Bomber Crew on C4

[Trumpet_trousers]

..Just watched the last 30 mins of this first episode.....seems quite good so far, what do you think?

[BEagle]

Not bad - apart from Brendan O'Brien.

[Av18tor]

Who the fcuk is Brendan O'Brien? He seems to creep in to many of these aviation orientated programmes but just who is he? I seem to remember him being on discovery wings some time ago and he introduced the show with a line 'Welcome to ....... AND I AM A PILOT!' What a complete and utter twonk!

Must say the show looked promissing, some emotional memories there too...

Will be interesting to see the result.

[airborne_artist]

Anyone would have thought that BoB had won the Battle of Britain single-handed, led the Dambusters raid and been the Concorde TP.

He seems to get off on the "I'm a sky god" routine.

[PPRuNe Pop]

....................and "I'm Brendan O'Brien, your Chief Instructor" :yuk: ..............then the narrator said of him "a WW2 expert" :yuk: :yuk: I'd take a bet he tried to get John Romain's job............but he ain't that good :p

However, the programme was good and I am quite looking forward to the rest of the episodes. Have to say they a nice bunch of people and right proud of their grandad's. :ok:

[twonky]

Who is he?
Try a search in Aviation History and Nostalgia
Yes I think he is a ...too

[Flik Roll]

Who do you think will get the pilot position?? The commerical dude or the (not yet a) helo pilot?

[foldingwings]

And where did the bloke with the grey hair (I refuse to use the term BoB as it would be an insult to The Few) get that completely sheeeeite leather flying jacket?

[Flik Roll]

car boot sale?

Thank god he wasn't doing the flying this time..

[airborne_artist]

Probably got it from our favorite online auction No advertising please AA

"Disney mickey mouse flying ace jacket is brown it has mickey mouse flying patches all over it" ...... says it all....

http://i5.ebayimg.com/01/i/02/db/28/34_1_b.JPG

[PPRuNe Pop]

But does it have the 'operations bombs' on the breast pocket? :rolleyes:

[Razor61]

Brendon O'Brien used to present 'FlightLine' on Discovery. He even popped up in Scrapheap Challenger this year as a judge for propeller driven cars down the race track.


Razor

[BEagle]

Hmmm, found this about Brendan O'Brien on Google from Ch4's Scrapheap Challenge programme:

"The judge

Judge Brendan O'Brien holds the world record for holding the most world records in aviation. His day job is a stunt flyer – you don't need a hobby with that on your CV. One of Brendan's future projects includes crossing Greenland on a propeller-powered microlight sled. As you do …

Oh - that really b£oody famous chap with all those records to his name. Such as........

Presumably he's not the Brendan O'Brien who wrote A Pocket History of the IRA? Sorry, can't post a link but if you Google for it, you can find a link to more details at 'womanwithspear'....

[Navaleye]

I'm not a big fan of Brendan, he's just too full of himself. Celia Kench is a different story though although Mrs Navaleye would not appreciate the thought.

[Flatus Veteranus]

I enjoyed it, even though my baser instinct was to pass the Kleenex to the more tearful participants. I thought the NZ lass was the most interesting personality. The Harvard sequences were highly nostalgic - I could almost smell the Avgas and vomit! Barrel rolls were easy, but a really accurate slow roll was difficult and required excellent coordination. It was not until CFS that I got that sorted out.

I think one of the "grandads" was my Flight Commander at FTS. The "Ivor Chambers" pictured in the programme bore a strong resemblance to the Flt Lt I J Chambers who used to sign my monthly summaries at South Cerney and Oakington, and who flew a handling test on me in Harvard "KG" at Oakington on 1 March 1951. A strict disciplinarian who did not really approve of ex-UAS cadets, but a good officer.

God, I'm getting old!

[Loopdaloop]

I remember that Brendan O'Brien used to land a Piper Cub on top of a moving truck at airshows - (..but then you can do almost anything with a Cub....anybody go to the World Crazy Flying Champs at Badminton a few years ago??) Don't know what/if he still flies.

[Floppy Link]

I missed it but saw the blurb in the paper, it had a pic of one of the Grandsons, surname Alkemade - is his Grandad the same airgunner Alkemade who escaped from a burning aircraft without parachute fell something like 20000ft and survived by decelerating through a pine tree into a snowdrift - doubly lucky as the forest floor away from the protection of the trees was snow free.
It was in a book I read ages ago "Hitting the silk" or some such title.
Russell

Edited with the results of 10 seconds research on google:

In March of 1944, Nicholas Alkemade was the tail gunner in a British Lancaster bomber on a night mission to Berlin when his plane was attacked by German fighters. When the captain ordered the crew to bail out, Alkemade looked back into the plane and discovered that his parachute was in flames. He chose to jump without a parachute rather than to stay in the burning plane. He fell 18,000 feet, landing in trees, underbrush, and drifted snow. He twisted his knee and had some cuts, but was otherwise alright.

and there are two others!

Alan Magee, a gunner on a B-17 with the 303rd Bomb Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force, was on a mission to St. Nazaire, France in January of 1943, when his bomber was set aflame by enemy fire. He was thrown from the plane before he had a chance to put on his parachute. He fell 20,000 feet and crashed through the skylight of the St. Nazaire train station. His arm was badly injured, but he recovered from that and other injuries.


Lt. I.M. Chisov was a Russian airman whose Ilyushin IL-4 bomber was attacked by German fighters in January of 1942. Falling nearly 22,000 feet, he hit the edge of a snow-covered ravine and rolled to the bottom. He was badly hurt but survived.

all from The Freefall Research Page (http://www.greenharbor.com/fffolder/ffresearch.html)

:ok:

[Top Bunk Tester]

Yep it is the same Alkemade, I'm assuming the're going to hold back that little anecdote for later in the series.

[PPRuNe Pop]

The Germans on finding him decided that he was a liar! They castigated him somewhat until they couldn't find any signs of a parachute. Then found the remains of TWO in the aircraft.

[TwoDeadDogs]

Hi all
What's wrong with the B-17? To a man(and woman), they all appeared to be nice and polite about it and oohed and aahed about the Lanc. There seemed to be an air of "nice, but it's not a Lanc" about them. I had a close look around the same aircraft a few years back, with the tour guided by Keith Sissons. I was struck by the vulnerability of the crewmen to any kind of fighter attack. Their armour, such as it was, was no match for the enemy's 20/30 mm cannon and certainly not against 88/105 mm flak. No B-17 crewman need ever bow the head to any other bomber crewman. Their daylight war was equally as vicious as the night war and their loss rate was appalling.Whilst I appreciate that the relatives of the participants mostly flew in Lancs and their memories are tied to Bomber Command, it is a disservice to imply that the B-17 and it's crews were lesser beings and that a flight in one is a lesser prize than getting up in a Lanc.
By and by, OBrien might come across as a bit of a pill but you can't fault his enthusiasm and interest.
regards
TDD

[Speed Twelve]

Met Mr O'Brien at work a couple of times. Last time I saw him he was flying with the Stearman 'girls on the wings' team.

.....and he's exactly the same in real life. "Houston, the Ego has landed..."

Every time I see (and hear him) he reminds me of Peter Stringfellow in a flying jacket.....

ST

[chromate]

Thing with B. O'Brien is that he's a performer through and through, be it the stunt airshow flying or "acting" out the part of an ace aviator on TV etc. Joe public probably find the showmanship all quite entertaining. Personally, I'm SO glad John Romain took over the pilot training.

The production is much better on this than the Spitfire prog a few months back. Thankfully, this time, they have struck a good balance between covering the history aspects and following the would be "bomber crew" and their experiences.

Who's gonna get Pilot? The helo guy I would think. Though the airline pilot may clinch it if captaincy / systems management comes into play.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

Bobmer crew, pretty good but hope they had a supply contract with kleenex! quite interesting to see their reactions tho. Strikes me as a bit unfair on the wannabe helo chappy (who now designs yachts apparently?) with a few hours in a cessna, vs the airline chappie with 3000hrs plus!

As for BoB, very large ego to be sure, but he is a showman in the old sense of the word. But to give the guy credit, one of the best pilots I've ever flown with....