Carleton Sheets

I left the Airforce in 1946 and studied for my Civil Aviation Radio Operators Licence. I obtained this in 1947 and joined a small company that specialized in delivering aircraft (mainly ex-military at first ), to various countries around the world, using a Pilot and Radio operator. (In those days all enroute and long distance communications was done in Morse Code by the Radio Operator) My first Civilian flight was in a Bristol Beaufighter to be delivered to the Turkish Airforce in Izmir. This was followed by quite a number of flights in both Beaufighter and Mosquito aircraft also to Izmir.

In August 1947 our company was called upon to take part in the Division of India/Pakistan ,using Dakota aircraft and evacuating the different religions to their respective countries. Our flights were mainly between Karachi and Delhi .
In November 1948 our company commenced operations with Bristol Freighter aircraft on the Berlin Airlift and I operated mainly between Hamburg and Berlin (Gatow and Templehof),carrying a wide variety of goods, in fact,almost everything you could think of, including the kitchen sink !. There were many other deliveries of aircraft ,including a Grumman Mallard from New York to the UK, and one from the UK to Singapore. There were also deliveries of DH Heronsto Indonesia, a Percival Prince to Venezuela , 3 Bristol Freighters to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia , a DH Dove to Japan., and a Dakota to New York among many many others.

In between times I was on the Car Ferry Freighters operating between Lympne and Le Touquet and a large number of charter flights to various destinations. One of the deliveries was a DH Dove to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia,) apparently a gift to Haile Selassi , who we were presented to.

A NORTH ATLANTIC DELIVERY

Another rather hectic flight was a Dakota to be delivered to Montreal, to be turned into an Executive plane for some company. We went from Blackbushe(UK), to Prestwick(Scotland),then to Keflavik (Iceland), the intention then was to go to Bluie 1,Known locally as Narsarsuaq, on the southern part of Greenland, before proceeding on to Goosebay and then Montreal. 

Bluie1 was known to be a difficult place to get into,(in fact there was a tabletop model of the fiords and approach in the Ops briefing room at Keflavik), as one had first to find the right fiord to enter and fly up, with quite high walls either side, and then a left turn to find the airfield.!. 
Anyway,when we set off from Keflavik the weather was quite good,but ,at the time ,we were at a high point in the sunspot cycle which seems to cause radio blackouts and Aurora Borealis.

We set off from Keflavik and everything seemed ok to start with. When I tried getting Bluie1 weather broadcasts I could hear nothing so I contacted the weather ship that was stationed about halfway between Keflavik and Bluie1.( At that time there were a number of these weather ships dotted about the Atlantic sending their reports back to the Met office in the UK and also monitoring overflying air traffic.) The weather ship reported that they had no contact with Bluie1 either and could not give us any information about landing conditions there. By the time we had reached the southern tip of Greenland the radio signals had started to come back in and I heard Bluie1 calling us and telling us to return to Keflavik as Bluie1 was closed in due to bad weather.

We turned around to go back, but the pilot did not think that we had quite enough fuel to reach Keflavik. I then started to send the morse emergency signal XXX,saying that we had a problem. Although I could`nt contact Keflavik direct, at that time, an overflying U.S. Airforce plane got my message and relayed it to Keflavik. In the meantime the pilot decided to head for the Weather ship, where ,he hoped , he could get a good idea of his ground speed and determine whether we could make it, and if not ,then we would have to ditch in the sea beside the Weather ship.

When we reached the Weather Ship the pilot had worked out that we could just about make it back to Keflavik, so we pressed on and I informed Keflavik of our progress. We finally reached Keflavik and landed with about 15 to 20 minutes of fuel left and found that the U.S. Airforce had rolled their AirSea Rescue plane out of the hanger and were preparing to come out to look for us if we hadn`t made it.! We made the complete trip OK a few days later.

This was a bit of a Magnetic Quirk !!

There was another time,when flying from the U.K. to New York,at night, in a Hermes, and we were about 3/4 of the way,or more, there, that we ran into an Electrical storm . After a bit of flashing lights there was a bang, which usually meant that the top antenna(aerial)(between cockpit and the top of the tail fin ) had been hit. (I`d had it before and it usually meant you could no longer Transmit and receive radio signals). This time, however, it was different in that when I tried out the radio I could hear signals clearly,so the antenna was still connected at the cockpit end.

We carried on towards the first checkpoint on the American East coast and the skipper began to remark about the odd headings on the compass that he had to make to reach the checkpoint, using the ADF.(Automatic Direction Finder). We finally approached New York and the controller gave us a runway direction to land on, but it didn`t tie in with our compass reading. Nevertheless, the controller had us on Radar and said our heading was ok and we were clear to land. Our handling agents were told about the odd compass readings we had had and they checked it out by doing a compass swing.

They found that the compass was now 35 degrees out!!. As 1 degree out is 1 mile in 60 out, it could have been quite disastrous if we had been about halfway across the Atlantic when it happened. Apparently it was caused by the antenna being broken at the tail fin end (hence the signals being received ok) and the insulator on the end just banging around on the fuselage which caused the magnetic properties of the plane to change direction, hence the compass aberration!. (A passenger had mentioned to the steward about a banging noise at the rear, but the flight engineer had checked and could find nothing ).

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THE HANDLEY PAGE HERMES

Is this another GLOWING report?

There was another incident that I should mention, because it was a bit strange, to say the least. It happened also on a Hermes. We were flying in cloud,at night,and I started to get a lot of static over the Radio which usually meant that we were running into a bit of Electrical phenomena,which sometimes shows itself as what is known as "St Elmos Fire". I had experienced it a number of times before and it consists of when different parts of the aircraft are at differing electrical potential and they "Glow".

For instance, the Antenna between cockpit and the top of the tail fin Glowed like a Blue Neon Tube!!. Also there was a Blue glowing ring around the periphery of each of the propellers, and little blue "things" ran up and down the windscreen wipers. This time ,however, there was something new to me. As I stood between the two Pilots seats,looking forward, I could see what looked like a Blue rotating ball, about 18 inches,or so, in diameter,and around 20 or 30 feet ahead of the aircraft.

It started rolling towards the aircraft and I swung round to sit down in my Radio Ops seat (which faces rearward), and this ball came straight through the nose of the Hermes, passing about two or three feet away from me, and continuing through the galley (the door was open at the time) and down the central aisle until it disappeared through the end of the aircraft.!! I looked across at the Flight Engineer and we both said the same, "What the hell was that". I have no idea,but it was like the special effects that you see in Sci Fi movies.! You would need to ask a Ph.D !.

Phew.!!....This was some fuel leak

There was another Hermes flight that I feel I should mention because it came so close to being a catastropic disaster. We were returning to the UK, empty, after a flight down to Aden. We refuelled at Malta and took off, at night, bound for Blackbushe,UK. After about an hour, as we were running into cloud, we put the wing floodlights on,to check if any icing had started on the leading edges. We then noticed a white plume flowing backwards from the top of the Starboard (right) wing ,and realised that it was fuel. Somehow a fuel cap had been left off and the fuel was syphoning out,although the fuel guages ,on that side, showed normal. At first we thought it would stop after the initial surplus had cleared, also as the fuel guages showed normal. Then the skipper remarked that the Port wing seemed to be getting heavier and that he had to wind on a lot of Aileron trim to get it back up.!.

However, the skipper decided that something was not quite right and decided to return to Malta, after notifying our company in uk, by radio. As we were too heavy for landing weight we got permission to dump fuel in a prescribed area. As we dumped fuel the Port wing seemed to come up and the Aileron trim reduced.! We now lined up for landing, but the control tower reminded us that due to some fault in the landing lights they would be using"Goosenecks",which are naked flame lights.!!.( If we had known the extent of the trouble, we may well have thought very carefully about landing!).

Anyway, we continued the approach, and just as we flared out to touchdown, the starboard fuel guages dropped to zero. (no more lift). We taxied round to the dispersal point, where they had recovered the fuel cap, and started to refuel. As they started putting fuel in the outer Starboard tank, we were absolutely shattered to see fuel coming out of every crack and rivet hole under the wing.!!, and stopped fuelling immediately. Well now......apparantly what had happened is that the fuel tanks were not of the rigid type,as you might imagine, but were flexible, and known as "Bag tanks" . As the syphoning had started, it began to draw the tank slowly upwards, in turn lifting the fuel guage floats(hence the higher readings) until some point was reached whereby the tank was starting to be torn and the fuel flooding into the wing area.!!. Someone up above must have been watching over us!!!.

Now a bit of Pilot training

In 1951 I decided to try to obtain a Private Pilots Licence and commenced training on a DH Tiger Moth from Lympne Airport in Kent, where I was based (The Tiger Moth was a very basic aircraft, no brakes,a skid for a tailwheel, no radio and only the most basic instruments).

I obtained the licence in November of that year,then later got a Twin rating on a Miles Gemini (limited to 12500lbs all up weight).As the Instructor who had taught me was retiring, he offered me the chance of buying the Tiger Moth (G-AHND) for £250.!! As my intention was to obtain a Commercial Pilots Licence eventually, this seemed a good way of building up some cheap flying hours to the amount required for the Commercial Licence.
One of the local flights that I did was to fly the station manager at Lympne around the area to look for the most likely spot to build a new airport. With Lympne being high (about 350 feet) we were often stopped flying by fog and/or low cloud and it was decided to find, and build, a less weather prone airport. This is now Lydd Airport.

There was one incident I remember vividly, shortly after getting my PPL.(Private Pilots Licence). I decided I would try going across the Channel, in the Tiger Moth, to Le Touquet, in France. It was one of those "golden days",where you could`nt see either the Sea or the sky(no Artificial Horizon either),although I kept glancing over my shoulders to glimpse the White Cliffs of Dover, but they soon disappeared and I soon began to feel the odd "G" forces on my sides. With no Artificial Horizon and only Turn and slip,Altimeter,and Airspeed instruments, I realized that I was in a peculiar attitude in the sky and would have to do something pretty quickly.

Fortunately I remembered something my instructor had said once, "If you ever get stuck and don`t know which way up you are, look at the Turn and Slip meter and use your hands on the bottom needle and your feet on the top".!!. Well, I dont know if that was the right way, but I did it and managed to keep on a even keel until the French coast thankfully came in sight. It sure taught me a lesson to make sure that there was good visibility and a horizon before going across the Channel again!.

Although I flew the Tiger Moth quite a lot locally and to Ostend,(Belgium), and Le Touquet,(France), I never managed to get enough flying hours in, plus, our company had now obtained a Trooping Contract using the Handley Page Hermes aircraft to transport troops to various bases around the world like Hong Kong, Aden,Lagos, Singapore and Nairobi.etc. As I was quite busy on these trooping flights I had to give up the Tiger Moth and sold it to Ramsgate Flying Club for £150.!! (If only I could have kept it, It would now be worth many thousands of pounds).

The Hermes aircraft that we were using were 4 engined planes but had to be modified to meet military requirements (like rearward facing seats, and to be able to use 100 octane fuel, which was in general use then,and not the 115 octane that the Hermes had been using previously). These aircraft were bought from BOAC (now British Airways).

NOW THE ADVENTURE BIT?

Of the very many delivery flights that I was on , one in particular turned out to be quite an adventure. We had a number of delivery flights to Kabul (Afghanistan) for the Afghan Air Force in 1948, using Avro 19`s (Avro Ansons with bomb racks). The pilot and I , (the Radio operator), left Blackbushe Airport in June 1948 and proceeded normally via Lyon, Rome, Athens, Nicosia (cyprus) , where we nightstopped. In the morning, as we prepared to leave, the RAF police there asked us to check around the aircraft, as some soldier on the airfield had fired his revolver at a barking dog during the night, and they didn`t know where the bullet might have gone! . However,we could not find anything so we pressed on to Baghdad, Bahrain and Sharjah on the Oman Peninsular.

Checking around the aircraft before leaving Sharjah, we found what looked like a .45 bullet hole right through the tip of the wing, fortunately there was no serious damage.! When we left Sharjah we headed for a small RAF outpost called Jiwani , which was roughly half -way between Sharjah and Karachi. MAP OF ROUTE TAKEN (Drawing not to scale)  The weather report that we had been given for the route showed Fair/Fine with nothing untoward being indicated. After about one and a half hours we noticed that the visibility was reducing with no indication on the weather reports of this. We then began to realise that this was a large Sandstorm and decided to descend to a lower altitude where we could see the sea and make out the coastline to our left.

By now more than 2 hours had elapsed and we should have been nearing Jiwani which was on the Eastern side of a large bay. I was calling Jiwani on the radio but with no response. As we were on the right side (Eastern side) of a bay and could just make out what looked like a possible landing strip, we decided to make an approach to have a look although the visibility was appalling and the pilot thought there was not enough fuel to return to Sharjah.

We were on the final 200 yards and the Sandstorm suddenly engulfed us just as we were about to touchdown. We could just make out some rocks which we tried to avoid but unfortunately struck , causing the undercarriage to collapse and the propeller tips to curl up. We eventually came to rest and made a hasty exit in case there was a fire. By now the visibility was about 5 yards with the wind blowing the sand hard into our faces. After a few minutes, when the danger of fire had gone and it seemed safe to re-enter the aircraft, I started to re-assemble the Radio that had been torn from its mountings. I then started calling Karachi to tell them what had happened and where we thought we were.

After about 3/4 hour had passed ,and we were wondering what to do next, when quite suddenly ,apparently from nowhere, a man appeared . How he had located us in this visibility I will never know. However, as we tried to converse, unsuccessfully at first,we brought out a map and torch and indicated to him where we thought we were. After looking at the map for a while he pointed to a similar bay with a village called Charbah, but it was about 60 or so miles West of Jiwani.!! I now had to re-transmit by radio to Karachi the corrected position, also to arrange a schedule for calling them every few hours because of the limited life of the aircraft batteries.

We were then led, through the sand, to a small building where we spent the night. By the next morning the weather had cleared and we were able to see the extent of the damage to the aircraft. It was certainly beyond our help. There was nothing we could do to salvage it. It appeared that we had landed near to a small remote village in Southern Iran and now had to work out just how we were going to get out of there. ( Photo at end of story) There also appeared to be a small detachment of soldiers based there . We had managed to strike up a form of conversation with the villager who had found us and other villagers who were good enough to have given us food and shelter. Their main lifestyle seemed to be fishing, then drying them to sell at their local market.They even took us out in one of their boats, and I managed to hook a 80 pound Stingray.!!

In the meantime I had periodically radioed Karachi and they said they were sending out a Dakota from RAF Mauripur (Karachi) with some supplies for us. When the Dakota duly arrived there was great excitement among the villagers as it made several low passes before parachuting down 2 containers to us. We opened them with anticipation and found a little of everything you could possibly need, food, water, medical supplies, cigarettes and the one thing that seemed most important , at the time, mosquito nets, as the place was full of large flying insects, especially at night.

By now the aircraft batteries were getting very low ,so we decided to try to transmit some final arrangements to get us out. We had already checked with the villagers and the soldiers if they could supply us with some Camels and guides in order to get us to the next bay, some 60 to 70 miles along the coast where, hopefully, we would be met by a launch from RAF Jiwani. ( It was a long way around the bay , plus crossing the border into what was then Baluchistan, was what the guides would not consider. Anyway, that was the plan that I transmitted to Karachi Control who, we presumed, would pass it on to RAF Jiwani. I also managed to send a signal to Bahrain to be forwarded to our company in the UK They replied asking us to check the length of the landing strip so that they might be able to send a Bristol Freighter to salvage the crashed aircraft. We did just that , but it did not appear to be quite long enough.

We set off at an agreed time with the camels and guides and spent the next 3 or 4 days plodding Eastwards, sleeping in the open at night. We arrived at the West side of the bay in the late afternoon, only to find absolutely nothing there, just miles of desert inland and a rocky coastline; very desolate.( We found out afterwards that the RAF at Jiwani had got the wrong message and sent a Landrover the other way to look for us .(Eastwards) !! As it was by now too late in the day to turn back we bedded down for the night , although the guides indicated that we must go back for a day in order to get water for the Camels.

The next morning one of the guides was excitedly pointing out to sea , where we could just make out a small boat with a number of rowers coming towards us. It stopped a few hundred yards out and we could make out one of them (a naval type),viewing us through binoculars . Eventually they came ashore .(They had been a bit doubtful about landing as our guides looked very fierce with their ammunition belts slung across their shoulders; besides that, it was a foreign country they would be landing in). Apparently Karachi had sent out a Naval Frigate to look for us and the captain had got it right, anchoring out in the bay. He then sent in a Whaler boat to find us.

Having said our goodbyes and thanks to our guides and leaving them gifts from our emergency supplies, we climbed into the boat and were rowed out to the Frigate where all the crew were leaning over the handrail cheering us in!. We were soon taken to the wardroom and given a stiff drink before having a much needed bath. The Frigate then up-anchored and started on its way back to Karachi. After stopping the night and visiting the Meteorological Office to find out why we had not been informed about the Cyclone Sandstorm we caught the next plane back to the UK.

A return to the scene!!

About 3 months later we started out again with another Avro 19 , but this time with the intention of landing at the crash site at Charbah to try to salvage the first aircraft. (A photo of the crash site, taken from about 400ft as we approached in the second aircraft, is at end of story) We arrived there and managed to make a safe landing on the short strip that we had prepared before we had left.

We spent the next few days , with the ground engineer that we had brought with us ,dismantling the aircraft and arranging with the locals to put the different parts on their Dhows,(small sailing boats)and sail them along the coast to RAF Jiwani. We then carried on with our delivery flight to Karachi, then up to Peshwar, and finally into Kabul. As there were no commercial flights out of Kabul, we took a very bumpy ride on a Fruit lorry across the Khyber Pass to Peshawar, where we then caught a plane to Karachi, then on to the UK. I finished flying in 1960,then did 2 years as Air Traffic Controller. Photos of Aircraft and Crash Site . The crashed Avro 19 .This shot was taken from about 400ft as we approached in the 2nd plane(The crashed aircraft in center of picture and the coastline, out of sight ,below the nose)

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