[quote
I used to be in the hand fly hand fly hand fly camp, but nowadays I am beginning to wonder
A bit of history, so forgive the thread drift.
Hand flying? THIS is hand flying...
From the book Lake Boga at War by Brett Freeman; The inside story of the secret RAAF Inland Flying Boat Unit - WW2.
On 22 January 1942 Flt Lt Keith Bolitho took off at 0200 from the RAAF flying boat base at Rathmines NSW to search for the US registered Liberty Ship
H. Burnett that had been torpedoed but managed to radio a distress signal.
A lifeboat with 20 men aboard was spotted at first light. After a series of notes were dropped with life jackets, the survivors signalled they were indeed crew members of
Liberty ship Burnett.
With adverse sea conditions and the survivors' weight estimated, a decision was made not to alight but to summon Sydney for a surface vessel. An American destroyer responded but, for some time could not find the location because of a major compass error in the Catalina, an error that may well have saved the stricken lifeboat crew. Further drama ensued when continuing the search for survivors the Catalina came across a stranded ship with its stern blown away. It was the
Peter.H. Burnett still afloat. Together with a RAN corvette, the US Navy destroyer rendezvoused with the stricken
Burnett where all crew members were rescued and reunited.
It was nearing midnight as the Catalina touched down at Rathmines. When Flight Lieutenant Keith Bolitho and his crew came ashore they had been airborne 22 hours and 25 minutes aboard this
hand flown flying boat.
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Postscript. I had the pleasure of serving under the now Wing Commander K. Bolitho DFC when he was CO of No. 1 RAAF Basic Flying Training School at Uranquinty NSW in 1956. At the time I was a Pilot Officer qualified flying instructor on Tiger moths and Wirraways. Keith Bolitho had flown many hundreds of hours on Catalina flying boats over Japanese occupied areas of the SW Pacific including bombing and mine-laying operations.