I was a plane captain on a JRF Goose and one-day I was sent on a mission with our engineering officer. He like most of the pilots on our base was a veteran of the Greenland Patrol. These missions were harrowing and boring at the same time and to minimize the effects of flying under these conditions the pilots carried a bottle of engine smoothener in their nav kit. Many of the pilots that participated on these long over water patrols became alcoholics.
Our engineering officer was nicknamed Shaky but I was unaware of the reason for the nickname. That is, until we were halfway through the mission. Our mission was to bring an APU to one of our helicopters that was located on the Niagara river to rescue ice fishermen in the event of the ice breaking away. The remainder of the mission was for cross-country flying from Buffalo, New York to Floyd Bennet field in Brooklyn, New York.
We landed at Buffalo airport and we had to wait for our truck to arrive to pickup the APU. There was about 8 inches of snow on the ground and it was extremely cold. The administration building was not open so we had to wait in the cold. It was during this time I observed Shaky shaking. He had sobered up. When the administration building finally opened Shaky disappeared into the building looking for the bar. It wasn’t open at that early hour so Shaky came to the realization that he was unable to fly. At that time I was promoted from plane captain to pilot. I had been schooled as a part of my training to be able to relieve the pilot but I lacked the necessary skills to pilot the aircraft.
I successfully taxied the aircraft and eventually took off and headed for New York, City. My navigation was a bit sloppy but we finally made it to CGAS Brooklyn, New York. I was setting up for the landing and the tower was providing instructions as to which runway to use. This communication transpired as we passed over the Rockaway Bridge, which screwed up the radio transmission and, I set up on the wrong runway. At this time the control tower was glowing with red aldis lamps. Shaky took over and made a reasonably successful landing.
We stayed overnight and while I was trying to refuel the aircraft Shaky was tanking up at the Officers club. The tanks only needed about 25 gallons apiece and I plugged the nozzle into the tank. The man who was monitoring the tank truck walked away after increasing the engine rpm. He indicated later that the truck would not pump at low rpm. In any case he walked away and the nozzle went wide open filling the tank to overflow in a few seconds. I screamed at the tanker attendant to shut the fuel pump off. In the mean time I pulled the nozzle out of the tank and directed the high-pressure stream over the tail and into a snowbank. While all this was going on my winter flight suit became soaked with 91-octane gasoline
Shaky was able to fly the plane due to his intake of high octane alcohol however my flight suit was soaked in gasoline so we had to fly in the middle of winter with the cockpit windows open and the rear Dutch-doors open to promote circulation. I was wearing my dress blues which offered no protection from the cold. The heaters were ineffective so both Shaky and myself were freezing. It didn’t take much time under these conditions for Shakeys’ buzz to wear off. Once again I was promoted to pilot only this time we were to fly to Philadelphia and then to Cleveland. We successfully arrived at Cleveland where Shaky had an opportunity to tank up and he flew the aircraft back to Traverse City, Michigan.
More to come.
