It has been some time since I wrote anything for FlightSim.Com or added to my blog here. My writing in other areas (detective novels) has absorbed me for months now.

It was coming across the notes made some years ago and the holiday approaching that made me think I should write up this Christmas Day flight and add the story here for others to try it. 'Faith's Flight' is a 'flying the hump' variant, but not the northerly route we find most often in flight simulation and notably in Dave Gundlach's excellent 'The Hump' adventure (hump10.zip in the library). This one is in part along the more southerly route, stretching on to Kolkata, then known as Calcutta.

Departing Kunming

Faith Cook (nee Rowe) is an English author, born in China. She is the daughter of a missionary couple, Stanley and Norah Rowe who served with the China Inland Mission (CIM) in the period before and around World War Two. My godmother was a teacher/missionary with CIM after World War Two and it was from looking into her own story that I came across this remarkable flight. Faith wrote about it in her book Troubled Journey, on the pleasures and challenges of growing up as the child of dedicated missionaries in rural China.

In 1944, around seven-years old, she was in a boarding school then located in Sichuan province. The decision was made to evacuate the 30-plus school children and teachers to India. After a long journey from Leshan to Chongqing in trucks along refugee-packed roads, the school children and staff reached the Chongqing airport (Jangbei) where this flight began.

The planned route was Chongqing - Kunming - Calcutta. The children and teachers were loaded aboard an American C-47 I believe (she refers to the aircraft as military DC-3). Faith recalls being passed from hand to hand by American soldiers and entering the 'dark hole' of the aircraft entrance. After approximately two hours of flying they were nearing Kunming when they received radio signals about an imminent Japanese bombing attack of the airfield, followed by radio silence. In fact, records show that Kunming was bombed daily over Christmas week 1944.

The pilot circled for two hours getting increasingly concerned about the situation and his fuel levels. At a critical point, radio contact was re-established and he was directed to the airfield at Yunnani (about 50 miles west of the original destination). En route he ran out of fuel yet managed to glide in and make a dead-stick landing there. Following refuelling, they returned to Kunming (which had re-opened) to a 2.00 a.m. breakfast on the base, a welcome treat for the hungry children and caregivers. The party then re-boarded the aircraft and set off on the second, longer leg of their journey to Calcutta.

En-route clearing the mountain ranges

Faith Cook recalls in her book the soporific effects of flying at high altitude without supplemental oxygen, the bouncing around in the turbulence crossing the mountains and her recollection of another student, asthmatic, getting into breathing difficulties. Eventually they arrived safely in Calcutta with its heat, bustle and noise to face yet another new environment away from parents.

Her book mentions that there was a rumor that the pilot who flew this trip was so traumatized that he never flew again; one that I hope is incorrect - he did a good job under very difficult conditions.

The Flight

I used the default DC-3 in FSX in the 'war surplus livery' for this flight. There are many more detailed DC-3s and C-47s available either in the FlightSim.Com library, with virtual airlines on the internet or as payware models.

If you have not previously flown 'The Hump' mission mentioned above, I recommend it as a prequel to this flight. It follows Route Able east over the Himalayas to Kunming (and is more challenging!). Although it was not specified in Troubled Journey I have taken the CIM school children's westerly flight to follow approximately the more southerly trans-Himalayas route (Route Baker or 'The Low Hump'). This route was direct to Calcutta and opened up during 1944, when the Allies took Myitkyina Airfield. Strategically this deprived the Japanese forces of their principal fighter airfield used against Allied aircraft over the Himalayas. I have no other basis for the selection than the flight was direct to Calcutta.

At the top

You will need to be cognizant of altitude; to maintain an appropriate safety margin for all parts of the flight yet minimize the time spent above 12000 feet given the passenger load and the concerns about hypoxia. For the second leg specifically you will need to be conservative in your fuel management to arrive around Calcutta with appropriate reserves.

The flight routes for the two stages of the journey are:

Jangbei to Wujiaba	ZUCK HQ QNX ZPPP
Wujiaba to Belhara	ZPPP QK MO EG VEBA

The first leg is planned direct to Kunming (Wujiaba). If you wish to follow the route taken in the original flight, you will need to change course starting 60 miles out from Kunming, travelling to the location of what was Xiangyun Airport, now closed, at 25° 26' 44" N, 100° 44' 5" E. This airport was formerly the Yunnani Airfield, I think. You can then make your way back to Kunming as there is no airport or airstrip at the Yunnani location in FSX or FS2004.

Passing Chittigong into the Bay of Bengal

The second leg involves the crossing of the Himalayas. The flight to the first waypoint is the challenge in altitude adjustment mentioned earlier. The later stages allow for gradual descent as you cross Myanmar (formerly Burma) traversing the delta of the Bay of Bengal and arriving into the old Behala Airport rather than the International Airport that would be used these days.

I hope you enjoy the simulation if you give it a try.

Season's Greetings!

Allan Jones
allanj12@gmail.com

Allan Jones is the author of several ebooks, one about flight simulation of the stories of the Air Transport Auxiliary in WWII (In a Moon's Course) and more recently two art crime mysteries, The Chinese Sailor and The Scottish Colourist featuring a Welsh detective, Catrin Sayer. All are available from major ebook suppliers.