. We had to keep 'gunning' the engine and apply carb heat to stop it icing up. The Arrow had a safety feature installed to prevent a pilot landing with the gear up. This was worked of f the pitot head which registered airspeed and as it sensed this decreasing for landing it automatically lowered the undercarriage. But as light aircraft were not designed to fly in icing conditions so if the pitot head got iced up the gear would hang out, precisely when you didn't need the extra drag! Piper had brought out a modification th prevent this but we didn't have time to fit it. We improvised with a coat hanger and some string to hold the gear up, much to the amusement of our Aussie competitors. As we approached the coast the weather improved and we landed at Luxor, an Egyptian Air Force base. We had anticipated security problems but we transited with no fuss. On the return trip we also refueled there but what a difference, in the intervening weeks the Israeli's had hit the airfield and now it was littered with burnt out fighters and military helicopters. There were buildings still smoking and bomb craters everywhere.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)