Tutti Frutti.
Chugalug
I've tried talking to it like a Dutch Uncle, but it just sulks (or goes even more bolshie than before). Had a new one a day or so ago. Drafted on 'Notepad', got it onto 'PPRuNepad', something funny happened, lost it off N/Pad, but kept it on P/Pad. What next ?....D.
Warmtoast
Seems crows ain't what they used to be. A 757's big enough to see, and noisy enough for a crow to hear coming, you might suppose. Perhaps he'd gone deaf from all these loud bangs on the airfield.
Serious (genuine question): why didn't the captain stay in Manchester circuit and get it down there again as soon as he could ? (they've got twin runways, after all, surely a 'Mayday' has priority). Why go wandering off ? (Obviously there's a good technical answer, but what is it ?)
Did I hear the Controller say "Surface wind calm" ? Not from the windsock I saw !...D.
Union Jack
Jack,
The war changed many lives out of all recognition (I sometimes look on it as the University to which I could never in normal times aspire). Bless 'em all, as you say...D
OffshoreSLF
Yes,the T7 does look miserable, lonely and neglected doesn't it ? Maybe it is dreaming of happier years gone by, when it was the King of the Skies. (checked WF825 in my log, never flew it - but see below) As for the radar, I've passed the problem on to MPN11 below, who is far more knowledgable about it than I....D.
MPN11
"JET MEN GO TO WORLD'S FASTEST SCHOOL"
This is wonderful ! It must be 203 AFS Driffield just about my time (Feb/Mar'50). Oddly enough, I logged the Sqdn letters instead of airframe numbers, so I can confirm I flew 'K' (twice), 'N' (5 times) and 'P' (eight times). All these appear on the film. I also flew 'S' (seven times), but can't see this aircraft anywhere on it (perhaps they'd ploughed it in before I got there).
The commentator says it was an eight-week Course: naturally this would apply to the "new boys". Some of the poor devils had come straight off Oxfords, for pity's sake ! No wonder the casualty rate was what it was at that time.
I flew 15 hours on the T7 in 22 trips between Feb 6th to 28th, and they turned me loose (after a session in SSQ with some mysterious fever) with a F414 certifying that I was "Average" as a "u/t Jet Pilot". Obviously this was a short "conversion course" for re-entrants with previous experience. In the early classroom footage, there seem to be some old-timers in the back row, but not me.
I was interested to see the quite sophisticated multiple "alarm clock" in use so early. The one we had at Linton in '62-'64 was a much simpler thing, IIRC, and you'll remember the one at Leeming (a magnificent piece of furniture !).
As for the radar head, a wild guess: the PPI aerial for an ACR7D (with the display in the Tower) ??? Looks as if it would be for a shallow lobe, and could the thing be moved up and down, do you think ? No idea, really.....D
Thank you all. Goodnight,
Danny.
STOP PRESS:
Found it ! (Good old Google - some pictures, too)
The Decca Legacy - Chapter 6 - Wootton Bridge Historical
woottonbridgeiow.org.uk/decca-legacy/chapter6.phpCached
"The 424 Airfield Control Radar was designed in 1952 to meet an RAF requirement for an 'Approach Radar'. It was designated by the RAF as the ACR7D (note ..."