Post
by Killratio »
One I posted a good while back in the Spitfire forum.
So I decide to take the Spit on a routine flight from EMO Mission to Port Moresby, via Kokoda. Top up all fluids, ready to go.
On startup.....thin trail of white smoke from the exhausts. OK, shut down, go to maintenance..no problems evident.
Startup again..."A new Pope" still. Ah well, the RPM is OK, mags OK, temps OK. There is some open country between here and Kokoda if we need it (OK, that may be overstating the case but there are definitely a couple of patches near Ilimo where I may not be killed outright!!) , even a "road" if we can dodge the PMVs on it!
The shortish flight to Kokoda goes without incident but is a LONG few minutes of watching the gauges like a hawk and waiting for any change in engine sound. I even manage to crack it for a headwind landing at Kokoda! Life is good and if the clouds hold off in this late afternoon, I'll drop down on Naduri to have a cuppa with Andy Ndiki. It's been nearly three years since I've seen him and his father Ovuru, who has since passed away....but that is for later. Time now though for a quick top up of the fuel tanks and a check of the fluids. A little coolant gone, a little oil gone. Hmmm.. in 10-15 minutes engine run, not great. A full check when we hit Moresby! (if??).
Startup again....white smoke. Is there more now?.. or is my imagination compensating for a 10 minute flight over "tiger country" before the mountainous jungle gives way to a few minutes of clearer (if near vertical!) land. There at least there are some difficult strips cut onto razor backs before it plunges back into a further 10 minutes of hell. After that there are the (largely) clearer lowlands down towards PM
....And there is a southerly.....so gliding clear will be nigh on impossible unless I climb to 20,000ft or so, putting further strain on the Merlin. Oh well, "Do you want to live forever?" as Baesell asked Miller.
(..hmmm, on reflection, not the best of thoughts to have...)
So with the radio tuned to AFRS, and "In the Mood" playing through the headphones, off we go. At least there are no Zeros around! White smoke.
Temps pressures OK, gear up. White smoke. Climb to 8000ft, white smoke. just a thin wisp. A look to the left side as we enter the valley, over at the high peak, opposite Isurava, that has frightened many and killed some. Up through the Kokoda Gap with one eye on the instruments and the other watching for the top of Mt Bellamy to pass and signal the first thinning out of the Jungle. And then ,there it is, the most densely populated and "clearest" section of the track. White smoke. Naduri below but sorry Andy, not this time. I need to keep this engine running and keep some altitude.
Temps, pressures, RPM, throttle response, all normalish but not quite normal??...or is it the several thousand square miles of aeroplane killing jungle down there awaiting me, if I press on, that is still playing on my mind and clouding my judgment?
White smoke.
As I decide to press on and set course for PM, I look over at the two extinct volcano craters to my left and all I can think of is the P-40 wreck site a moderate 20 minute odd struggle on foot from the old airstrip at Myola. Trees do wonderful things for aircraft...but at least HE survived, banged up but alive, parachuted out at low level after running out of fuel..or was it coolant...?? White smoke. Nearby, just over the ridge from Myola, the wreckage of the 206 that hadn't quite made it, neither did the pilot! Further West, lies the huge hole in the ground where the B-17 "went in" with a full load..and crew. How many aeroplane wrecks have I visited around here???
More white smoke.
Nose pointing towards Imita ridge now, knowing that after that the Goldie River then Owers Corner mark where the jungle gives way to Koitaki cattle station and some chance of survival in the event of engine failure. Just a few more minutes....damned white smoke. But that is fine, because now I have the building afternoon storms to worry about instead.
A few minutes and then there it is, the pass between the two towering peaks, where the track crosses Imita. Almost safe........ well, "-ish". The storms are not directly in my way yet. Maybe life IS good?
And then it happens. The white smoke stops. Never one for looking at the positives, I immediately glance at the temp gauge...am I out of coolant, oil, luck? Nope. All Ok. 75 oil and just on 90 water. Port Moresby just got a LOT closer...
So it went, down to PM and a good landing in the afternoon rainstorm (conditions that reminded me of another good landing by someone I knew, who later made one simple mistake ......but one too many).
What of my beloved Spit? Not a trace of white smoke, a little oil and coolant gone but not an alarming amount and no maintenance hangar issues at all. The old girl was obviously just having a bad day. She didn't have to take it out on me!
It never ceases to amaze me the feelings that this sim can evoke. Flying over all too familiar (and dangerous) terrain in a single engined aircraft. Your mind filling in the actual terrain...hardly noticing the computer graphics. Actually worrying about the aircraft because of Accusim. Feeling, against all reason, an almost totally genuine fear of something going wrong and going down over the jungle. Remembering people. Remembering places and things... happy, sad, tragic, dirty, disease ridden, unbearably hot, unbearably difficult and almost unbearably painful.....just wanting it all to be over and then when it is, desperately looking forward to the next time. Then being back "here" Climbing out of my sim and going to have a shower to wash off the accumulated sweat (and it was only 22C ) with pictures of that poor, sad P-40 still pushing themselves to the fore in my mind.
And finally, having that nagging worry that next time you may not be so lucky with that white smoke or, perhaps even worse, that the flight may be totally uneventful.....................
Darryl
<Sent from my 1988 Sony Walkman with Dolby Noise Reduction and 24" earphone cord extension>
, good that there are built-in safety systems and procedures for that 
