Reg that is a wonderfully evocative description - thank you. It's the small details (parachute jokes etc) that bring it all alive.
What I'm interested in is the daily routine stuff. For example, does anyone know who would have completed the weight and balance for each aircraft, or even if it was calculated for each individual aircraft at all? I remember seeing a metal cut-out silhouette of a Manchester with weights hanging off it at the BBMF visitors centre at Coningsby last month - which was apparently used by captains to calculate the trim for their aircraft. But was that a daily thing or was it completed by the 'powers that be' for operations?