Blight plan BAL-8

Flight plan for flight simulator use. Do not use for real world navigation.

Flight BAL-8 from Rhein-Main to Westover ARB and Mac Arthur Field

A bright spot was the favorable coverage the airlift was getting in the world press. Gen. Tunner knew how to take advantage of a public relations bonanza, and he knew that Lt. Gail Halversen’s “Operations Little Vittles was exactly that. With the secret of the “Chocolate Flier” out, Gail Halversen often found his bunk in the old barn at Zeppelinheim stacked high with candy bars and packages of gum when he returned from his scheduled flights to Berlin. Halversen soon ran out of handkerchiefs and started to cut up old shirts, using the sleeves for candy sacks and the tails for parachutes. He wondered what he would do when he ran out of shirts.

A few days later an operations officer handed Halversen a note. It was signed by Gen. Tunner and said, “I want to see you as soon as possible.”

The summons was not as Halversen feared, a prelude to the termination of Operation Little Vittles because of the Soviet complaints of his dropping candy over the Soviet Zone. Gen. Tunner sent Halversen (due to rotate) on a whirlwind trip back to the States for a series of radio and television appearances and interviews.

Captain J. Pickering, 1^st Lt. Gail Halversen and Sgt H. Elkin’s were assigned to fly Air Transport Command’s C-54 275459 to the Lockheed Aircraft Service Inc. Mac Arthur Field, Sayville, New York for it’s 1000 hour inspection. Upon arrival Capt. Pickering and Sgt Elkin’s were to start on a 30 day delay en-route to their old duty station. 1^st Lt. Halversen would be met Air Force representatives to start his series of appearances before starting his leave.

You are Capt. Pickering and will depart Rhein-Main at 0530 hours for Mac Arthur Airport according to the filed flight plan:

Fuel load 3168 gals.

Weather: High cloud formations with a 15 knot wind at 245 deg. Zero turbulance. No precip. Forcast.

Routing as follows:

Depart EDDF at 0330 hours GMT, rwy 25. Climb to assigned altitude 6000', turn left to intercept SAA VOR 113.85 radial 230, 75.8 nm

VOR	Freq.	Heading	Comments
GTQ	111.25	232
EPL	113.0	214
RLP	117.3	234
MOU	116.7	224
LMG	114.5	246	(Great China is made here)
SAU	116.8	219
BTZ	114.15	223	(went to language school here in the ‘60's)
SSN	117.9	240	(crossing into Spain here, some mountains from here on)
DGO	112.6	226	(Have no fear of that mountain ahead, if you maintain speed and altitude, you will clear all
NEA	116.75	249

ZMR 117.1 251 ( the dme on this VOR ceases after 75 miles, continue to hold the heading the as VOR is non-functional at 100 miles, fly 53.9 miles or 16 minutes to Waypoint CARMI, where you will turn left to 187 deg for 12 minutes to TAGUX. At Tagux intercept SINTA 112.1, radial 291. At LPPT (Lisbon) turn right for a heading of 282 deg to LPLA (Lajes) 888.7 miles.

Lisbon (LPPT) as an alternate in an emergency.

ILS RWY 3 – 109.1 029 deg.

ILS RWY 21 - 109.5 209 deg.

At 10:57 GMT we cross the coast of Portugal, nothing but water for the next four and a half hours.

This part of the flight and the next flight to Stephenville are very boring, no land no check points no navaids, plenty of boredom. Thank God for BBC! We can have music or conversation the whole trip. Weather ahead is real great, just a small breeze off our left nose, a cloudless sky and no precip or bumpy conditions. Jolly good!

Have Lajes on the radio here is the airport data:

Lajes Air Base LPLA

ATIS 120.3

Elevation 180'

Rwy. 15 10,866' ILS Freq. 109.9 Heading 154

Rwy 33 10,866' ILS Freq. 111.5 Heading 334

VOR 112.3

NDB 341

Have VOR at 165 nm, 279 deg., we were one degree off. Active Rwy is 33. Weather is exactly as I said before.

Less than 100 mile to go at 10 hrs.

First land sighted at 62 miles, that has to be Lajes as it is on a point.

30 miles turn left to base leg of 240 deg. Start descent to 2200', Intercept ILS.

Have ILS, starting approach.

Runway in sight.

Touchdown! We are here. The BOQ is first class, we leave at 06:30 GMT in the morning.

Flight stats:

Flight - EDDF to LPLA

TOF 10.7 hrs

Fuel 2884 gals

Miles 1898 nm

Cargo 14,500 lbs un-serviceable aircraft parts for Westover.

PAX 10 rotating crew members.

Well our flight for this morning, has been pushed back an hour to 0730 GMT and calls for us to depart Lajes AB –LPLA on rwy 33 on a heading of 317 degrees for Stephenville - CYJT. This flight is mostly over water, another long boring flight. Weather is light winds, 265 degrees at 10 knots, unlimited ceiling and no precipitation forecast. Our flight level will be 6000', Our fuel will be 3168 gals. As we get closer to Stephenville we must pay strict attention to the Magnetic Variation as it closes in up there.

We will tune NAV 1 to Lajes - VOR 112.3 -317 deg. After we are out of range of SINTA the next VOR or Navaid is TORBAY VOR - 113.5 (St. John) , we will set it for radial 317. Next after that is our destination Stephenville, the VOR is 113.1, radial 317.

Well all sit back and hear we go on rwy 33, we will climb out to our assigned level of 6000', at 1000' we will turn left to intercept the 317 radial. Ok on course, so sit back and relax for about seven hours.

Torbay VOR active and we are right on course and time.

Have Stephenville on the radio: - Here is the airport data: Elevation 84' -Rwy 27, 10000' is the active with ILS freq of 109.5 heading 276 deg. Weather: wind 275/ 15 knots gusting to 30. Expect minor turbulance on approach

Stephenville VOR active and right on course.

30 mile, turn right to 10 degrees for base leg. Start descent to 2100'. Have the ILS. Turning left to 276 deg for final. Look at that Radio Altimeter bounce, some of those little hills go up and down as much as 1000'. Have the runway. Touch down! We are back in North America. Ok get some lunch and back on board at 1545 GMT, we depart at 1600 GMT. For Westover ARB.

Flight Stats: LPLA - CYJT

Flight Cumulative

TOF 7.3 hrs 18 hrs

Fuel 2408 gals 5292

Miles 1474.3 NM 4358.3

Cargo No change

PAX No change

Depart CYJT at 1600 GMT for Westover ARB according to filed flight plan. Fuel 3168 gals. Pax and Cargo, no change.

Weather 240 at 22kts, high sky zero clouds, zwero Precip.

Routing as follows: Depart CYJT at 1600 GMT, RWY 27, climb to 6000' our asssigned altitude

Turn right to intercept VOR 113.1, radial 260 to YGR.

VOR	Frequency	Heading	Distance
YGR	112.0	266	142.5
YQM	117.3	259	136.9
YFC	113.0	277	78.9
PNN	114.3	256	63.8
BGR	114.8	258	57.5
ENE	117.1	242	113.5
MHT	114.4	240	47.1
GDM	110.6	252	36.0
KCEF	114.0	246	32

You folks in the cabin, will be heading home after we land at Westover in about 4 hrs. We’ll be heading on to Mac Arthur Airport, to deliver this plane after we are unloaded. We will, except Halversen, be heading behind you for leave after we turn this thing over. Your best bet for airline travel is from Bradley Field which is only minutes from Westover. In your haste to get going we probably won’t get a chance to say so long. So doing it now, hope we serve together sometime soon.

Moncton 46 miles ahead where we will pick up the Fredricton VOR 113.0 277 radial.

Fredricton we turn to 256 radial to PNN VOR 114.3.

We just crossed the border to “USASHIMA”, for those who never served in the Pacific, that is the good old US of A.

At Princeton we pickup Bangor VOR 114.8, just keep the same heading.

Ok you can start the countdown, we are 286 miles from Westover.

Over Bangor, everybody wave to Capt Art Nichol’s down there. Turn to Kennebunk VOR 117.1 radial 242.

Kennebunk turn to Manchester VOR 114.4 radial 240

Over Manchester turn to Gardner VOR 110.6 radial 253.

Have Westover on the radio with the airport and weather data:

Elevation 245' VOR 114.0

RWY 5 11600' 109.9 Heading 048

RWY 23 11600' 109.9 Heading 228

Active RWY 23

Weather; Wind 220 at 25, ceiling unlimited, zero clouds, zero precip.

A bus is waiting for you folks in the cabin.

At Gardner, start descent to 2300', turn to 245 degrees ti intercept the ILS.

Have ILS, turning fuinal.

Touchdown, we are here, So long to you guys in the rear hope to see you again. My guys we will go to Base Ops first then get something to eat. We leave sometime after they unload the cargo.

Flight Stats

Flight Cumulative

TOF 3.7 hrs 217

Fuel 1070 gals 6362

Miles 713.9 5072.2

Cargo no change

Pax no change

Depart KCEF at 1730 GMT for KISP, Mac Arthur Airport, according to approved flight plan. Weather: 20 at 235 deg, Zero clouds, zero Precip. Mileage: 92.9, fuel 1000 gals.

Departing on RWY 23, climbing to 6000', at 1000' turn to 180 deg . To intercept MAD Vor radial 202.

Route of flight:

KCEF 114.0

MAD 110.4 202

CCC 117.2 205

KISP

Airport data: RWY 10 / 28 5036'

RWY 15R/33L 5186'

RWY 15L/33R 3212'

RWY 6 7002' ILS 108.3 heading 058

RWY 24 7002' ILS 108.3 heading 238

At 9 DME from MAD start descent to 2100'

At MAD turn to CCC VOR 117.2 radial 205

At Calverton turn to radial 217 to intercept the ILS.

RWY 24 is the active runway

Have airport.

Have ILS, turning final.

Touchdown, the flight is Finis!

Flight Stats

Flight Cumulative

TOF .6 hrs 217.6

Fuel 206 gals 6568 gals

Miles 929 5171.4 nm

Cargo none 14,500 # aircraft parts for Westover

Pax none 10 rotating crew members to Westover

A little more on Operations Little Vittles. A system of personnel rotation was established to relieve the TDY situation. Conditions for the fliers on the airlift began to improve almost over-night. One of the earliest fliers to leave Germany under the new rotation policy was Lieutenant Gail Halversen. (This flight). In January 1949, he went back to his old squadron in the United States. Operation Little Vittles carried on even after Halversen left. It was taken over by Captain Larry Caskey and, when Caskey also rotated home, by Captain Eugene Williams.