Story
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Forestry work |
Forestry
Work
It was a dim glow of daylight
outside. It felt rather cool, although it was late spring. The
morning fog blanketed the nearby ridges in Wark Forest,
Northumberland. Only the lower half of the pines could bee
seen, and the two aircraft was dripping with moisture
The Trailer
Inside the trailer the dampness added to the chill, I could
hear old Pod rummaging around over in the kitchen section of
the huge trailer. He was always the one to be up first.
Glancing around, you couldn't help but notice the evidence of
why we were here. A gray charcoal dust was covering mostly
everything. Over on the pile of working boots near the door,
the leather was dirty gray and in the creases almost black
with potash. Welcome to potash-country!
Truck
Work
We were in Northumberland spreading potash on the sibling
forest. Potash is actually what it says; a fine ashy
substance, spread over a forest in great quantities in order
to reduce the acidity of the marshy soil. And the only way to
get it on the forest is to "fly" it on. Not a
job requiring accurate metering or fine adjustment of
spray valves or gates. Much more like a truck driver moving
soil from one dump to the other, but needing driving skill to
negotiate the difficult terrain. So it was with us.
Quarry Road
Flying off dirt roads, some of them not even with a finished
surface but with rocks and an undulating and often curving
takeoff and landing paths. I remember one of the strips there
vividly. It was a dirt road actually, in the midst of one of
the areas not yet planted with sibling pines and with good,
open country in all directions. Unfortunately the runway (if
one can call it that), was not so "clear and open".
The road wasn't finished yet and had a surface consisting of
rocks brought over from a nearby quarry, and not being uniform
in size or shape. At the top end we had a loop in the road so
as we landed, we could taxi on to the slip road to the left and
turn around back on to the main road, into position to receive
another load from the side loader.
Narrow
The only thing was that the slip road was so narrow that the
only way you could manage to steer the airplane down the path,
was if you stood on the brakes, gave it power and raised the
tail up so you could see the road over the nose. A demanding maneuver
at the best of times, not to mention when on a narrow
path with 3 feet ditches on either side! But we did it, all day
long, every day for about a week.
Fatigue
Towards the end of the job from that strip (fertilizing the
forest), everyone started getting a bit weary, and we felt
that may be we were stretching our luck and skill somewhat.
And rightly so. One day towards the very end, it was a
somewhat blustery day, with the winds in favor for takeoff,
but not for landing. I came in to land just as Dallas the
other pilot was taking off.
Tail Up!
As I was coming up the hill towards the point where the slip road
started and the tail-up-standing-on-brakes-routine
had to start, I held her back on the brakes and started
lifting the tail up, and voila! A gust came up her rear end
and gave her just that little extra push she needed, and before I had time to think I was looking straight into Terra
Firma and everything went very quiet indeed.
Oh no!
It felt like an eternity sitting there looking straight into
the ground, and I remember thinking " oh' no, don't tip
over, please.!" But suddenly, that sinking feeling crept
into me gut, and with a great big "clunk", the
tail wheel once again hit the ground and it was over. In front
of me, a futuristic, late high speed propelling item appeared,
one with two blades, one of them blade bent backwards like a
straw in high winds, its yellow tip pointing at me, like
saying "Got'yah!".
Get on with it!
Well, no reason to brood. Get her off the track, pull her into
the bog to give way to the next guy, and start pulling the
prop off. Soon a new prop was in place, the engine tested (?),
and we were on our merry way again, very much like any piece
of farm machinery really. All in a days work! For an 'aggie
that is!
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