1957 Silver City Airways in Libyan skies

[Bernard/Administrator]

At least in 1957, Silver City Airlways did flights with their DC-3s from Tripolis Idris Airport to several oil exploring sites in the Libyan desert.




landing at Sebha HLLS




at Kufra HLKF




taxi in at Zelten HLZT




During one of there prospecting flights the DC-3 overflies north of Kufra the stranded SAAF Blenheim, which has been involved in what is known as 'the Tragedy at Kufra'.



This tragedy occurred in May 1942 during World War II, when eleven of twelve South African aircrew flying in three Bristol Blenheim Mark IV of the South African Air Force died of thirst and exposure, after the flight became lost following a navigational error near the oasis of Kufra and made a forced landing in the Libyan desert.


Bernard

[zswobbie1]

Thanks for doing a portrayal of an South African Air Force event.

Regards,
Robin
Cape Town

[Bernard/Administrator]

Robin, thank you for your continued attention.

I came across the tragic story of the Blenheim quite by chance while searching for Silver City operations in Libya. Actually, the participation of the RSAAF in the Second World War would be worth a contribution. Maybe you have some ideas.

Some words about republishing older threads in this board: I spent some time on this and all other posts, and that's why I put them in the archive. We don't know how long these will still be visible in the CalClassic Forum. And these are not everyday posts like you can usually find on the web and Facebook. It's actually a shame!


Cheers,
Bernard

[zswobbie1]

Thanks for the effort. I do appreciate what you are doing, which is so much more interesting than the usual point-to-point info & flying in Boeings &"Bus's.
I'm not all that good in doing scenarios like you do. Such a pity that there are so few of us that still enjoy the low 'n slow flying.

A couple of years ago, for my sins, I ended up as chairman of The Friends of the South African Air Force, here at Ysterplaat (FAYP) (or 'Steel Plate as translated from Afrikaans).

There is a great volunteer restoration team there, that looked after the only Avro Shackleton Mr3 that was almost flyable at one stage. Unfortunately, there is no crew left to fly it, and by the time crew is found, the spar would be timed out. However, they haul the Shack out the hanger on Saturdays, & start it up as part of the public museum day.

WE had a spare Shack as a Gate Guard, but it was not maintained & was scrapped. We managed to get the seats, pedals, throttle quad & yoke out of it & built up a Shack simulator on a trailer, using an actual cockpit plexiglass window. We ran the sim using a standard PC, integrated graphics & FS2004, using a projector for scenery & a screen in the cockpit for the modded panel. We set up a bunch of switches & once the sim was running, there was no need to touch a keyboard. We used freeware South African scenery from Aeroworx & the formally payware Shackleton from 'The Shackleton Project' - now disbanded, as the Shack model was sold to raise funds for the restoration of the real plane.

There is a famous story of a Shackleton, Pelican 16, that was restored, to be flown to England, for the 1994 air show season. It never made it, and her story is on Youtube
as 'Death of Pelican 16'. (2 parts)

Mmmm, not THAT could be an interesting flight to simulate!!!

[zswobbie1]

In 1993, a Shackleton enthusiast had the ambitious plan to restore one of these now decommissioned aircraft and turn it into a flying museum. The name of this aircraft: Pelican-16. In mid 1994, after ten years on the ground and two years of restoration work this last Shackleton flew again. Following an invitation to take part in the 1994 summer air-show circuit in the UK, Pelican-16 and its crew of 19 took off from Cape Town and headed north. But then in the dead of the blackest night, high over the Western Sahara the unthinkable happened; two engines on the starboard side failed within a period of just ten minutes. The aircraft and its crew went down.'
It was pitch black outside, no stars in the sky and not even a light on the ground. With two windmilling propellers on the starboard side, it was a given that the aircraft was about to crash. But where? It was impossible to see anything outside. It was only through the professionalism and skill of the crew that they all survived with hardly a scratch. If that were not enough, they were now marooned in a warzone!

[Bernard/Administrator]

Thanks for your interesting, but unluckly story. A bad ending of great and hopeful efforts. I could found both Project Shackleton aircraft over Flight1 respectively Wayback Machine, as payware of course. Curiously it seems that I used the 1722 already as AI some years ago as it's still scheduled in my South Africa traffic.




You said "Mmmm, not THAT could be an interesting flight to simulate!!!" Why not?


Bernard