THE WALLABY TRACK WITH LIONEL MUSSELL
LIVING WITH MURPHY : PART 5
IN PART FIVE OF HIS BOOK LIVING WITH MURPHY , LIONEL RECOUNTS MEETING HIS WIFE , VIC , ALONG WITH A NEAR MISS IN THE RAF !
I met Vi playing in the Salvation Army band in Harrogate when I moved to Topcliffe and we continued our courtship when I moved to Dishforth . Vi ’ s dad was a stocky Yorkshire farmer . After he had gone to bed when I was visiting Vi , I would ask her what her dad had been talking about , as I couldn ’ t understand his broad dialect . Next morning he would say , “ What was yor yoong man sayin ’ las ’ naht ?”
I was away on overseas trips for nine of our first 12 months of married life . My squadron and I were flying to Milan in northern Italy but Murphy decided to take a hand on the way back over the Alps . We were struggling to reach our safety height over the mountains when the supercharger clutches on one engine started to slip and the engine lost power . We shut the engine down and maintained height with the other three running at full climbing power . We still hadn ’ t reached safety height and all around us we could see the snow-covered peaks .
My calculations showed that the changed circumstances meant we didn ’ t have enough fuel to get back to England and then , to add to our problems , the oil temperature on one of the other engines began to rise to a dangerous level . The captain seemed to have other things on his mind without this additional worry so I kept that to myself and watched it like a hawk .
Fortunately , we were able to dodge the peaks and reach the other side of the mountains . Once descended to our cruising altitude we were able to restart the engine as it functioned perfectly at the lower level , the oil temperature came back to its proper place on the gauge and the fuel consumption showed we could make it to Lyneham with a greatly reduced safety margin .
We were the last aircraft to use the route over the Alps and everyone else had to take the long – but safe – detour around them !
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