What Cockpit ?
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Kieron Kirk
It certainly is the cockpit of General Aviation’s Monospar ST-18 Croydon
which met a sad end after making a false landing on the hard coral of Seringapatam Reef, 175 miles off the N.W. coast of Australia. The aircraft was returning to the UK from Australia in October 1936 but failed to make landfall across the Timor Sea due to a compass error. The aircraft was abandoned, the crew were saved by a local fishing boat.
[IMG]
[/IMG]
The last photograph taken of the Croydon shortly before the tide claimed it for ever. Note the tail wheel broken off.
You have control
Mel
It certainly is the cockpit of General Aviation’s Monospar ST-18 Croydon
which met a sad end after making a false landing on the hard coral of Seringapatam Reef, 175 miles off the N.W. coast of Australia. The aircraft was returning to the UK from Australia in October 1936 but failed to make landfall across the Timor Sea due to a compass error. The aircraft was abandoned, the crew were saved by a local fishing boat. [IMG]
[/IMG]The last photograph taken of the Croydon shortly before the tide claimed it for ever. Note the tail wheel broken off.
You have control
Mel
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A nice easy one. Not far from where I live. Checked the previous listings so it should not have been posted before.
Here's hoping it will post alright.
My first attempt at posting an image.
It did not work, could somebody else take the next image.
I shall try again later.
Gnome de PPRuNe
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Here's your pic Kieron, "http://" appeared twice in the address for some reason...
Chiz
Treadders
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Kieron Kirk
Hawker Hunter.
Unfortunately you included the aircraft's name in the File Reference. When pasting in the file as Teadders stated the file's http// was included make sure next time you review the file data and delete the extra http//. Please try another challenge..
Mel
Kieron check your PMs
Hawker Hunter.
Unfortunately you included the aircraft's name in the File Reference. When pasting in the file as Teadders stated the file's http// was included make sure next time you review the file data and delete the extra http//. Please try another challenge.
. Mel
Kieron check your PMs
Last edited by MReyn24050; 7th May 2006 at 12:21.
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Monospar ST-18 Croydon which met a sad end after making a forced landing on the hard coral of Seringapatam Reef
What you didn't mention was that this reef is submerged for most of its life and that unusual tidal conditions had exposed it for a brief window allowing the Croydon to land. Add the fortunate presence of the boat and the crew were extremely lucky indeed.
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jabberwok
As you quite rightly say, the Seringapatam Reef was normally under water and they had the good fortune to find it during a period of neap tides- and at low water. Later that day apparently it was under three feet of water, a week later it would have been immersed under a maximum of 14ft of sea. The story has it that the crew had a collapsible boat on board and paddled off to the fishing boat which as you say was fortunately near by.
Perhaps to this day near that far-off reef lie two coral encrusted Pratt & Whitney Wasp Juniors-last mortal remains of that ill fated aircraft.
Mel
As you quite rightly say, the Seringapatam Reef was normally under water and they had the good fortune to find it during a period of neap tides- and at low water. Later that day apparently it was under three feet of water, a week later it would have been immersed under a maximum of 14ft of sea. The story has it that the crew had a collapsible boat on board and paddled off to the fishing boat which as you say was fortunately near by.
Perhaps to this day near that far-off reef lie two coral encrusted Pratt & Whitney Wasp Juniors-last mortal remains of that ill fated aircraft.
Mel
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Also I would say luck to find a reef that was "landable" - most I would have thought would remove more than the tailwheel
Foxmoth, they weren't the only ones to find a place that was 'landable.'
I flew for 27 years for the railroad in Hammond Innes' book "The Land God Gave To Cain." It was 20 years before my time, about 1953, when the gravel strip at Menehik along the railroad right-of-way had a surprise visit from a Lockheed Lodestar one evening. The radio operator/weather observer was showing a visitor how the ceiling projector worked, when they heard an aircraft overhead. The company had no flights scheduled, so the runway lights had been turned off. He turned on the runway lights, and had the surprise of his life when, in the space of a few minutes, a Lodestar broke out of the overcast and landed. Even more surprising, after the door opened, the first thing out was a life raft, quickly followed by several gentlemen in robes and burnooses, (bernice? sp) obviously amazed to find themselves on dry land.
What had happened, the aircraft in question was on a flight from Saudi Arabia to the US, via Greenland, with a stop in Goose Bay for fuel. The pilot had become lost, and low on fuel had prepared to ditch over what he supposed to be the Labrador Sea. On the letdown above the undercast, he spotted a flare of light through the clouds and supposing this to be a USCG cutter on station off the coast of Labrador had made for it. He'd briefed his three passengers to expect a water landing, and was more than surprised himself when he broke out of the clouds and saw runway lights, so he slammed the gear down and landed. His passengers thought they were in the drink, not some 200 miles further west over dry land, hence the raft was the first thing out. They all spent the night in a company bunkhouse and continued in the am.
There's a twist. The ceiling projector was only on for less than a minute before the bulb burnt out. The pilot, let's call him RL, was certainly in the wrong place, but at decidedly the right time. A few years later he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He got caught running some hardware into Cuba for a certain Senor Castro, and Senor Batista threw him in jail. (Senor Castro promptly turned him loose when he took over.)
Ok people, back to the regularly scheduled programme.
I flew for 27 years for the railroad in Hammond Innes' book "The Land God Gave To Cain." It was 20 years before my time, about 1953, when the gravel strip at Menehik along the railroad right-of-way had a surprise visit from a Lockheed Lodestar one evening. The radio operator/weather observer was showing a visitor how the ceiling projector worked, when they heard an aircraft overhead. The company had no flights scheduled, so the runway lights had been turned off. He turned on the runway lights, and had the surprise of his life when, in the space of a few minutes, a Lodestar broke out of the overcast and landed. Even more surprising, after the door opened, the first thing out was a life raft, quickly followed by several gentlemen in robes and burnooses, (bernice? sp) obviously amazed to find themselves on dry land.
What had happened, the aircraft in question was on a flight from Saudi Arabia to the US, via Greenland, with a stop in Goose Bay for fuel. The pilot had become lost, and low on fuel had prepared to ditch over what he supposed to be the Labrador Sea. On the letdown above the undercast, he spotted a flare of light through the clouds and supposing this to be a USCG cutter on station off the coast of Labrador had made for it. He'd briefed his three passengers to expect a water landing, and was more than surprised himself when he broke out of the clouds and saw runway lights, so he slammed the gear down and landed. His passengers thought they were in the drink, not some 200 miles further west over dry land, hence the raft was the first thing out. They all spent the night in a company bunkhouse and continued in the am.
There's a twist. The ceiling projector was only on for less than a minute before the bulb burnt out. The pilot, let's call him RL, was certainly in the wrong place, but at decidedly the right time. A few years later he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He got caught running some hardware into Cuba for a certain Senor Castro, and Senor Batista threw him in jail. (Senor Castro promptly turned him loose when he took over.)
Ok people, back to the regularly scheduled programme.