684

FLIGHT, 28 October
AIR COMMERCE . . .
WHEN IN ROME, FLY IFR
A LL flights inthe Rome control zone must be inaccordance
** with IFR plans, and cancellation of IFR flights will not
be accepted. This is made officialthough it has been inforce
de facto since the Viscount-Boeing 707 near miss onAugust 11
in Italian Notam No 440/60, dated October 11.
Special provision has, it is believed, been made for some
Alitalia domestic flights to operate VFR, but these are conducted
along specified routes and with prescribed reporting procedures.
It is onrecord that both airlines involved inthe incident over
Rome onAugust 11, BE A and Pan American, are agreed that
Rome ATC implemented the procedures correctly. The respon-
sibility, according to a statement issued shortly after the accident
This was the scene at Gatwick Airport on October 17 when the Kina
and Queen ofNepal arrived in this country by BEA Viscount 806
(Capt James Munro) on the occasion of their State visit. Their
Majesties King Mahendra and Queen Ratna had flown from Po-'j
1:
by the Italian authorities, rested with the Pan American 707
The Boeing captain, it is now clear, had cancelled his IFR flight
plan and was descending VFR towards beacon LJ at the sarr-
time as the BEA Viscount had levelled out following a 40 left
turn to pick out the outbound leg of the holding pattern. It w
a
>.
only the prompt action of the Viscount commander, Capt James
Bell, that averted what could have been a major disaster.
AND NOW THE BREGUET 945 : :
y
A SMALLER-SCALE version of the Breguet 942 STOL air-
^ * liner (see drawing onpage 683) is now being planned
Designated Breguet 945, it will weigh about 20,0001band will be
powered by two Turbomeca Turmo IIIBs (the Breguet 942 wiil
have four of these turboprops) and have a payload of about 3,3001b
for a range of more than 900 st miles at almost 240 m.p.h. The
945 is claimed to be able to take off and land onhot and high
airfields with strips of less than 300m (1,000ft).
This project is as yet only under study, and it is understood
to have a blownwing and to embody the same high-lift principles
as the Breguet 942. A photograph of the Breguet 941, precursor
of the production 942., appeared onpage 624 of Flight for
October 14.
WHAT IS SIXTH FREEDOM?
" THE point onwhich the US and Scandinavian civil aviation
-*- authorities appear most to differ is the definition of sixth free-
dom. As previously reported (Flight, September 23, page 517) the
Americans are concerned about the amount of SAS traffic from
the US bound for destinations beyond Copenhagen.
There is no generally accepted definition of the US-coined
expression sixth freedom, but it is usually understood to mean(to
take the case of SAS as anexample) traffic picked up inNew York
which is ultimately destined for a point beyond Copenhagen. But
now the Americans maintain that this is a form of fifth freedom,
and therefore subject to "Bermuda Agreement" regulation.
For example, inthe American view, a passenger who buys a
ticket inNew York for, say, Rome is in the fifth freedom category
whether or not he flies via Copenhagen.
The Scandinavians maintain that such a passenger flies from
New York to Copenhagen as a fourth freedom passenger under
the US and Scandinavian bilateral agreement, and from Copen-
hagen to Rome under the Scandinavian-Italian agreement as a
third freedom passenger. They maintainthat beyond-Copenhagen
traffic is no concern of the US.
PIA PROFILE (continued frompage G71)
turboprop should bring inregularity and over-the-top operation,
the aircraft will also answer a popular demand for something more
modern. Thisso the story goescomes only twelve years after
the villagers who came out to greet the first aircraft asked "When
does it mate, and how big are the eggs?"
While the cargo is unloaded we take our first look at a Kashmiri
village: a market rich with fruit; Russian and Chinese bowls
for sale inthe shops; and a village gaol populated not by thieves
("no one would steal anything here") but, we are told, "only by
murderers." There is trout fishing here and scenery without com-
pare, but thoughts of away-from-it-all holiday idylls are dispelled
by the news that the clouds are expected to close inand that we
must take off at once if we hope to return to 'Pindi that night.
This time our pilot is Capt Aziz, a senior DC-3 pilot with
hours and experience which would have equipped him long since,
had he wished it, for more exotic commands. With him, we are
to fly the direct route, leaving the Indus valley earlier to cross
Portrait of a mountaineer: one of the five DC-3s which Pakistan
International use on the freight-supply run to Kashmir ~;
the Bahusa pass and follow the Kaghanvalley over to Safal Maluk
lake, famous since the days of the Arabian Nights. Climbing up
through the valley from Gilgit, at 14,000ft we go onto oxygen
and Capt Aziz, who loves the mountains and knows the route
perhaps better than any other pilot, grins at me and says that if
Nanga Parbat is clear he will show me a sight I shall always
rememberthe naked lady of the mountains. As host of these
inhospitable lands his disappointment is great when abeam of
Nanga only the snowy peak is visible, impossibly high above the
filling cumulus clouds. The sculptured lady of the snows is
wrapped again inher chilly white purdah.
At 16,000ft we leave the valley and plunge out across the pass,
its peaks fresh with newly fallen snow. With only a load of empty
jerricans we have ample power inhand, but traversing the pass
with a loaded DC-3 means that for five long minutes the aircraft
is over a ridge so high that should anengine fail there might be
no return. If the morning flight was through the valley of the
rocks, the direct route we are following now is through the peaks
of the snows and, as a reminder that the weather can never bs
forgotten for long, a snow shower from the gathering clouds above
accumulates onour leading edges. Mountain eddies rock our
wings and pluck briefly and playfully at the controls, and as we
crest a ridge we drop sharply with a sudden jolt. Off to the left
lies Mulka Barbet and ahead blue, glacial lakes of startling beauty.
Below, an eagle wheels, as we disturb for a moment the solitude
of his craggy domain.
One by one the snowy peaks recede. With them, something of
the astonishing elation of this mountainflying departs. It affects
not only me as a first-timer but, as we leave the mountains, the
crew who have done this journey so many times before, seem
to feel it too. We drop down to the plains past Abbotabad and
Murree to land inRawalpindi's warm evening sunshine.