Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II

[Chugalug2]

Oh they will be added to, MPN, over and over. Rather like the sorcerer's apprentice it will pile email after email upon you with yet more links to feed the Tengah habit. I did warn of its addictive nature.

WT, what a bolshie lot you were at Seletar! Was there any particular reason for the uprising? Shortly after RAF Fairford was re-opened (so that Concord could use the 10000ft runway for testing and development) there was trouble at t'mill. A lack of on station facilities and an almost non existent bus service to the outside world culminated in an outbreak of mini disorder (felling of flag pole, breaking of guard room windows, etc). The Stn Cdr's solution? A station parade! This was held in a vacant hangar in case of bad weather. All take offs and landings were prohibited from/to appropriate times. A fellow captain was at the holding point ready to go when the ban started, so sat there with engines at low speed ground idle throughout!

Unfortunately the open hangar doors were aligned with the holding point and the Allison/Hamilton Standard whine drowned out many of the commands, making the parade even more of a shambles than usual for station parades. Finally the whole point of the parade, the Stn Cdr's address, was reached and he ordered the SWO to have the parade break ranks and gather around him to be better heard. They duly did, and a friend of mine on parade as a supernumerary feared for his life as they advanced inexorably towards him. Somehow the farrago finally ended and all dispersed without further incident. The Stn Cdr was replaced shortly after and things improved generally thereafter.


BTW, the picture of a Hudson at RAF Sembawang on my previous link set me looking for it on Google maps. Remarkably the runway is still there, just to the west of Seletar! For an island the size and shape of the Isle of Wight it is surprising how many airfields there were in Singapore over the years; Kallang, Changi, Paya Lebar, Seletar, Sembawang, Tengah...any others?