Thanks
Blacksheep. I should have read a sentence further!
Wiley - Note Hooton Park and opinion on Bothas!!
The Gentleman Fitter.
I was now a fully trained Flight Mechanic, Aircraftsman 1st Class. I was posted to No.11 Radio School at Hooton Park, on the Wirral in Cheshire.
Eric was drafted to the Far East, to a maintenance unit, east of Calcutta.
I must have arrived at Hooton in the dark, because next morning when I looked out, there was a line of aircraft that I did not recognise. They turned out to be Blackburn Bothas.
There were only two stations with Bothas, this one and the other at the training school at R.A.F. Lossiemouth. The Botha was originally designed as a torpedo-bomber for the Navy. It was a strong aircraft, but was basically underpowered. The torpedo was carried in a bomb bay down the left-hand side of the fuselage, when it was released the aircraft nearly rolled over. The Bothas had suffered numerous accidents and were relegated to training and ultimately target towing.
At Hooton Park they were used to train aircrew for Coastal Command. The aircraft were fitted with a primitive radar system, with a small round green screen with blips on it. It was called A.S.V., (Air to Surface Vessels), and with it B.A.Bs, (Blind Approach Beam System). They would fly out over Liverpool Bay and the Irish Sea, to search for shipping, to get responses and then try to use B.A.Bs for landing back at Hooton.
Twice a day, lunch-time and evening we had to fill the aircraft with fuel, (840gallons), and top up the oil on each side (22 gallons). They were a high-wing aircraft and having crawled out of the top of the cockpit on to the mainplane, someone had to hand up a 4 gallon can of oil to you. Quite often the handles came off the tin and the whole lot crashed to the ground.
The petrol was pumped from a bowser into the wing-tanks. Some evenings I would wait for hours for the bowser to come. I think bribery took place to persuade the tractor driver to come to our aircraft first.
Every morning we removed the engine side-panels, checked the pipework and signed the aircraft log-book (Form 700), for the Daily Inspection. We would start the engines, warm them up, then take each up to take-off power and check the propellor pitch change. We would keep them idling until the pilot arrived, he would then sign acceptance in the log-book.
As the aircraft was designed for naval use, it had a Coffman starter; these made starting easy. It fired a cartridge that pushed a piston forward that engaged and turned the engine. If the engine did not start however, you had to put your arm up inside the engine, to turn to the next cartridge, the pipework was hot. Technically one could pull a lever in the aircraft to do this, but they usually did not work.
I flew in a Botha several times in the bomb aimer’s seat by the pilot, sometimes in the navigator’s seat and once in the turret. It was a well-built, all-metal aircraft, but was noisy at take-off. With the windows open, the tips of the propellors were only about six inches from one’s ear, I think that is why I have tinnitus today.
After a month or so several Avro Ansons were delivered. These were easier to maintain than the Bothas, they were low-wing and the engines were level with your chest. The aircraft were much easier to fly and were much safer, they were nicknamed, ‘Faithful Annies’.
They did have some disadvantages, however. They had a starting handle that had to be turned to start the engine, after the engine started, it had to be removed. On the starboard engine, you had your back to the fuselage and it was difficult to escape after the engine had started, you had to crawl back under the wing in the slipstream.
When the engines had to be restarted after lunch and were still warm, they could be difficult and required a lot of winding, this could be exhausting. The brakes were worked from a cylinderof compressed air that had to be filled before every flight. (
My Dad got a hernia from all this cranking which he didn't have operated on until he was 50.)
When the aircraft had taken off, the wheels had to be wound up by hand and this was hard work. One also had to be careful to avoid the large aerial system that was fitted at eye-level for the radar system.
We had one day off in ten. On my day off, I had a long hot bath in the morning, then dressed in my ‘best blue’ and went into Chester. I had lunch in the restaurant at Brown’s department store, there was a little orchestra playing there, it was all very pleasant.
In the afternoon I would look into Rose’s camera shop, (still there!) and browse in the bookshops. I would then hire a boat and row up the river Dee for a mile or so.
In the evening I went to the theatre, where there was always a variety show, After that I would catch the train back to Hooton.
The radio section built little radios, (illegally?). I was asked to make the cabinets at two pounds each. I was quite keen to do this as my service pay was only six shillings a day, two pounds two shillings a week; so one cabinet was almost one week’s pay. I cut the plywood in the billet and put the glue on the stove and everyone complained about the smell.
When the fire in the hut stove was needed, instead of using paper and wood, we would use the Coffman starter cartridges to light the coke. The pellets in the cartridge would burn furiously, but they made a lot of smoke!
After a few months I was made up to a Leading Aircraftsman and as an L.A.C. I was sent on a Fitter 2 E’s course, This was an engine-fitter’s course, I never discovered why we had a ‘2’. The course was held at Innsworth, a permanent station, on the road between Cheltenham and Gloucester. There was no airfield.
Here we were in small groups and practised taking engines to pieces and reassembling them. Our first week was spent doing practical metalwork. The first job was scraping the faces on two hollow castings, so that when they were bolted together they were airtight.
The second job was making an ‘U shaped gauge with a 1” square that would fit into it, It had to be accurate to within one thousandth of inch. I did rather well at this and scored 84%. I was top of the entry of 180 airmen. Not bad, eh?
When it came to the verbal and practical examination on engines, at the end of the course, they took me first and gave me a terrible grilling. I only scored 78% overall and I think this was a fix!