Vickers Vimy touches down in St. John's on way to Ireland
CanWest News Service
Friday, June 10, 2005
ST. JOHN's, Nfld. -- After nine hours, flying from Ottawa to St. John's,
navigator Mark Rebholz had only one question: "Where are your bathrooms?"
A sizeable crowd of aircraft buffs and government officials were on
hand at St. John's International Airport Thursday evening as Rebholz
and pilot John LaNoue landed their Vickers Vimy replica aircraft.
The aircraft is almost identical to the plane that Capt. John Alcock
and Lieut. Arthur Whitten Brown used to make the first non-stop transatlantic
flight from St. John's to Clifden, Ireland, in June of 1919, although
LaNoue admits some changes had to be made for the sake of safety.
"It's about 90 per cent original," said LaNoue.
"Aeronautical engineer Bill Whitney stress analyzed the original
design, found a few deficiencies and made some improvements. We have
a tail wheel, which the original didn't have, we have brakes, and we
also have two modern powerplants -- two Canadian-built engines."
Other than up-to-the-minute weather forecasting, the crew is using no
modern conveniences like GPS navigation -- everything is being done
with a sextant (a navigation instrument), a drift meter, a magnetic
compass and a watch.
The flying itself, Rebholz said, is labour intensive and the navigation
is being done using traditional methods.
"Whoever is flying has his hands and feet on the controls all the
time and he can't let go. Doing the navigating, using the old traditional
style, you don't just sit there and watch numbers count down on a GPS.
You have to do some calculations."
The aircraft itself was the brainchild of pilot and "aviation dreamer"
Peter Macmillan. LaNoue, who will be relieved by Steve Fossett in flying
across the Atlantic, was contracted by Macmillan to actually build the
replica biplane in 1993.
At that point, there had been no flying models of the Vimy available.
The plane is expected to remain in St. John's a few days before taking
off for Ireland.
© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2005