Penny Washers

[Alisoncc]

Mrs Ex-A has proposed a new category for safety issues. See "Chat about ops-normal" at the bottom of the Board Index page.

Whilst thinking about it I was reminded of how the RAF managed safety in the hangar. First job of the day each one of us would draw from stores and sign for a bolt of numbered and coloured penny washers. The bolt had a loosely tightened locknut to secure the washers, and all ten washers in a set were painted and numbered the same, said details were entered into the register when we we signed for them. Thus Blue 5, Green 12, etc.

Private tools were verboten, and every tool or piece of kit we needed was drawn from stores in exchange for a penny washer. When we returned the item we got our penny washer back. At finish of a shift we were required to check in all tools, retrieve all of our penny washers, which were also then checked in. We weren't allowed to leave the hangar until the store corporal had confirmed with the duty chief that everything had been returned, and all penny washers sets were signed in and also complete.

Worked fine, except us radio guys used to make up bits of our own kit. There was a ten channel crystal controlled VHF that would often need xtal changes dependant on role or intended exercise location. We used to make up a pea bulb in an antenna plug to enable us to quickly tune the unit after a xtal change. These became part of our verboten tools, but hey, we needed them.

Got a right royal rollicking and a few days jankers when I inadvertently left my VHF tuning bulb assembly on the seat of a Lightning when I exited it. Never ever left anything in an aeroplane ever again. Fifty years later still got the pea bulb in plug assembly in a box of bits in the garage. Might come in useful sometime.

Alison

[ian16th]

On many a/c, if you were caught short, you could use the bulb out of the compass!

One detachment to Karachi, our wireless guy was so ill with dysentery he couldn't work, as the radar guy I had to stand in and I didn't have my own 'special tool'.

A real 'penny washer' story. When I was at Istres, 1957-58. Before De Gaulle and the old Franc was still in use. We were paid at F1176 to the £.

We needed some penny washers to re-roof the Avpin Store. At the local hardware store we found that they were so expensive, we made our own by drilling holes in aluminium 5 Franc coins.

During Boys Service, we drilled holes in 1d coins to use as a washer behind a tapped 'wheels'. The drill sizes were 34 clearance and 44 tap for 6BA.

Only last week, I drilled a hole in a 2 cent coin to use as a washer. Old habits die hard!

[Alisoncc]

I had every expectation that "Penny Washers" would ring a bell for you Ian.

Alison

[Ex-Ascot]

I think that we will adapt the old system for garden tools here. The cheeky b@stards presented me with a list of missing tools yesterday. 'Well go and find them'. We are on our 3rd pair of secateurs. At least one pair was stolen by a workman. That's a contradiction in terms down here; work and man.

[unifoxos]

I am even cheaper than Ian - I have a bucketful of "half-penny" washers made from redundant old half penny coins with various size holes drilled in the (approximate) centre. Also a load of Leics County Council bus tokens that were phased out years ago and I inherited my Aunt's collection of them. They already have a hole in the centre and are made of a nice grade of aluminium alloy.

[ian16th]

I had every expectation that "Penny Washers" would ring a bell for you Ian.

Alison

Alison,
The system of washers for tools that you described, was not a system that came across.

I was never assigned to ASF as such. Remember the radio trades didn't have much to do on majors & minors, it was usually, remove all the black boxes at the start of the servicing, and put them all back at the end. When in ARSF's I was sometimes sent to 'the hanger' to do a Minor or some such.
That was rare in my career, it happened when I was at Coningsby on Canberra B2's, where the 1st time I worked on a Canberra, I checked the insulation on the Gee-H aerial with a Megger, it was low so I snagged it in the F700. Little did I know that the only way to replace the aerial was to replace the complete tail fin! That caused some sucking of teeth at levels above this 19 year old Cpl. The fin never got replaced, I believe that it was all solved in the Sgt's Mess bar.

I remember seeing 'shadow boards', where tools were hung over their silhouette, if you needed one you left a numbered disk. The disks were more like dog tags than penny washers. I think that this was the case of ASF at Marham.

When I was on 214 Sqdn, each persons tools were colour coded with up to 4 bands of of coloured tape.

[Sisemen]

Bit of a change to nowadays. Need a tool; go to shed to find tool; can't find it; go to bench in carport; can't find it; go to "ready to use" tool box in laundry; can't find it; give up go to hardware store and buy another; find the previous 3 that I bought when looking for the next tool I need for the job.

[Alisoncc]

Remember the radio trades didn't have much to do on majors & minors, it was usually, remove all the black boxes at the start of the servicing, and put them all back at the end

Our big birds were flying hot beds of cutting edge technology for the time. On the 'V' Force radio guys were essential members of the first line teams. From Red Steer watching their arse ends and the Ec'''M cans to the NBS up front. Green Satin, Rad Alt and TACAN, plus ILS, VOR, ADF-NDB's, HF, VHF, UHF comms and intercom systems. We had ringins from Uni's who looked after the NBS, but we were expected to help with the heavy lifting as those guys were in limited supply. I loved our big birds. One of my favourite photos off the web:

vulcancrew.jpg (134.05 KiB) Viewed 1216 times

Other Bomber Command 'V' Force guys who dropped in seemed familiar with the penny washer system, so I assumed it was common throughout. Majors and minors for us were quite busy times. After pulling all the kit and sending off anything suspect to the Gin Palace, we were required to check all looms and connectors including all bulk head connections, of which there were many, plus all antennas.

If we had no further work then we were extra hands to assist other trades. Spent more than my fair share of time on a winch helping drop engines or on the jacks. It was all hands to the pumps moving Houchins around and hooking them up, and de-icing in Winter.

Ian you wrote of the Gee antenna on Canberras. The STR18 - HF aerial was a tuned cavity at the base of the tail fin on a Vulcan with this mechanical tuning aerial coupler box which would stick in cold weather. Wasn't unusual to be called upon to rectify same with a tap of a rubber hammer. Aircraft on QRA couldn't launch without fully serviceable HF as needed for recall or ..... So aerie throbbing away with all four donks humming, radio guy climbs into bomb bay squeezes passed armed nuke, climbs up and sits on top of said nuke to access hatch wherein lies aerial coupler.

AEO reports HF now serviceable and aircraft starts rolling - with radio guy still in bomb bay. It happened. Dr Strangelove wasn't entirely fiction, imagine radio guy in denims sitting astride bomb after fixing HF.

Alison

[A Lutra Continua]

I think that we will adapt the old system for garden tools here. The cheeky b@stards presented me with a list of missing tools yesterday. 'Well go and find them'. We are on our 3rd pair of secateurs. At least one pair was stolen by a workman. That's a contradiction in terms down here; work and man.

Africa getting to you, Mr Ascot? It takes most folks a couple of hours to properly strip their moer. You've lasted a couple of years without biting anyone in the face. Your missus must be sprinkling Prozac on your Rice Krispies in the mornings...

[ian16th]

I spent my entire time on Valiant's at Marham, every day of it on 214 Sqdn. This was 2 postings, Feb 59 - Oct 62, and Oct 64 - Feb 65. As I've said before, the 1st session was a great time to be on this sqdn, doing the probe & drogue trials, becomimg the RAF's 1st operational tanker sqdn and lots of detachments.

One of our pilots, David Wright has become an artist, and he had one of his paintings used in the book 'The Valiant Boys'.

The 700 Signing.jpg (45.34 KiB) Viewed 1209 times

As for my posting to Akrotiri, I arrived there on 14th Oct 1962. Anyone clued up on their history, think Cuban Missile Crises! I got posted in the middle of it.

In between my 2 postings to Marham, I was at Akrotiri, where I had the Green Satin bench in the 'Gin Palace'. Akrotiri had 3 Canberra Sqdns at the time, 2 of updated B6's and 13 Sqdn with PR9's. It was the PR9's that carried Green Satin. The B6's had Blue Silk.

We of course also had transient a/c, the commonest Green Satin users were Britannia's.

But after the Greeks & Turks started shooting at each other, Xmas 1963, we had 111 sqdn of Lightnings and some Shacks based there.

I was due for demob March 65, and I used my privilege of spending my last 6 month at one of 3 the stations of my choice, seeing as my 1st choice was Marham, I had no competition! When I took my Blue Card into Tech Manning, the Chief Tech there looked up at a big board, and said to me, '214 Sqdn'!

My response was, 'Great! Is Timber Wood still the boss?'. MT Wood was, but by now of course he was a WO.

The big thing was that the Valiant's now had their fatigue problem and we didn't do much flying at all, so I easily got days off to go for job interviews.

With my demob leave and accumulated annual leave I left the gates of Marham for the last time, the 1st Friday in February 1965.

[Alisoncc]

As for my posting to Akrotiri, I arrived there on 14th Oct 1962. Anyone clued up on their history, think Cuban Missile Crises! I got posted in the middle of it.

Just completed two years at Locking in Oct '62. Nine months later as a Jnr Tech found me playing with Vulcans at Finningley. First day there Snr Tech shows me around an aircraft, the stores and was introduced to Crew Chiefs, and where the crewroom tea, coffee and biscuits were in that order. Later got to meet Flight Commander and Eng Officer. Second day told to check out HF on just returned aircraft as reported in F700 as being intermittent.

So wander out to aircraft, having collected keys, followed at discrete distance by Cpl Tech to make sure I didn't get into any trouble. Unlocked and dropped the door and ladder, and climbed in. Sat down in AEO's seat and looked around. Whilst I had completed three years training at Locking this was the first time I had been alone in an aircraft of this complexity. Not just any aircraft, Vulcan B2's were the epitome of Britain's nuclear deterrent. Must have taken quite a few minutes with mouth hanging open as the realisation sank in of where I was.

Went on to check power switches, fire up the Houchin, connect power and do test call to Goose Bay. Goose reported back as breaking up, so went on to change Tx box, etc. Absolutely magic times followed for nearly two and a half years. The Tin Triangle was no ordinary aeroplane.

Listen to her howl at 40 secs in, after the B52 has been and gone..

[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYOgsgnZ8dw[/bbvideo]

Alison

[Sisemen]

I spent my first couple of years after training on BCDU (Bomber Command Development Unit) with most of the time on ECMSDF (Electronic Counter-Measures Servicing and Development Flight). I was only a scribbly but was fascinated by the electronics gubbins and the dark arts of ECM. Helped to solve the problem of constantly breaking return springs on Red Steer Mk 2 as well.