A Night to Remember -part 5
IN THE cool half light of the evening, the aircraft stands there, big, black and menacing against a turquoise sky. The ground crew greet us with words of assurance as to the airworthiness of the aircraft and Stan, our flight engineer, and I go around the aircraft doing the external checks. Pitot head covers removed, all cowlings, inspection panels and leading edges secured. Check tyres for creep. We climb aboard to our respective positions, checking escape hatches, etc. Inside the aircraft there's that familiar smell of cellulose, oil and 100 octane fuel. Checking more equipment in the fuselage as we climb the steep slope forward and struggling over the main spar, our minds are beginning to get to grips with the task ahead.
Settling into the pilot’s seat on the parachute, buckling it on and doing up the seat belt, my hands are shaking a bit and none of the buckles seem to go together easily. The seat seems a bit hard and a bit too low. I adjust it and that seems to be more comfortable. Helmet on, plug into the intercom and connect the oxygen, check the instrument panel, switch on radio and check the intercom.
It’s now 2050 hrs, ten minutes to start up and all the crew are now in their positions with their equipment checked. Switch on intercom, "pilot to rear gunner OK?" "Rear gunner OK skip", "pilot to mid upper OK?", "Mid upper OK", "pilot to special OK?, "Special OK", "pilot to wireless operator OK?", "OK skip", and so on checking on each of the other seven crew members in turn. "OK engineer it's 2058 hrs and we're ready to start up". "OK skip, ground/flight switch to ground, trolley acc is plugged in, engine controls set, fuel OK".
"Right, start up number one". The big prop turns slowly with a whining noise, it kicks, and with a cloud of exhaust smoke it bursts into life with that deep throated roar. Number two, three, and four follow. All engines running now, all gauges OK. Ground/flight switch to FLIGHT, set engines to 1,200 rpm to warm up. Temperatures and pressures building, check hydraulics. Gunners check the movements of their turrets, wireless operator and Special check their radios, navigator checks the Gee navigation aid, compass, instruments, maps.
All the crew are working like clockwork now, going though the actions that they have been well trained to do. With the work in hand, you can feel the confidence building and the butterflies are being flushed out. Set each engine to 1,500 rpm and check magnetos, open up all four engines in turn to zero boost and check the superchargers, check constant speed units.
Open up each engine in turn to takeoff power and check boost, rpm and magnetos. The whole aircraft shakes and trembles like a huge animal coming to life. All OK, throttle back to 1,200 rpm and ready to go. "Pilot to rear gunner, all OK?" "Rear gunner OK skip", "pilot mid upper OK?", "OK skipper" and so on checking on all the crew in turn once again, a procedure that will be carried out over and over again during the trip. “Right chaps, we are ready to taxi”.
It's now 2120 hrs, the light is beginning to fade and other Lancasters are starting to roll along the perimeter track, big and black with their navigation lights on, towards the takeoff point. Thumbs up to the ground crew and wave the chocks away and we get a good luck wave back as we open up the throttles and trundle forward onto the perimeter track to take our place in the queue for takeoff.