Swan Lake and Ackroyd Board.
taxydual,
It seems that you came to Leeming seven years after I retired - and lots of things can happen in that time ! (including the Swan story). But, strangely enough, I never heard of a Dishforth Scrap Book, although if it dated from the '40s it must have existed then. Perhaps it had become buried under old paperwork in a drawer in SATCO's office (as things tend to do), and was not rediscovered until after '72.
Pity the RAF wouldn't "wear" a "Corporal Commanding RAF Dishforth" (after all, Napoleon did all right as "Le petit Caporal", didn't he ?) Looked up "uckers" - seems far too complicated for me. Something much simpler like chess is more in my line !
Yes, swans taking flight are a wonder to behold. In '56, on my way from Shrewsbury to Shawbury in the spring mornings around 0700, I had to cross the Severn on a footbridge over a straight stretch which was their main runway. The tricky part seemed to be first getting up onto a "step", where they hoisted themselves up on the "undercarriage", stretched out their necks and managed a paddle-assisted slow acceleration until they reached "rotate" and "feet-up". Then followed a few moments in "ground effect" until they'd reached enough airspeed to allow climb away. It was fascinating to watch.
It brought to mind a summer, thirteen years before, when I was at Spitfire OTU at Hawarden; we used to fly low-ish over the Ellesmere lakes, and they'd take off, leaving a long trail of perfectly regular "footfall" splashes on the calm lake water behind them.
Cheers, Danny.
********
FantomZorbin and MPN11,
The "Ackroyd Board" was after my time, but we had a sort of Multiple Alarm Clock for our Bloggs in Leeming Local (and I think they took it over to Dishforth with the AFS "detachment"). But no "slave" to it in Approach, I'm afraid.
May put in a Post about that if I can recall how it worked. (HughGw01, if you can hear me, please come in on this to help - your memory is 30 years younger than mine).
Regards to you both, Danny.
...........
EDIT:
DFCP,
There was a strange story which contains two elements vaguely associated with your father's. Driving at night over the lonely moors road to Whitby, just past Fylingdales, several people at different times stopped to pick-up a airman, trudging along in the headlights, hitching a lift in that direction.
When they stopped and reached over to open the passenger door, he simply disappeared !
Did you ever hear that one ?
Danny.
Last edited by Danny42C; 17th Aug 2014 at 23:17.
Reason: Add Text.