The Chipmunk saga
I first left Terra Firma in a Chippy from RAF Newton, Nottinghamshire, England after waddling across the frosty grass with a parachute slapping the back of my legs. My memory tells me it was WD591 ?
I found the following in an old Air Training Corps magazine from around 1969. It refers to the scrapping of the Chippy in favour of the Beagle/SA Bulldog :
The Chipmunk Saga by Sqn Ldr Jonklaas.
"You are old, Mother Chipmunk," the young Pup said,
"And there's one thing that does me intrigue;
How you carry on spinning, to the left and the right.
Does it not cause you over-fatigue ?"
"In my youth," said the crone, "when my main spar was new,
Fatigue used to cause quite a scare.
Now I double my fatigue life time after time
So I always have something to spare."
"You are old, Mother Chipmunk," the young Pup said,
"And your available radio aids slim.
Yet your limited frequencies don't cramp your style
And you wander around at your whim."
"In my youth," said the crone, it worried me sick,
As I dodged all those airways and cloud,
But now I keep tuned to 'Distress' all the time
And I yell 'Mayday' -three times- very loud."
"You have an old engine," the young Pup sneered,
"That cuts out with negative G.
Yet you do a slow roll whenever you please.
Seems like asking for trouble to me !"
"Since my youth," said the crone as she rolled once again,
"I've had just a touch of a cough.
Now they call it some fancy name -'rich cut'- I think,
But it doesn't put my pilots off."
"You are old, Mother Chipmunk," the young Pup said,
"And it's high time I took your place.
You are tandem; and slow; and don't climb too well;
You must surely be slipping from grace."
"In my youth," said the crone, as her engine coughed twice,
"I was thought of as a real little honey.
And you don't stand a chance of stepping into my wheels
Because the Air Force has run out of money."
History records that Mother Chipmunk was wrong with her last two lines!
Regards to all, Weeds