Chapter Twenty Eight
“Turbulence!” Archie shouted as he pulled back on the control column to stop the plane falling.
Andy grabbed for whatever he could hang on to as the Comet started bucking and jumping over the sky like a rodeo bull. Andy could see Archie was doing his best to regain control, but suspected he was not winning the fight. He looked out the window and saw the wings flexing up and down so much he wondered how far they could bend before they broke off. He tried to reach inside his flying suit to get to the coin hanging round his neck, but their wild ride made it impossible. Then without warning the bucking stopped and the Comet sailed on into smooth air.
“Phew!” Archie said. “That was as bad as I’ve ever seen. A lesser plane would have fallen apart. I think we’re going to get a lot more of this Andy, so strap yourself up and secure anything loose back there.”
The wide valley they had been flying up had become considerably narrower. They were now in the middle of a snow-covered mountain range heading for a gap between two peaks about twenty miles away. Looking at the terrain below him there was no sign of civilisation, just steep, craggy outcrops and the odd river tumbling down towards the valley below.
“Not a good place for anything to go wrong,” he thought.
What made him more nervous was the sky they were heading towards was turning to an angry looking dirty grey colour. Archie yelled over his shoulder.
“The weather’s looking pretty bad up there. We can’t climb over it or go round it, so we’ll have to aim for the gap at the head of the valley. Once we’re on the southern side of the Alps the land falls away towards Italy. It will be quite rough I’m afraid.”
“Can’t we go back?” Andy called.
“No, I wish we could but the weather has closed in behind us as well. We don’t have a choice now.”
Archie was right. Andy hadn't noticed, but clouds were pouring over the tops of the mountains on both sides of the valley. The scene looked beautiful and terrifying at the same time. He decided to get the coin necklace out of his flying suit and have it ready to avoid fumbling for it like before.
Andy heard the note of the engines change and felt the Comet’s nose rise as Archie tried to claw some more height before they reached the head of the valley.
“I’m trying to gain a couple of thousand extra feet over the top of this pass to give us a bit of height to manoeuvre. It’s going to get pretty rough so hang on.”
Andy didn’t say anything. He felt helpless in the back of the Comet.
“At least I can ditch the ‘key’ and disappear if things go too bad,” he thought. “Poor old Archie’s got nothing.”
They flew on up the valley as the clouds loomed larger by the second, dwarfing the mountains they were rolling over They looked to Andy like a huge surf break about to crash upon a beach. The Comet began to buffet and shake as the ground disappeared and the sky above turned from grey to black. Andy could see Archie was already wrestling with the controls to keep straight and level.
“It’s not so bad after...”
Andy never got time to finish his sentence as the Comet leapt. He clenched the ‘key’ in his hand as his stomach churned in fear.
“Not yet, we’re going up not down,” he told himself.
The roar of the engines was instantly erased by a thunderous hammering all over the aircraft. Archie and Andy ducked instinctively. The Comet was being pelted by hail stones.
“She won’t take much of this, we’ll have to go down!” yelled Archie.
Andy could barely hear him over the din of the hail.
“But the mountains!” he cried back.
“The pass should be several miles behind us by now. If we descend carefully, hopefully we’ll pop out below the clouds.”
Andy didn’t say anything. He knew that going down in zero visibility would normally be total madness, but the Comet would soon be torn apart by the storm if they stayed up where they were.
Archie started descending slowly downwards. They both peered into the gloom ahead, straining to see a break in the clouds. The hail that had been hammering the Comet receded then stopped and the fierce winds that had been throwing them about slackened. They flew on, descending as they went, with the occasional vicious jolt to remind them the storm had not let them escape just yet.
Archie levelled the Comet out.
“We can’t go down any further.” he yelled. “The altimeter is reading about the same height as some of the peaks around the pass.”
The clouds around them had lightened a little, but visibility was still practically nothing. Something caught Andy’s eye and he turned to see a rocky outcrop shoot past their right wing.
“Archie. I saw some rocks just off our right wing. We must be close to a mountain!”
“I know. I saw them as well. It’s the ones in front I can’t see that I’m worried about!”
Andy craned to see over Archie’s shoulder. They were charging through the clouds almost totally oblivious to what was in front of them. Just to their left they saw a break in the clouds. Instinctively, Archie turned towards it.
It was the wrong thing to do.
As soon as they aimed at the gap they realised its dark colour was the massive stone face of a mountainside.
“Hells bells!” Archie cursed as he threw the plane into a steep turn.
“This is it,” thought Andy. “I’m out of here.”
He was all set to remove the ‘key’, but as Archie wrenched the Comet around in a desperate turn, Andy’s arms went heavy and he fell back into his seat. Pinned helplessly by the force of the turn he watched the rock wall flash by his cockpit window.
“Watch the compass and tell me when we’re heading nor-west,” Archie yelled.
The Comet had two compasses, one of which was located next to Andy’s right thigh. He tried to read it, but the wild ride made it almost impossible to focus on the dial.
“Did you hear me?” Archie roared at him. “Tell me when we get to nor-west; 315 on the dial!”
“I’m trying,” Andy snapped back. “But it’s not easy!”
“I bloody know that, but if you don’t give me the bearing we came from we’ll fly into one of these bloody mountains!”
As the Comet settled into its turn, some of the compass’s more wild gyrations stopped and he managed to read the dial.
“Right,” he called. “I can see it now. 290, 300.”
Archie began to carefully level the plane out of its turn.
“310, 315! That’s it, we’re heading 315!”
They were flying straight and level back where they came from; away from the rock face they so nearly hit. Archie called out to Andy over his shoulder.
“I’m sure we’re over the Alps. They head southwards out to northern Italy. We can’t go up because the storm will tear us to bits. We can’t go back southeast, or we’ll hit a mountain. The weather is better, so I’m sure there is clear air below us. I’m going to fly back for a minute or so then we’ll go into a tight spiral turn and descend slowly downwards. Alright?”
“OK,” Andy replied, although he didn’t think they had a choice.
A few seconds later Archie pulled the Comet into another steep turn and began to slowly corkscrew downwards. Once again Andy reached for the Talisman ‘key’. This time he slipped his hand inside the cord. Watching the instruments around him, he could tell when they completed a full circle from the compass. Andy had to admit that for all his obnoxious and loud-mouthed behaviour, Archie knew how to fly a plane.
After a few minutes the ride became smoother and the clouds started to break up a little. Andy got the occasional glimpse of the mountains outside the cockpit. They were still disturbingly close. It seemed like they’d been in this turn for an age and it was causing his stomach to churn up inside him. He saw a screwed up lunch bag on the floor of the cockpit, but he couldn’t reach it without undoing his harnesses. He thought about it briefly, but then remembered the smack in the head he got in Ed??
?s plane so he gave up and tried to breath deeply instead.
Another few minutes passed with the battle of Andy verses his stomach going in favour of the stomach when suddenly Archie shouted;
“Marvellous!”
They had broken through the bottom of the clouds and were flying in a narrow valley surrounded by steep mountains. Archie levelled the plane out and flew down the valley. Visibility was much better, but there was still a lot of broken cloud around to obscure their vision. Archie looked out of the cockpit to the river below and noticed it tumbling down the valley.
They followed the river keeping a wary eye on the clouds, which seemed intent on herding them into a rock wall. More than once Andy couldn’t help screaming ‘look out’ and Archie would curse, throwing the Comet into a violent turn to avoid being smashed to pieces.
Archie reduced speed as much as he could to avoid a collision, while still maintaining adequate control of the plane. Very slowly they made their way down the valley. As the mountains receded and gave way to forests they left the storm behind. The dark grey clouds became dirty white and then began to break up.
After another hour or so they were out over the plains of northern Italy streaking towards the Aegean Sea. To their right they could see Lake Como and in the distance the city of Milano. For the first time in many hours they saw the sun and its warmth lifted their spirits.
“I think I’ll have another coffee if you don’t mind,” Archie said.
“Very good Sir,” said Andy mimicking Stephens as he reached down for the thermos flask.
As they flew down the coast Archie pointed out the city of San Marino and then the sights of eastern Italy as they raced along at 200 miles per hour. He gave Andy some flying lessons, coaching him in the use of the controls. Much to their delight he proved to be a natural, keeping the Comet level and maintaining their course with the occasional correction from Archie. After a while Archie felt comfortable enough to takes his hands away from the column and have a rest.
“Tell me about the future,” he said to Andy has he relaxed in the front seat.
“No!” Andy said.
“Oh come on, why not?”
“Because last time, I let slip about Lovelock and Owens at the Olympics you rushed off to make a bet and left me behind to get kidnapped! Remember that?”
“Yes,” said Archie sheepishly.
The topic was dropped as they sighted the city of Bari on the south-eastern coast of Italy. Archie calculated their fuel use and the time they’d been airborne. He wasn’t happy.
“That storm over the Alps has cost us dearly. We should be over Greece by now. Baghdad is not looking good!”
Andy didn’t reply. Part of him was enjoying cruising over places he’d only ever heard about, but the other half was totally sick of being cooped up in the tiny cockpit of the Comet. The thought of landing sooner rather than later was becoming more appealing by the minute.
They left Italy behind and cruised out over the Adriatic Sea. The twinkling of the afternoon sun on the ocean was almost hypnotic. It made Andy feel quite drowsy. When he woke up they’d crossed the Adriatic and were over Greece.
“How long have I been asleep?” he asked Archie.
“Not too sure really, but you haven’t replied to me for over two hours.”
Andy was a little embarrassed.
“Sorry about that.”
Archie shook his head.
“No, that’s quite alright. We must take turns at resting. Hand me a coffee and a sandwich will you, then you can look after the old girl while I have a rest.”
Andy passed some luke-warm coffee and a mangy looking sandwich over to Archie who took them gratefully and let Andy take over.
“You have control now Andy. Just keep her straight and level on the horizon and watch your height and compass heading.”
Andy felt a surge of exhilaration as he took control of the Comet. He was amazed at how little force it took to make the plane move to his command. The Comet danced a little causing Archie to spill a little coffee.
“Steady on there Biggles!” he teased. “Try to have a softer touch. The plane knows how to fly better than you do. Just relax and guide it along.”
Andy did as he was told and the Comet settled back into a steady cruise.
“That’s it. We’ll make you an aviator yet,” said Archie.
As the world slipped by under their wings, Andy sat in the back of the Comet feeling like the king of the world.
“This is what I want to do,” he thought to himself. “I’m going to fly planes.”
They’d been airborne well over nine hours. Athens then mainland Greece itself passed by, before disappearing behind them as they flew out into the Mediterranean Ocean. At first there were dozens if not hundreds of islands, but as they made their way steadily east the ocean grew bigger and more intimidating. Andy looked around and could only see a smudge of land off his left wing to the north. He suddenly felt very small and vulnerable.
“How far to go now?” he asked Archie.
There was no reply from the front seat.
“Archie! How much longer is it?”
Still no reply. Andy looked at Archie. He could see Archie’s head had rolled back and his mouth was open. He was sound asleep!
“ARCHIE!” he yelled.
Archie’s head shot up.
“What is it?” He asked trying to collect his senses. “By God! I must have fallen asleep. Where are we?”
“How would I know? You’re the navigator.”
“When did I last talk to you then?” Archie asked.
“You pointed out Athens to me about an hour ago.”
Archie looked at his watch, then all of the instruments in front of him. He saw the murky outline of an island off to the northeast. Andy had done a good job of maintaining their speed and height, but he’d let the Comet wander south from where they should have been.
“We should be over the island of Kos by now but that one ahead of us is far too big. I think it's Rhodes. Keep her steady while I check will you.”
Andy flew as smoothly as he could whilst Archie held an archaic looking device up to his eye and pointed it at the sun.
“What’s that weird looking thing you’ve got?”
“It’s a sextant,” said Archie. “It uses the position of the sun, or the stars at night, to plot our position. Have you never seen one?”
“No, but I’ve heard of them. Is it very accurate?”
“If it’s used properly, but it’s hard when one is bouncing around the sky.”
“I’m sorry,” Andy said. “I’m doing my best.”
“I know. Just give me a few more minutes and I’ll be able to take control from you.”
Andy flew on while Archie fussed over his charts and scribbled calculations down with a pencil. When he was finished he pointed to the island ahead which was growing bigger by the minute.
“It’s as I thought Andy. We’ve been pushed south of Kos by a northerly wind and that island ahead of us is Rhodes. If we turn to a due east bearing and keep accounting for this damned wind we should fly very near the RAF base at Nikosia on Cyprus.”
“I thought we were going all the way to Baghdad?”
“That was the intention, but with the time we lost in the storm and this rather large detour we’ve taken, our fuel will be low and our daylight gone. I’d rather stay the night in a RAF base than in the desert, wouldn’t you?”
The island of Rhodes disappeared behind them. All that lay ahead was the deep blue Mediterranean Sea. Andy looked for a sign of land, but he couldn’t see one and it made him uncomfortable. He wondered how long the Comet’s engines could keep going and listened for any unusual noises. The engines replied with their defiant rumbling song.
Archie’s spirits had picked up after his snooze. He sang songs and recited poems to Andy; some good, same bad, some rude but mostly funny. Andy was impressed at the volume of otherwise useless information in Archie’s head and told him so. Archie laugh
ed.
“My father has made the same observation!” he said.
After a while they tried to kill time with a game of ‘I Spy’, but after the words ‘sea’, ‘waves’, ‘sky’ and ‘clouds’ had been used the game fell flat for lack of anything else to spy. Fortunately, Cyprus loomed out of the ocean ahead of them. Archie searched for a landmark.
“Excellent!” Archie said. “We’re on track. Nikosia is about 20 – 30 miles inland. At this rate we’ll be landing very soon.”
This was good news for Andy. They’d been in the air for nearly twelve hours and he was longing to get out of the Comet.
A little over ten minutes later they sighted the RAF Airfield at Nikosia. Just beyond that was the city itself. Archie pushed the control column forward and they descended towards the airfield.
“Are we allowed to land here?” asked Andy.
“Yes, but because we’ve got no wireless, we’ll do a couple of fly-bys to get their attention.”
Archie opened the throttles and pointed the Comet towards the buildings at the far end of the airfield. They raced across the airfield less than fifty feet off the ground at nearly two hundred miles per hour. A neat row of little military planes and two bigger aircraft flitted by underneath them like fence posts. People milling around on the ground looked up in surprise at the sudden arrival of the Comet.
They were so low that one man riding a bicycle threw himself onto the ground as they flew over. Archie thought it was hilarious.
“Ha! Now that’s funny!” he said, as he looked over his shoulder at the man picking himself up.
As the buildings grew larger in front of them Andy realised that they were below roof height.
“Archie! The buildings!” he yelled.
Archie was still peering at the man on the bike.
“Hells bells!” he said as he yanked the control column back on the Comet.