GVIKE – Bellanca Super Viking
Nick and I met at Elstree during training for our PPL/IR at the London School of Flying. I think there were only three of us on the course Nick, Dick McNeil and myself.
I remember entering the classroom on the first day (an icy Winter morning) announcing “some Twat in a 911 has ended up on the grass”. Of course, that was Nick and we became firm friends.
Nick owned this beautiful Bellanca Viking fitted with 300hp Continental and a King Silver Crown avionics suite which included a Flight Director, HSI and Century IV Auto-pilot. For 1986 this was quite ‘state of the art’.
After a few flights together we decided the Malta Air Rally should be entered and on 19th June 1986 we departed Elstree for Lyon for refuelling and then to Avignon and onwards to Naples. Here, it is fair to say, we experienced several obstacles. a) we were parked a huge distance from flight planning, b) when we eventually got to the airport office they wanted the aircraft documents, c) there was a 2hour delay getting Avgas. From then on, whenever we land anywhere we take documents with us rather than leaving them on board(!) and we always ask for refuelling as we taxy in. The time these relatively minor ‘habits’ saved us over forthcoming years is immeasurable!
As we waited for fuel at the aircraft we noticed ‘Tex’ complete with cowboy boots sunbathing on the wing of a Cessna Citation. ’Tex’ was a Corporate Pilot and was so laid back with his Raybans. He was quite astonished that we were buzzing off to Malta in a ‘single’. Off we went to Palermo.
We managed to wash the aircraft at Palermo and during our flight planning decided we would ‘win’ the timed arrival competition, it was easy really… I think it was 157nm to GOZO from Palermo and GVIKE cruised at 160kts, there was no wind so we simply set course at 160kts using the DME to tweak our actual groundspeed and we arrived over GOZO within 30seconds of our allocated ETA. We were quite jubilant at this masterpiece of planning and execution. So much so Nick ‘missed’ the spot landing area altogether. No matter we thought, at least we will have won something.
It was considerably bewildering to us as to why several of the other entrants being greeted at the Champagne reception had several stopwatches on their clipboards… “in third place Dr Smulpot within 11 seconds…”, we laughed out loud realising these competitors took the rally far more seriously!
GVIKE actually was placed in the ‘Concours d’elegance’. I think we may even have won it but it did not matter. We met some very interesting people including one German gentleman who actually flew his Beech Bonanza to New York and then back to win the longest distance flown!
We also met a Baroness who flew a single seater (similar to Tipsy Nipper) from Morroco. She had her trunk of clothes shipped ahead of her arrival unlike Nick and myself who ended up borrowing a couple of waiters jackets for the formal dinner.
We routed home via Ajaccio. It was my turn to file the flight plan and I filed to Montpellier instead of Montelimar. Obviously a very easy mistake to make! As we turned Northwards towards Montelimar VOR and Airfield Marseille Radar asked us why we were turning ‘right’? Nick kindly left me to explain that one. So we ‘diverted’ to Montelimar to spend the night in our favourite Hotel ‘St Pierre’ which has a fountain and Doves and was 120FF each B&B!
The next day we flew home via Troyes, Le Touquet and Southend and then Elstree. The aircraft was faultless and we had learned a lot about flying in France and Italy. The whole trip was approx 21hrs, the longest leg 3hrs40 Avignon>Naples. If you get the chance, I can recommend the Malta Air Rally. It is superbly organised and attracts plenty of flyers from all walks of life.