"Good Old Argosy"
by Jan Koppen
My request to fly with Elan's nightly flight was granted and in the middle of the night, on August 14, 1986, I found myself standing on the wet and deserted tarmac of Schiphol-East, watching for the arrival of Air Bridge 690. Her ETA was 0240 hours, but she failed to show-up at the expected time. I immediately walked to the shabby-looking customs building of AviaTrading handlers to ask the whereabouts of Air Bridge 690. One of the truck drivers (who looked like a relabel source) told me that the flight was delayed until 0300 hours. So I walked back and patiently waited beside AviaTrading's ground equipment and spent the next hour gazing at the distant, brilliant lights of Schiphol International.
A few minutes before 0300 hours, I spotted the yellow lights of Air Bridge 690, slowly coming towards me. As the aircraft emerged from the darkness of the night and turned into the bright beams of light from the ramp floodlight, I was surprised to see what was standing in front of me, was not the Herald, but another veteran from the United Kingdom..... the Argosy.
As the unloading started I was curious to know, what was on the cargo manifest. As it happens, it turned out that she flew in 30,000 fare paying passengers - ten tons of living eel! Unfortunately for Elan, the return flight would carry only one non-paying passenger, myself!
Soon after, I introduced myself to Captain Gary Franklin, who was making his walk-around inspection. I accompanied him to have a closer look at the machine in which I was about to travel. After the inspection we both agreed that G-APRL was in good shape. A unusual feature, is the refueling procedure for the Argosy. This is done by means of connecting a hose from the Jet A1 fuel truck to a fixed pipe on the left-hand main undercarriage which carries the fuel directly up to the fuel tanks. According to the company's policy, a fast turn around was achieved and with refueling completed Franklin advised me to board the aircraft. Moments later I found myself climbing a very primitive ladder to the aircraft's second floor, which housed the aircraft's front office. There I was awaited by co-pilot Tom Wilkingson, who was busy with his pre-take-off checks. He bent over to unlock the jump seat, which was located between the two flight crew seats and positioned it so that I could take my place. He told me to strap in and make myself comfortable and handed me my headset.
A few minutes before 0300 hours, I spotted the yellow lights of Air Bridge 690, slowly coming towards me. As the aircraft emerged from the darkness of the night and turned into the bright beams of light from the ramp floodlight, I was surprised to see what was standing in front of me, was not the Herald, but another veteran from the United Kingdom..... the Argosy.
As the unloading started I was curious to know, what was on the cargo manifest. As it happens, it turned out that she flew in 30,000 fare paying passengers - ten tons of living eel! Unfortunately for Elan, the return flight would carry only one non-paying passenger, myself!
Soon after, I introduced myself to Captain Gary Franklin, who was making his walk-around inspection. I accompanied him to have a closer look at the machine in which I was about to travel. After the inspection we both agreed that G-APRL was in good shape. A unusual feature, is the refueling procedure for the Argosy. This is done by means of connecting a hose from the Jet A1 fuel truck to a fixed pipe on the left-hand main undercarriage which carries the fuel directly up to the fuel tanks. According to the company's policy, a fast turn around was achieved and with refueling completed Franklin advised me to board the aircraft. Moments later I found myself climbing a very primitive ladder to the aircraft's second floor, which housed the aircraft's front office. There I was awaited by co-pilot Tom Wilkingson, who was busy with his pre-take-off checks. He bent over to unlock the jump seat, which was located between the two flight crew seats and positioned it so that I could take my place. He told me to strap in and make myself comfortable and handed me my headset.
Argosy G-APRL worked the airways for Elan in the late 80's.
Mr. Wilkingson, born in New Zealand, has spent a lot of his time in New Guinea, flying with Douglas Airways. His jet-experience was on Air Pacific BAC One-Elevens. Minutes later, Flight-Commander Franklin emerged from the floor hatch and joined us for the forthcoming flight. Wilkingson informed Captain Franklin, that the pre-take-off checklist was complete and that start-up procedures could commence. Captain Franklin called the different items of the start-up checklist and co-pilot Wilkingson acknowledged these and carried out the procedures. Engines were started in sequence 3, 2, 4 and 1 with Franklin adjusting the throttles. Due to the hectic activity, the crew had no time for me - the Argosy took all their attention. The cockpit filled with the high pitched whine of the Rolls-Royce Dart 526's, which made me realize that the headset was a necessary item! A crackling message through the headset (by ATC) granted us our taxi clearance. Captain Franklin gave his thumb-up signal to the ground mechanic, indicating that Air Bridge 691 was "ready to go".
The overaged ground power unit was disconnected and pushed aside. Brakes were released and the throttles were pushed forward to achieve taxi speed and slowly we made our way to the active runway. Upon arrival at the run-up area, the last few items on the pre-take-off checklist were run through. Captain Franklin selected 118.1 on his VHF radio receiver and reported "Schiphol Tower Air Bridge 691 is ready for take-off". "Air Bridge 691 runway 24 is all yours", responded the ATC controller. Then the throttles were pushed forward to their maximum position and the engines revved up to full power. The brakes were released and the aircraft was shaking as it slowly gained forward momentum. On reaching rotation speed, Captain Franklin eased back on the yoke and Air Bridge 691 took to the air, leaving her earthbound habitat. Wilkingson selected the gear-up lever and seconds later I felt the undercarriage slam into its locked position. At the same time, I saw three green lights appear on the forward instrument panel. Reaching the designated altitude of 11,000 feet, we started a gradual right turn and set our heading for Clackton-on-Sea. Our cruising speed was a steady 250 mph. The noise level on board was such that conversation was permitted only by the use of the headset.
As things calmed down in the cockpit, I got a chance to chat with Captain Franklin. First, he appointed me as inflight steward (this was standard practice onboard). I made a couple of sandwiches and a cup of fresh hot instant coffee and served them, with the usual complementary service. It was greatly appreciated. Captain Franklin, fifty years old and born in England, is a former RAF pilot. He started his flying career on the Hunter and accumulated approximately 1200 hours. Later on, he moved to the Jet Provost as an instructor pilot. After a couple of years, he spent some time in Jordan, instructing young air force pilots. His flying experience includes many types, including the famous Viscount. He has logged thousands of hours which include 500 on the Argosy. "Flying her, is a piece of cake", Gary comments!
The overaged ground power unit was disconnected and pushed aside. Brakes were released and the throttles were pushed forward to achieve taxi speed and slowly we made our way to the active runway. Upon arrival at the run-up area, the last few items on the pre-take-off checklist were run through. Captain Franklin selected 118.1 on his VHF radio receiver and reported "Schiphol Tower Air Bridge 691 is ready for take-off". "Air Bridge 691 runway 24 is all yours", responded the ATC controller. Then the throttles were pushed forward to their maximum position and the engines revved up to full power. The brakes were released and the aircraft was shaking as it slowly gained forward momentum. On reaching rotation speed, Captain Franklin eased back on the yoke and Air Bridge 691 took to the air, leaving her earthbound habitat. Wilkingson selected the gear-up lever and seconds later I felt the undercarriage slam into its locked position. At the same time, I saw three green lights appear on the forward instrument panel. Reaching the designated altitude of 11,000 feet, we started a gradual right turn and set our heading for Clackton-on-Sea. Our cruising speed was a steady 250 mph. The noise level on board was such that conversation was permitted only by the use of the headset.
As things calmed down in the cockpit, I got a chance to chat with Captain Franklin. First, he appointed me as inflight steward (this was standard practice onboard). I made a couple of sandwiches and a cup of fresh hot instant coffee and served them, with the usual complementary service. It was greatly appreciated. Captain Franklin, fifty years old and born in England, is a former RAF pilot. He started his flying career on the Hunter and accumulated approximately 1200 hours. Later on, he moved to the Jet Provost as an instructor pilot. After a couple of years, he spent some time in Jordan, instructing young air force pilots. His flying experience includes many types, including the famous Viscount. He has logged thousands of hours which include 500 on the Argosy. "Flying her, is a piece of cake", Gary comments!
Unloading live eel at Amsterdam. She returned empy East Midlands airport that same night.
After passing the half-way mark, everything seemed pretty much under control. Just as I thought that is was going to be a standard operational flight, we ran into unexpected problems. As we reached the British coastline, a white flash was noticed on the right side of the aircraft. Two red warning lights started flashing on the forward panel illuminating the faces of the flight crew. At the same time the oral warning horn was activated with a devasting tone. Co-pilot Wilkingson reacted instantly to his Captain by saying, "oh, we have a little problem on number 4" (I began to feel a bit uneasy), but Flight Commander Franklin scanned his instrument panel, assessed the situation and started smiling. He has been with Edna for a long time and knew all her tricks. He quickly extinguished the oral warning horn and reset the flickering warning lights. Franklin informed me that we had a low generator-light come up on number 4, indicating a fault in the electrical system. He recorded the malfunction in the aircraft's logbook. As soon as we reached Castle Donington, the Air Bridge mechanics will immediately investigate the nature of the malfunction. The crisis was over and we proceeded with the normal operation of the flight.
A few minutes later we reached Clacton-on-Sea, a navigational beacon on Britain's eastern coastline. We changed our heading and requested "approach", for a straight-in ILS landing. Soon after the crew started their pre-landing checklist, we slowly began to decrease our speed and height. As we broke through the heavy cloud cover, we immediately spotted the brilliant lights of Castle Donington's runway 24, located in a pool of darkness. Moments later the gear was dropped from its bays with a low thump and clicked into its locked position. The flaps were lowered to a 15 degrees setting.
As we got closer to the runway Wilkingson, who was in charge of this morning's landing, adjusted the aircraft's attituded for a good runway alignment. With all the landing checklist items ticked off and the engines throttled back, we glided over the threshold. Seconds later I could feel the aircraft touching the runway with a gentle bump. With steady reverse and light brake application, the four-engine freighter reached the halfway-point and taxied off the runway. "One hour and eighteen minutes, not bad for a return flight", Captain Franklin remarked.
A few minutes later we reached Clacton-on-Sea, a navigational beacon on Britain's eastern coastline. We changed our heading and requested "approach", for a straight-in ILS landing. Soon after the crew started their pre-landing checklist, we slowly began to decrease our speed and height. As we broke through the heavy cloud cover, we immediately spotted the brilliant lights of Castle Donington's runway 24, located in a pool of darkness. Moments later the gear was dropped from its bays with a low thump and clicked into its locked position. The flaps were lowered to a 15 degrees setting.
As we got closer to the runway Wilkingson, who was in charge of this morning's landing, adjusted the aircraft's attituded for a good runway alignment. With all the landing checklist items ticked off and the engines throttled back, we glided over the threshold. Seconds later I could feel the aircraft touching the runway with a gentle bump. With steady reverse and light brake application, the four-engine freighter reached the halfway-point and taxied off the runway. "One hour and eighteen minutes, not bad for a return flight", Captain Franklin remarked.
G-BEYF is a HPR.7 Herald-401 and initially flew for the Royal Malaysian Air Force from 1963 until 1977.
As we were taxiing to the Air Bridge freight apron, I asked Franklin what he thought of the Argosy. "She is good for the job", he replied. When we reached the freight terminal, the marshaller signaled us to make a sharp turn onto our parking position, where we were awaited by the ground personnel. Franklin applied parking brakes and cut the engines. The deafening whine of the Darts slowly faded away, only to be replaced by the shrill noise of an ordinary ground power unit. I accompanied Gary and Tom out of the flight-deck and we disembarked the aircraft at the rear into typical British weather ...... rain!
As we proceeded to Air Bridge operations-room, I glanced back for a last glimpse of G-APRL. Standing in the pouring rain and feeling a bit tired, I thought back to this memorable flight. Knowing that she's the last active representative of the type in Europe and bearing in mind that her operational life is coming to a close, we parted company. With the noise of her engines still ringing in my ears, I jumped into the awaiting taxi of my hotel!
As we proceeded to Air Bridge operations-room, I glanced back for a last glimpse of G-APRL. Standing in the pouring rain and feeling a bit tired, I thought back to this memorable flight. Knowing that she's the last active representative of the type in Europe and bearing in mind that her operational life is coming to a close, we parted company. With the noise of her engines still ringing in my ears, I jumped into the awaiting taxi of my hotel!
- The End -