Kip Powick Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 It has been said that "flying" is hours and hours of boredom marked by moments of stark terror....Published in the June issue of RAPCAN Gooneybird Corkscrew DK “Kip” Powick As a brand new Flying Officer in the RCAF I was posted to 131KU, a Communications Flight based at RCAF station North Bay. Our role was to provide transport for NORAD personnel and any other individuals that Air Defence Command felt needed our resources. Our aircraft consisted of two normal passenger/freight configured DC-3s,one VIP Configured DC3, about four C-45 (Beechcraft), and about six T-33 jets. It was an eye opening posting as DND just started putting brand new pilots in these type of units and it was one of only three such units in Canada where a pilot could be current on three aircraft types, all at the same time. It was in the fall of 1965 and we were returning from an overnight transport trip up on the DEW Line. Our trusty steed, a DC3, (Military C-47), had just passed Timmins and our next checkpoint prior to our home base, RCAF Station North Bay, was Earlton, Ontario. As was the policy in DND, the Captain and the FO switched seats and it just happened I was taking my turn in the left seat. The Captain, who was about to retire in another year, was heavily engrossed in a copy of the Globe and Mail that we had picked up somewhere, checking his stock portfolio. We were at about 7000 or 8000 feet, (can’t remember the correct altitude for direction of flight on that track), and it looked like we were soon going to enter some mid-level and dark looking stratus clouds. I mentioned the cloud formation to the Captain who merely looked ahead, grunted an acknowledgement, and returned to his paper. The DC3 droned on and soon we were IFR. A few bumps occurred and then a bit of rain. It began to get quite bumpy so I retarded the throttles a bit, reduced our incredible forward velocity of 120kts IAS by about 10 kts and the Captain slowly folded up his newspaper leaned forward and stared into the dark abyss. Then all hell broke loose. The rain turned to hail and the racket was unbelievable. The Dakota pitched forward, abruptly turned to the left and before I knew it we had close to 90 degrees of bank on. The port engine started to cough and sputter. I fought the hard left bank and attempted to get the aircraft to what I thought was level flight, but it didn’t happen. We were now in an ever-tightening spiral dive, which abruptly spun over to a right hand spiral. The port engine had iced up and the Captain was pouring the carburetor heat to it. The engine sputtered and then screamed into full power. The airspeed was about 110 kts, I had the nose just above the horizon on the attitude indicator, still in an unyielding tight turn, full power applied, and the aircraft was still sinking. We passed about 4000 feet when the windshield on my side cracked and then split and pieces tumbled into my lap. The right hand windshield split but did not cave in. At about the same time we popped out of the cloud at about 2500 feet, in a tight right hand turn, the wind gushing into the cockpit. The hail had stopped and we seemed to be clear of the imbedded CB. We were both soaking wet and shaking as I put the aircraft into level flight looked over at the Captain, my mouth dry and said, “What do we now??” I had the speed back to about 100 kts and the wind noise was tolerable and I was actually surprised that there wasn’t that much of a breeze in the cockpit. We decide to land at Earlton and check the damage. It wasn’t the best landing in the world but it was successful. We kicked out all the glass in the left hand windshield, and the crewman pulled all the shattered glass out of the landing light enclosures in each wing. He then found some cat-gut, sewed up the tears in the fabric covered horizontal stabilizer and used a pair of wire cutters to remove the HF antennae as it had been torn off, outside, above the cockpit ceiling and was trailing behind the aircraft like a piece of spaghetti. The nose area looked like it had been worked over by a maniac with a sledgehammer and a ball peen hammer. The Captain called our Commanding Officer at our unit and between them decided it was “worth a try “ to fly the DC3 onward to North Bay and maintenance would look at it there. I was relieved that I would not have to be in the left hand seat as it was now seat swap time, as I had just finished the last leg. The Captain climbed in the aircraft and promptly sat down in the right seat. I was told to sit down. His explanation to me was that I had not finished my leg, therefore I would have the air conditioned side and complete my part of the mission. “Besides,” he added, laughing hysterically , “you’re just a young buck and this will give you the idea of what is was like to fly the Tiger Moth “. We flew home tour Unit at RCAF Station North Bay at a low airspeed and surprisingly it was not that difficult doing the take-off or landing, as long as one crouched down and just kept ones eyes above the glare shield. The funny part of this entire episode is that I don’t even remember submitting an incident report, perhaps the Captain, did but by the next week the entire incident was forgotten except that the DC3 was out of service for about a month as the nose, which took the brunt of the hail beating, had to be replaced. Just another day when real pilots flew real airplanes !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest woxof Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Interesting story.....any pictures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timothy Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Thanks for the post Kip. My first flight was in a Northeast Airlines DC-3. Wonderful plane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted October 13, 2008 Author Share Posted October 13, 2008 Interesting story.....any pictures? oh for, those digital personal camera's back then. I did have a black and white taken by maintenance of the nose and cockpit but ..yee God's, so long ago, I don't think I could ever find it...but I'll look. As a point of interest, when the Captain of that flight retired he was presented with a cockpit seat from a DC-3. As far as I know he had more hours in the Gooney Bird than any other individual in the Air Force. Sustainable.....Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest woxof Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Thanks Kip. I really enjoyed your story. It is the kind of thing that is perfect for this forum as opposed to the political stuff that I and many others have concentrated on. You have had a long career in aviation and I'm sure have 'been there' many times in interesting situations. I used to love reading Len Morgan's stories and if you have any others would be grateful to hear them. It is not just the major thunderstorm type story. Maybe just your training on the three, some places you went, what you liked about the aircraf or didn't like. Some of the differences btween the fleet of Gooney Birds etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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