"GAINING AN RAF PILOTS BREVET IN WW 2
Danny 42C
Despite your age being in advance of mine it seems you dont suffer from memory loss like me!
I wont argue the exchange rate--I THINK I remember being in a Bournemouth hotel in 51 when Wilson assured me that the pound in my pocket was still worth a pound as he devalued to --2.8? I think in WW2 the C$ was below the US---it has since been as high as 1.07 but is now "engineered" to be very close to par.And I THOUGHT that in 45 as LAC,s we got something above 7 shillings a day
608--I never knew anyone there and I had left the area for S Wales in 1940, returning for visits only---on one of those, post war, I went to a display at Thornaby where a pilot, I think from Tern Hill slow rolled a Harvard into the ground . Your equivalent in 605 in my time was F/Lt Crossman--my saviour in the Meteor 7 episode.Thank God we never tried spinning in a 7. And no one ever warned me of the danger of turning oin Finals with the dive brakes still out! 400 Squadron apparently spun the Vampire 3 without too much sweat. The CAHS had an interesting article a few years back on the RCAF Vampire experience. The bought them because they could buy more of them than Meteors with some left over WW2 pound credits
The Boro!---I often think of the pittance guys like Wilf Mannion got when compared with to days "stars"
"A roller at Middleton"---still happens--a C17 put down on a small airports 3600 ft runway in the Tampa area a couple of weeks ago.
MSG---do you recall the story about the ghost in what was the Officers Mess?--now a hotel. Supposedly a pilot who didnt make it practicing SE landings in a Meteor--- he was killed by the mess masonary. When I go up to Toronto I meet RCAF survivors from MSG---one was shot down so quickly after arrival at MSG that he never even got into Stockton.!