Roald Dahl; Flyer - Writer

[2hotwot]

It came as a surprise to me that Roald Dahl was a flyer as well as a writer.

By chance I picked up a second hand copy of his book 'Over to you'. These are his first twelve short stories based upon his wartime flying experiences.

The story of 'Katina' is especially moving as he writes in pictures and you can see plainly in your minds eye this small Greek girl, in futility, facing off a Messershmitt 110 with her fists raised.

He goes down with me as one of the great aviation writers. Has anyone else discovered him or better still painted pictures from his depictions?

Jim

[taxistaxing]

I grew up to his stories and Going Solo, written about his early adulthood during the war has some great dog fight and flying sequences (albeit written for children). I wasn't aware he had written for adults as well. I'll look Over to You out - thanks for the tip.

[englishal]

Going Solo was a biography of his time in the war, not a childrens book if I recall correctly, and a good read. I like the bit when he turns up at his new squadron and is given his new Hurricane (after flying the Tiger Moth??). He asks his CO who is going to teach him to fly it and the CO says "you are, you have 6 hrs, get on with it..."

And we worry about changing from C172 to PA28 :)

[abgd]

I believe he gave evidence to an enquiry that agreed with him that the sink-or-swim attitude of the CO was unacceptable even then.

That said, the other difference is that in wartime if 1/100 pilots crashed because they couldn't find the fuel switch in a PA28 it would hardly materially affect their life expectancy, whereas in peacetime it would cause a significant spike in the accident statistics.

[foxmoth]

That said, the other difference is that in wartime if 1/100 pilots crashed because they couldn't find the fuel switch in a PA28 it would hardly materially affect their life expectancy, whereas in peacetime it would cause a significant spike in the accident statistics.

I think service training in those days was that, though you would not get dual in the fighters you would sit in the cockpit going through the drills until you could do them with your eyes closed, so finding the fuel or any other switch would not have been the problem:8