Gaining An R.A.F. Pilots Brevet In WW11
Thank you Warmtoast and Danny.
Off to Kinloss! Night sleeper from Euston, woke in the Highlands, changed at Aviemore, village then, vast now!
Kinloss was a wartime station. Wooden huts and messes and home to No 236 Operational Conversion Unit with Neptunes and Shackletons and the resident Neptune squadron. No 217 under the command of the famous Wing Commander Mike Ensor.
The Lockheed Neptune was a development of the Ventura which was a development of the Hudson, so Lockheed was not unknown to the R.A.F.
A modified Neptune called the Truculent Turtle held the long distance record, at that time, 11000 miles from Perth, Western Australia to Columbus Ohio
The Neptune was quite a big aircraft with lots of good ideas. It had two very reliable Wright Turbo Compound engines of 3500 horse power. The turbines in the exhaust gave an extra 400 horse power. In 1200 hours I only had one engine failure. It had reverse pitch on the very large propellors which enabled short landings and less wear and tear on brakes and tyres.
It was armed with front and rear turrets containing twin 20mm cannon and a twin mid upper turret with point 5 machine guns.
In an attack, lift spoilers on the top of each wing and operated by a button on the control column allowed the selected wing to drop giving a very steep turn. There was an electric "Varicam" in the tailplane which helped to flare when landing. The tip tanks carried 250 gallons each. The left one also carried the APS 31 attack radar and the "bubble" under the fuselage carried the APS 20 which gave all round cover and could transmit the picture to a friendly warship or carrier.
We had a decent bomb bay and also rocket rails under each wing to carry 16 rockets. It was very much an all electric aeroplane with an enormous circuit breaker panel by the entrance to the cockpit.
There was automatic synchronisation of the engines,monitored by a BMEP guage, brake mean effective pressure, which gave the power of each engine. On run up , a difference of 1!/2 pounds was allowed. If more , return to dispersal. Believe me that instrument was the most watched "far out"!!
We did two weeks ground school to learn about the systems and were crewed up for the course. Two pilots, two navigators, an engineer and five signallers (gunners). The engineer sat on a wooden chair in the entrance to the cockpit. At his leftwas the electrical panel and all the circuit breakers. In front of him, under a flap in the floor was the fuel set up, transfer cocks etc.
The aircraft was very quiet. We could talk between the pilots and engineer without intercom. W e just wore headsets and throat mikes.
This all changed later when we joined our squadrons.
It was quite a job to board the Neptune and it paid to be fairly slim and fit. there was a tunnel to crawl along to get to the front turret, and you had to crawl overthe wing which came through the aircraft to get to the back turrets. However it was a lovely aircraft to fly and an interesting one to take abroad and to other stations.
Kinloss was very busy so we did most of our circuit work at Milltown a few miles to the east. Night flying at that time of the year was difficult as there were only a few dark hours during the summer.
Solos over (I was at ITW in 1943 with my instructor), it was applied flying. Navexs, North Sea and Atlantic, bombing, gunnery, rocketry, radar homings until the end of the course at the end of August 1953.
Postings, where? .... TOPCLIFFE!!! (again)