To Harry and Chugalug.
Harry,
Welcome aboard, and congrats on your first solo! We can certainly do with some new blood on this Thread. I can't do better than second Chugalug's suggestion in his earlier Post #2359 p118, and I quote:
"Let it be yet another British idiosyncracy that a thread about pilot brevets includes all other ones as well, as well as none at all ! Well, why shouldn't it ?"
Couldn't have put it better myself ! We were all on the same side - come on in - the water's fine !
Now we can ask all the armourer questions which have been troubling us. For starters, was it true (as I was told) that the British .303 Brownings stopped with the block at the rear, but the American .300 ones forward, so that there was one always "up the spout", which could go off spontaneously in a hot gun ? (the thing I flew had two of each - I ought to know, but I don't !)
Chugalug,
Ah, the winter of 62/63 - (what use would the wind farms have been then, with that enormous high anchored right on top of us, no wind and ground temperatures never rising above freezing for about six weeks ?) Just back from (centrally heated) Germany, I was at Linton, we had a rig with two Derwents mounted on a kind of pallet pushed by a 2500 gallon bowser. They gave it welly, the sheet ice in front flaked off a treat, but the thrust pushed the bowser backwards at a rate of knots over the ice, so they had to pack it in. Best thing with snow is leave it alone - trouble is convincing the Wg. Cdr. (Flying).
Came across our old friend the triple gauge (remember the Daniel "PT-17" panel ?) It was from a Vultee BT-13 panel (something more sophisticated, I said - how wrong can you be ?). Remember it well, one day in Burma my affrighted gaze fell on one such: oil pressure zero! Got the thing home, then pranged it ! Gunner and self survived all right. Aircraft beyond repair.
Have you any news of Cliff?
Harry and Chugalug, my regards to you both, and Goodnight,
Danny