PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Vickers Viscount pilots, cabin crew and engineers.
Old 28th Feb 2018, 19:31
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Smeagol
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: ex-Abu Dhabi now back in Carrot Cruncher Land
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Flew on Air Rhodesia Viscounts several times in the 1970's.

First time was in about 1976 when travelling from Cape Town to Victoria Falls when travelling to Wankie (Hwange) for a job interview at the colliery. It was certainly an experience as it was the middle of the war and on boarding the aircraft most of the other passengers checked in their firearms, hand guns, rifles, automatic rifles, all handed to the cabin crew to be retrieved after landing.

Repeated the trip a couple of years later when leaving SA, I took the wife and kids to Vic Falls. This was memorable for landing at Kariba and Wankie before Vic Falls. The climb out from Kariba was notable for its lack of altitude and the commentary on the visible wildlife by the (presumably) non-flying pilot. This low level was maintained until well away from land over lake Kariba. I believe this low flying was to minimise the possibility of being hit by surface-to-air missiles from Zambia. The aircraft we flew on was VP-WAS which was brought down by a missile about 6 months later.

As mentioned by others it was a comfortable aircraft to fly in with great views from the relatively large windows.
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