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RAF Chipmunks

Old 12th Jul 2012, 02:10
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Coff,

Thanks for that update. Good to hear that this is one of the Chippys still flying. Like others, fond memories of the type from ATC days.

Regarding Blaireau's mystery "WL540". Air-Britain's book 'Fleet Air Arm Fixed-wing Aircraft Since 1946' has a listing/history of all the Chipmunks that were transferred to the FAA. There were 19 in all. As you pointed out earlier, WL540 was a Vampire FB9 serial. Further, the serial WK540 does not feature in that listing and there is no mention of a cowling number "540" being allocated to a Chipmunk.

In another Air-Britain publication, 'The Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm', there is a listing of code numbers allocated to aircraft of different FAA units from 1965 onwards. This listing shows that "540" would have been in a series (540 - 552) allocated to the Hiller HT2s of 705 NAS at Culdrose during the period 1965 - 1975.

I am still puzzling over where the serial WK540 came from. The serial block WK506 - WK643 was allocated to Chipmunk T10s. However, all the references that I have so far seen show a gap in serials between WK523 and WK547. I can find no record of WK540 being allocated.

Regards,

Laurie.

Last edited by lauriebe; 12th Jul 2012 at 02:20.
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Old 12th Jul 2012, 07:58
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Oldlae, Lauriebe ...

Glad to have been some help with WB586.

Lauriebe ...

The '540' enigma continues ... I'm sure someone will add more to the unfolding picture

Best regards ...

Coff.
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Old 18th Jul 2012, 03:04
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Nice thread. I have fond memories of the Chipmunk, a fine aeroplane.
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Old 3rd May 2013, 20:04
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What a fascinating thread (to which, admittedly, I have come rather late). A perfectly content infantryman these days, I'm normally content to lurk In the dim past, however, I enjoyed several years as a a cadet, the highlights of which were many flights in the 1 AEF Chipmunks. What a privilege - that vast runway, Pegwell Bay and the estuary, heading inland to Canterbury - all great but, let's face it, it was all about aerobatics. One particularly merciless pilot 'encouraged' me to repeat the stall turn 16 times in succession. The only time I was ever actually sick in a Chipmunk, but not before I got it right!

According to the log I recently discovered in the attic, my last flight was in WP860 on 21st March '96. We knew it was all coming to an end but couldn't quite imagine cadet flying without the full parachute / lifejacket / video and cordite experience! I'm not sure who the pilot was, but from the scrawl in my log his initials might have been 'BFL' or 'BW'.

I also recall a day on which I was the last ride. We taxied back to the hangar to discover within the RR Mosquito, which had apparently suffered an engine failure returning from a display (Shepway perhaps?) and was awaiting repairs. The pilot and I spent some considerable time admiring it from every angle before finally heading back over to the poor chaps waiting patiently for me to hand over my parachute so they could go home.

Great times indeed - a wonderful aeroplane, invariably flown by the most interesting people.


Clearly, if questioned at work, I shall admit to none of this. Bloody crabs...
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Old 4th May 2013, 00:13
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Another list

8 RFS Woodley 1952
WB720, 685, 635, 622

4 BFTS Sywell 1952/1953
WG419,467,552,466,550,472,474,462,419,469,427,457, 420, 429, 464, 460, 467
WB728, 566, 562, 566
WK552, 551,550
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Old 4th May 2013, 05:07
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Amazing to see the Chipmunk threads keep coming back. Shows how popular the old girl is.

I flew the 1 AEF aircraft at Coltishall in the late 80s/early 90s - we used to borrow them for the summer camps. My logbook records I flew WD373, WK630, WP840 and WP920.

I had to collect one once and got a lift to Manston in a Jaguar T2. As the radio sets didn't have the correct crystals for Norwich/Colt, I had a pre determined time to do a no radio join. We were a bit late on arrival due a start snag on the Jag, so I got straight out of the Jag and into the Chippy. Must have been about the only time a Chippy had been flown by someone wearing a g suit. When I put the flaps down, I got the Personal Equipment Connector jammed in the flap mechanism and landed flapless. It may have been a better idea to take it off!

I have a copy of the "Jump John, Jump" film. It's on a DVD payer with a hard drive and I've promised a copy for Paul, the "star" of the film who doesn't have it. I'm having problems making a good copy of it as the DVD player has some odd codec and the image is very jittery. I'm going to have to play it into a A/D converter which won't do the image many favours. I will put it on You Tube or a drop file when done. Failing that, I can do some copies and post them out to those who have requested it.

BTW - this demonstrates that the correct spelling of the stater system should be "Coughman!"

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Old 4th May 2013, 07:26
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Dan ... Pure perfume
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Old 4th May 2013, 13:11
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Plessey S7 was I believe the actual make used on the chippy. Had to be assembled with loads of black grease. Pointless exercise to wash overalls, just scrape the grease off once a week.
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Old 4th May 2013, 14:15
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Now now, BEagle, you'll get me all wound up too about the state of UAS today.....
One of the aircraft that was contemporary with our time together on ULAS was the one on which HRH DoE had learned to fly. Was that not WK518?
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Old 4th May 2013, 14:22
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Dan:
Similar story. My last RAF Chipmunk flight...just checked...was on 17 Aug 90, a couple of weeks before starting re-settlement leave. From Brawdy to Shawbury for maintenance, WP900.
A very early start, beautiful morning through the Welsh countryside, time at SY just long enough to sign and hand over F700, zip on G equipment, and climb into the weather-ship Hawk that had come to collect me for the return trip to Brawdy. A slightly faster journey!
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Old 4th May 2013, 14:25
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Duke of Edinburgh Learning to Fly - White Waltham 1952

The picture above shows The Duke of Edinburgh inspecting the cockpit of his Chipmunk aircraft at White Waltham, in which he learnt to fly, with his instructor Flight Lieutenant Caryl Ramsey Gordon.

Although I know WK518 reasonably well ... I can't confirm that the above pic is the old girl or if TDoE learnt to fly on her
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Old 4th May 2013, 16:15
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As an ATC cadet in 1949, I managed to get 10 hours flying training at No. 1 Reserve Flying Training School, Panshangar. This was not a "Flying Scholarship" which was a much bigger thing with a solo flight at the end of it. There was no solo at the end of my 10 hours but the interesting thing was that I started my training on Tiger Moths and then halfway through, the School re-equipped with Chipmunks which I was told had just been fitted with their "Anti-Spin Strakes" to fix a problem that they had with spin recovery.

So I enjoyed the rest of my training on this new type with a proper canopy instead of open cockpits. Sadly, I have lost my old record of service book that would have the registrations of the Chipmunks that I flew in that time.

I joined the RAF soon after this and trained on Prentices then Harvards and the Vampire 5.

Years later when in BEA, I joined a syndicate to run G-APSB...I have a soft spot for the Chipmunk
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Old 4th May 2013, 21:30
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My first ever experience of real flying was in a Chippie from Shawbury in the early 70s, as a member of 1122 (Marmion) Squadron ATC. I joined the RAF as an apprentice at Halton and enjoyed further " flight experience". It was my privelige to be part of the ground crew that looked after 6AEF at Abingdon (1979/81). You flyers can proffer "fuel on, brakes on, throttle closed, switches off", I offer "breech in, engine primed, cowling secured and rear switches on, Sir", I always had, and always will have the greatest respect for the men, particularly the VR(T) guys, who turned up week in week out to give that little tickle of flying to a young lad, that might give him some ambition. Respect to you all guys, and thank you.

Smudge
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Old 6th May 2013, 04:37
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Having found this thread I went thru my slide collection of Chippies.

Not checked your original list but did note that I have WK518 in three different schemes.

Red/White no codes
Silver with blue band just before the tail
Current BBMF colours.

Not sure where the Red/White one was taken as the slides dated 1999 so not at Manston where I was a pax in her in 1977. Silver one not dated but may be Coningsby before getting the black colours as a load of RAF vehicles in the background but again would have been after the Manston days.
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Old 6th May 2013, 07:18
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Clicker ... Any chance you could post even a scan of the slides. If 1999 then WK518 was with BoBMF by then

Cheers ...

Coff.

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Old 6th May 2013, 20:55
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Coff et al

I was always told it was 'my' Chippie on which DoE learned to fly, which would have been WP912 or possibly WK624.

When I bumped into DoE about 5 years ago, and mentioned by way of introduction that I had learned to fly on 'his' trusty steed, his eyes glazed over. I'm still not sure whether it was:
a) boredom with encountering another peasant
b) incomprehension
c) the onset of dementia
or a mixture of the above.

I doubt it was c) as he retains a keen wit......
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Old 7th May 2013, 06:37
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Cheers Skua
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Old 7th May 2013, 10:52
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Wilco Coff,

May take a while as I'm have to rebuild my system to Win7 and not yet connected the slide scanner and also trying to get a new database to replace my dbase that was only worked on Win XP.
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Old 7th May 2013, 11:34
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Splendid Fellow Clicker

Sounds like you need to invest in a Mac

Best ...

Coff.
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Old 7th May 2013, 12:57
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AH!! The 'Chippy' Community.... Thank God for the Internet..!!

Some good news and some not so good news....

Chippy WB728 mentioned earlier is alive and well. 'Tis currently VH-RWI, owned by moi and No 1 son, and flies from Jandakot, (YPJT) the secondary airport for Perth, WA.

WB728, ex EI-AHP, ex G-AOZU, ex 5N-AGP, ex G-AOZU (again) then
VH-RWI in OZ.
To see current photos simply 'google' VH-RWI, and you will see it when it was still owned by the Royal Aero Club of WA. These photos are only a couple of years old.
A little bit of OZ history here - RWI is the last Chippy to be operated by an 'Aero Club' in Australia.... When I learned to fly back in the early 60's, there were literally dozens of them, until they were 'overtaken' by the more modern American trainers, Cessnas and the like.
Now there is but 1...!!

And....she still flies LUVLY!!!

WP804, ex N804WP, ex VH-QOZ is 'fatally injured' I'm sorry to say.
She was involved in an unfortunate accident, EFATO, in Jan 2012.
I bought the badly damaged remains to see if it was possible to re-build. But, alas, the economics and the work / parts required, are just too much.
However, parts of her will still 'live on'.
I have had the engine repaired and installed in our Tiger Moth, to replace that aircraft's engine 'catastrophic failure' - in that it broke a con rod and severed the crankcase, making that engine good for a few parts only.

The remainder of the airframe will be further inspected to ascertain any long term plan, or parted for spares, - to be advised.

Hoping that this info will keep those of you who have an interest in such things...'up to date'.

Happy Landings to All..!!!
And a SPECIAL 'CHEERS' to Rod Brown, UK, Author, if you get around to reading this.

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