Another Navy Wings article...

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#221 Post by Boac » Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:42 pm

A 'cozy' little cockpit with your bum just a few inches off the deck (gear down, and up :)) ). T'was always said you don't get in it, you put it on.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#222 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sat Jul 31, 2021 10:21 pm

After passing out from Dartmouth my Course had a 6 week wait before starting flying training at Linton-on-Ouse. To fill part of the time we were sent to the barracks at HMS Victory to undergo a Divisional Officers Course. A part of it was on several occasions to act out being the defending officer at the Cdr's Table for Defaulters when one of your Division was up before him. As in John Dixon's story on one occasion the crime was being adrift. The defaulter was played by a Petty Officer with years of experience, but he wore the uniform of a lowly seaman. I wish I could remember the detail after all these years but one case I had to defend involved the sailor getting a lift back to the ship in a horse and trap and halfway there the horse died at the bottom of a steep hill - it was the start of involved stories of myriad calamities as excuses for being adrift. The story went on and on and was hilarious but it had to be treated in all seriousness. I was only an 18 year old Midshipman and hadn't a clue what I was doing but it was a good grounding for when I had my own Division a couple of years later.
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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#223 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:51 am

FD2 wrote:
Sat Jul 31, 2021 8:35 pm
The Gnat was such a beautiful little aircraft. I remember looking down on them flying down the Llanberis Pass below us when we were climbing on Dinas Cromlech,that would be about 1964. :YMAPPLAUSE:
Still often seen flying around pond Goblin.


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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#224 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:37 am

The RAF had an ill fated flirt with the idea of divisional officers. Unusually for senior RAF officers on the time, 1965, the scheme was ill conceived, poorly executed, and drifted into obscurity in a matter of days.

We had gone to centralised servicing, we had but one sergeant on the sqn, so we were all assigned 6 airmen from one of the remote engineering sqns. Mine ranged from a couple of airmen, married JNCOs to a hairy old chief as likely to lead me astray as I help him.

They didn't know me and fortunately didn't want to change that, and their own officers resented what they saw as interference.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#225 Post by Boac » Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:45 am

Unusually for senior RAF officers on the time, 1965, the scheme was ill conceived, poorly executed, and drifted into obscurity in a matter of days.
???? I recall it at Leuchars on 23(F) in the early 70's and I was one!

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#226 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:19 am

Was that before or after the Scottish Gp Capt?

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#227 Post by Boac » Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:20 pm

WELL before - MacFadyen 85, Bagnall 88. Howlett and Swiney.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#228 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:44 pm

Sandy Curtains then?

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#229 Post by Boac » Sun Aug 01, 2021 2:12 pm

You have again lost me.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#230 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:29 pm

ACM Sir Sandy Wilson, he who had £35,000 of curtains in his quarters in Germany (makes Carrie's wall paper cheap) and also seemed to have packed rather more furnishings from the quarter than he ought.

He resisted the suggestion that he resign and threatened to blow the gaff. He resigned and was not heard from again. I think someone had a word in his ear - pension.
He retired prematurely on 26 August 1995.[6] He was accused of using £387,000 in government funds to refurbish Haymes Garth, the official residence for the Air Member for Personnel based at RAF Innsworth.[7] He argued that funds had been approved for this purpose, but was not supported by the then Defence Minister, Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#231 Post by Boac » Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:55 pm

Still lost! What did he have to do with Leuchars? Are you OK? Have you caught BM's disease?=))

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#232 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Aug 01, 2021 4:13 pm

Boac wrote:
Sun Aug 01, 2021 3:55 pm
Still lost! What did he have to do with Leuchars? Are you OK? Have you caught BM's disease?=))
Perhaps he hid the curtains at Leuchars? This could be the break that Knacker of the Yard has been waiting for for all these years! =))
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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#233 Post by Boac » Sun Aug 01, 2021 4:19 pm

Perhaps he hid BEHIND the curtains at Leuchars?
Only PN knows (and Sandy, of course)

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#234 Post by Pontius Navigator » Sun Aug 01, 2021 5:36 pm

He was a tartar at Leuchars and when CinC Germany and then PTC lived a very extravagant life style. The Indepent Article reference in Wiki gives much detail.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#235 Post by Boac » Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:25 pm

He was a tartar at Leuchars
- getting confused with Lossie?

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#236 Post by Boac » Sun Aug 01, 2021 8:26 pm

Thought this might help our 'Navigator'? =))
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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#237 Post by Pontius Navigator » Mon Aug 02, 2021 5:39 pm

Boac wrote:
Sun Aug 01, 2021 6:25 pm
He was a tartar at Leuchars
- getting confused with Lossie?
Could be, though I know the one a Leuchars was a tartar when we did a RED CAN an it turned into a fiasco when we capture the police waggon and drove off base with several SLR to boot.

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#238 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:16 am

A little bit of colour that is not Red Arrows, crabs or CAN...

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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#239 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Fri Aug 06, 2021 3:59 pm

This week's Navy Wings newsletter deals with a woolly slip up for somebody who was used to being on the the ball by stamping on the ball! <<Not just gliders, the R44 also uses two simple tufts of wool as a yaw string/slip/skid indicator and woe betide you if you persistently push the wrong pedal! >>


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As a sprightly recently qualified A/S pilot, now trundling around Cornish skies with trainee observers in the back of my 796 Squadron Gannet, any break from the normal routine was very welcome. So, when a volunteer was called for to join Lt. Dave Laker for a ride to collect a Tiger Moth for recreational flying at Culdrose, I was swiftly ready at the door in flying kit. A ride in the back seats of a 796 Gannet saw us to a rumble down the grass strip at Bramcote and, a short while later, an equally bouncy ride down the grass strip to be airborne in Tiger Moth BB 814. Three and a half flying hours later, after some proper “wind in my hair” flying, sightseeing down the Severn valley and a refuelling stop at Weston -super-Mare we were back at Culdrose. Some “recreational” weekend trips later saw me checked out and a qualified Tiger Moth pilot.

A while later a signal was circulated for any qualified Tiger Moth pilot to act as a tow aircraft for air launching the gliders for Dartmouth Cadets attending the Summer Gliding Camp back at Bramcote. By this time BB 814 had been returned to Bramcote for this specific duty and was available with T 6296 and NL 879. As a sprog member of 796 my immediate presence was not essential, so once again, I volunteered my services.

After my arrival at Bramcote, the next morning I had a half hour or so sortie to get used to the local surroundings, then I was off on my air launching glider towing duties. Taxi out to the end of the tow cable and get hooked on and wait whilst a glider was hooked on the other end. When the tow was gently tensioned and all was ready an “All out” signal from the ground crew by the glider was relayed to me by another alongside the Tiger. Ease the throttle forward and, as the glider eventually lifted clear of the ground, gradually build up sufficient speed for us both to start a sedate but steady climb to 2000 feet, with the automatic leading-edge slots popping out if we were getting a bit too slow. Circle the airfield until the crew in the glider reckoned to have found some upcurrent lift. When they were ready, they would release the tow, indicated by an immediate response in the liveliness of the Tiger Moth’s handling. Then back to the circuit for an approach and drop the tow cable a little way into the landing strip before a quick low-level circuit and land, ready for the next sequence.

In the evenings if the programme was on schedule, I was taken in hand by the gliding instructors and introduced to this strangely, and rather disturbingly, quiet form of aviation, becoming sufficiently proficient to gain A and B gliding certificates. In those quiet evening hours, it was possible to hear almost all the conversation between student glider pilots and their instructors.

The cockpit instruments in the glider were few and fairly rudimentary in nature. The “slip” indicator of the turn and slip instrument, for example, was a long tuft of wool tied to the pitot head just ahead of the pilot. As a supposedly experienced aviator I quickly learned to act with appropriate attention to my flying accuracy. If I was to avoid embarrassment, the need for this was demonstrated by the following exchange between an instructor and pupil on the gently curving approach to a landing.

Instructor: “Are we in balanced flight?”

Student: (after a short pause) “Err, no sir. We’re skidding.”

Instructor: “How do we know that?”

Student: “The bit of wool, sir. It’s sticking out to one side.”

Instructor: “So what should we do?”

Student: “Put on some rudder, Sir”

Instructor: “That’s right, then you’d better do so.” But then after a short interval,

Instructor: “Not that rudder you idiot. Try the other rudder!”
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Re: Another Navy Wings article...

#240 Post by CharlieOneSix » Fri Aug 06, 2021 6:27 pm

Thought I recognised the registration BB814 - logbook shows I flew it a few times at Roborough before the first solo on T8191.
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