Wonderful pictures!
The Sproule net was a good idea but it injured more people than it scooped up as unless you were VERY careful with your height control the leading edge metal bar clouted the poor survivor on the head. For this reason I only ever used it to recover bodies and so on to avoid the crewman having to do the dirty work. (When no boat available obviously)
Regarding power available WW7 versus WW9 - a clever chap at the garage door manufacturers in Yeovil removed almost exactly a ton of 750hp Leonides and replaced it with 328lbs of Gnome producing 1300hp! Who were happy bunnies at Culdrose when the changeover came. Power only limited by a red mark on the edge of the fuel flow guage! (Plus anti coll lights to flash away like the big boys).
David
Happy days indeed.