After National Service Wings in 1950 (the "odd" Prentice and great Harvard) I was delighted to be able to fly Chipmunks with the VR at Marshalls (Cambridge UAS didn't take qualified pilots, they told me). Much, much more fun than "Modern Language" studies (far too much poring over "old" litteratchooer, hardly any parlez-vous)...
I still remember those flights with most of the pleasure I felt then, and they led not long afterwards to my re-joining the Service and to many a happy hour on Vampires with 2TAF (as it was then), discovering that they were just as well-balanced and responsive as Mr. Jakimiuk's beautiful little design.
Then came Venoms ... "Vampires with grunt" you might say today, but somewhere DHs had lost the balance of the controls (light, spring tabbed ailerons but heavy on the elevator). But still a match for most (our Canadian Boss used to say that the Venom had it all over the Sabre "like a tent" ...).
But the Chipmunk remains The Standard for me (the Tiger Moths we got at Marshalls for a while were perhaps the biggest disappointment of my life till then, but good for teaching the adverse yaw effects of aileron ... not being a nostalgic, I appreciated that trip back to the '30s, but felt that there were much better thiings to come, and I was very, very keen to get at 'em).
A big "thank you" to DHC ...
