XVI. A WORD ON THE PREPARATIONS
As explained in the previous chapter, the Uiver was one of a series of aircraft being built simultaneously for an American airline. The only real departure from the standard design was the instrument panel. KLM wished to include several specialised instruments that were not used on its American sister ships. Furthermore, the layout of the blind-flying instruments had to match those in other KLM aircraft. It is of the utmost importance that the six instruments required for flying without visibility are mounted close together and as centrally as possible within the pilot’s field of vision. These consist of the airspeed indicator, the turn and bank indicator, the rate of climb indicator, the sensitive altimeter, the directional gyro, and the artificial horizon.
A pilot must monitor these six instruments constantly during blind flight. Naturally, one quickly becomes accustomed to a specific arrangement.
It is therefore essential that the layout remains consistent across all aircraft. This ensures that a pilot who has flown several sorties in one machine is not disoriented when moving to another.
Aside from the instruments, we found it necessary to make several modifications to the cockpit while in Holland. In America, flights are conducted exclusively by two pilots, both of whom can operate the radiotelephony equipment. However, as radiotelegraphy is used exclusively in Europe and along the route to the Indies, we had to find space for a telegrapher and his radio set. To achieve this, we removed the bulkheads of the forward baggage compartment situated between the cockpit and the cabin. A chart table was installed within the compartment itself, with the NSF telegraphy transmitter mounted above it. The receiver was fitted behind the left-hand pilot’s seat. This placed the telegrapher directly behind the pilot, allowing for constant, close contact between the man at the controls, the pilot checking the navigation at the chart table, and the telegrapher.
The radio equipment was supplied by the Nederlandse Seintoestellen Fabriek in Hilversum and was identical to the sets installed in all KLM aircraft flying the Indies line. A few additional instruments also had to be fitted, such as a backup altimeter, several clocks, a clinometer, and the specialised compass used on all KLM machines.
Installing the antenna caused some difficulties. It is a well-known phenomenon that a standard trailing antenna—weighted and deployed through a tube beneath the fuselage—frequently snaps off on such high-speed aircraft. We found an effective solution by connecting the fixed antenna, which stretched from a small mast above the cockpit to the vertical fin, to an antenna reel mounted in the rear baggage hold. From there, the wire was fed out through a lead-in tube at the very back of the tail. This arrangement proved excellent throughout the entire journey.
Another challenge was the installation of a drift meter. Due to the Douglas’s construction, it was impossible to fit the standard KLM drift meter used in all our Fokker aircraft. Consequently, I had brought a special Gatty-type drift meter from America, which required very little space in the cockpit. After much searching, we finally found a position that allowed drift to be measured from both pilot seats as well as the wireless operator’s station.
The principle of the drift meter is quite simple. It relies on a set of parallel wires stretched across a ring, which is mounted rotatably at the bottom of a tube. Looking down through a glass-covered opening in the floor, one can see the ground between these parallel wires. When the pilot wishes to measure ‘drift’—that is, the angle by which the aircraft deviates from its steered heading due to the wind—he proceeds as follows:
While one pilot keeps the aircraft as steadily as possible on the desired course, the other pilot or the wireless operator looks through the tube at the earth below. This creates the impression that the aircraft is stationary and the ground is moving beneath it. As soon as he spots a fixed point—a tree, a house, the corner of a field, or something similar—he rotates the ring until the wires are parallel to the direction in which the objects on the ground appear to be moving. The ring is marked with a scale; the number of degrees the ring has been turned from its zero position accurately indicates the angle between the steered heading and the actual track the aircraft is following over the ground.
This is the ‘drift angle’, and from it, the pilot can determine how many degrees he must correct his compass heading to account for the wind. Naturally, such an optical instrument can only be used when there is a clear view of the ground and the air is relatively calm. Over the sea, drift can be measured with sufficient accuracy by observing the white foam on the crests of the waves, though this is impossible when the water is flat.
With all these aids installed, every available inch of space in the cockpit and the forward baggage hold was occupied. Not much room remained, but we had the great advantage of having everything close at hand. We had no need to walk back and forth between the cockpit and the cabin, which was particularly important during night flights.
As we were required to perform demonstration flights in Australia and other countries, it was necessary to keep all fourteen seats in the cabin, even though we would only be carrying three passengers on the outward journey. However, we had cushions manufactured that could be secured between the seats, allowing two chairs to be converted into a very comfortable bed. In this way, we had six beds at our disposal, so that those crew members not required in the cockpit at a given moment could take a short rest.
Because the engine type fitted to the Uiver had not yet been used on the Indies route, the standard spare parts stored by KLM at various stations along the way could not be used for the Douglas. It was therefore necessary to carry more spare parts for this flight than are usually found on board the regular Indies aircraft. The rear baggage hold was fitted with racks and pigeonholes, and in short order, it was transformed into a complete warehouse. Naturally, this all came at the expense of the useful payload. Nevertheless, when the aircraft took off from Mildenhall with full fuel tanks, three passengers, 200 kg of mail, and a full compliment of equipment, it was still approximately 200 kg below the maximum permissible total weight of 8,663 kg (19,100 lbs) specified in the certificate of airworthiness.
Under the rules of the race committee, there had to be three days’ worth of food and water on board for every crew member and passenger. In addition to our normal daily provisions, we carried large quantities of tinned emergency rations and 50 litres of water. These would allow us to survive for a considerable time in an emergency before we began looking at one another with the eyes of cannibals.
The maps for the roughly 20,000 km route were stored very conveniently in a specially made cabinet in the cockpit, while a large number of general charts and nautical maps found a place in the chart table. It goes without saying that a great deal depended on the accuracy and correctness of the flight maps and route data. KLM’s special navigation office, under the direction of Mr Kraay, had done everything possible to collect the best maps and the most precise information. This was a particularly difficult task regarding the Australian section of the route, as there are effectively no suitable aeronautical maps for the interior. We had the best that were available, however, and simply had to make do.
Naturally, the time between the aircraft’s arrival and our departure for Mildenhall was far from long enough to handle all these preparations with the necessary precision, especially as we also had to fly the machine as much as possible to test everything in practice. Consequently, the Uiver was put into service several times on the regular Amsterdam–Berlin route. During these flights, fuel consumption at various altitudes and engine speeds were carefully monitored, and the radio equipment and all instruments were tested. The pleasant part of these trial flights was that, besides being very useful, they were also exceptionally cheap, as the Uiver was more than fully booked for every trip. On the first of these flights, the Uiver set its first record by flying from Schiphol to Berlin’s Tempelhof airport in one hour and fifty minutes.
Another interesting test was the round-trip of the Netherlands held on 22nd September, with fourteen passengers and the full crew on board. We visited several airfields, flying from Rotterdam via Schiphol to Eelde, Twente, Eindhoven, Vlissingen, Haamstede, and then back to Schiphol via Rotterdam. Landing and taking off with a full load at some of these smaller aerodromes particularly highlighted the Uiver’s low landing speed and excellent take-off characteristics.
Alongside all these technical preparations, there were numerous administrative burdens. Our telegrapher, Van Brugge, had to draw up a telegram schedule. This ensured that our agents along the route could be alerted in good time when the Uiver was due to arrive, and allowed the KLM directors to keep closely informed of the aircraft’s movements.
Understandably, a major question, particularly for the press, was how long we intended to take to cover the distance from London to Melbourne. Although I had drawn up a schedule which—with the exception of the emergency landing at Albury—we managed to maintain within a few hours, it was based on favourable weather and few setbacks. It seemed unwise to announce in advance that we intended to do it in three and a half days, even though I was convinced the plan had a reasonable chance of success. Various interviewers and bookmakers, however, were pressing me for answers and kept fishing for details. I did not let myself be caught, and my standard response was always ‘between six and ten days, and sooner if we are lucky’.
As the Uiver was to fly to Melbourne as a standard commercial airliner, no radical changes were made. Although I had already made many flights in Douglas aircraft in America, the remaining preparation time was used as much as possible to get to know the machine. We carried out several practice flights at night over Schiphol, landing a few times using only the searchlights mounted in the aircraft’s nose.
Together with Ir. Van der Maas of the National Aeronautical Research Institute, tests were conducted to evaluate the flight characteristics. In particular, we tested flying on only one engine while the aircraft was fully loaded. The results were very favourable.
Finally, once everything had been tested and checked under the expert guidance of the KLM Technical Service, we were able to embark on the aerial journey to Australia with the utmost confidence in our new machine.