Typhoon93,
Welcome Aboard ! (you must be about our youngest member - and can look forward to being our Oldest Inhabitant ca '85 if the Thread lasts that long (and you always remeber to fly ''Low and Slow, with plenty of Top Rudder on the Corners'') - and listen to the Ancient Aviator over in the corner, bearing in mind the fact that he is Still Here while many others are Not....D.
airborne_artist, (aged 15, forsooth !) .
Very glad to hear it ! - and I bet in Annapolis, too; (but then the True Blue always had its head screwed on). If ever there was a case of victory being snatched from the jaws of defeat, it was this - the USN was top dog in the Pacific ever after.....D.
Fareastdriver,
I don't recall any G meters in any of the Meteors (4s and 7s) or Vampires (IIIs and Vs) I flew, but then my last Vamp was in Sep '52 and Meteor in Nov '54. Would that tie-in ? (Nor any bang-seats either, come to that). But I do remember often greying-out on pull-out from a dive in the VVs. I never heard of anyone actually blacking out (well, you wouldn't I suppose - it sounds a bit Irish !). I would think if you tried to pull any more G in one of those, the well known"mushing" effect would negate the increased angle of attack.....D.
Camlobe,
What
can I say ? I just described it how it was to the best of my recollection, it was just my luck that the twists and turns of reality are often not only stranger, but much funnier than any fiction you could invent.
Sadly, "all good things must come to an end" - sometime - and memory is finite. Yet the odd "flash back" may come to me in future to amplify my Posts, in which case I may edit in a bit more text. Who knows ?
HMCE was a whole new world, and I am
not going to tell any regular story, but may put in amusing or interesting bits from time to time (no promises, though - Enough is Enough !)
On behalf of my generation, I must repeat that it was only blind chance that had put
us in the "hot seat" (rather than the next, or the next after that; the one before had its own rough time), and so enabled us to earn Churchill's undying words of praise:
".......Men will still say: 'This was their finest hour'...." (and the old chap hadn't done badly himself !)
So I accept your gratitude, on behalf of my entire age-group, for the kind words you all have heaped upon us , who have lived through those times which now fade into history. On their behalf: Thank
You, Sir !
Now for the wrap-up.......D.
Fareastdriver,
Yes, things
have been getting a bit hectic. But isn't that exactly what a Forum is all about (even in a disembodied form such as our Crewroom in Cyberspace). It has never been healthier than now, although it has had some lean times in the 2½ years I have been aboard. But it must always have as its centre the raconteurs which feed the flames of chat and comment (and, yes, contradiction - but always polite).
That is why those who have the stories (like you)
must put them in the pool to keep the thing alive - it cannot keep going without you. And all you youngsters must realise - "It's Later than you Think" - time flies !
It has been the special genius of our Moderators to recognise what Cliffnemo's (RIP) Thread of six years ago was turning into, and they could rapidly have choked it off by too rigid insistence on strict adherence to its rather narrow title, but they have wisely refrained from doing so - and now look at what we've got !
Never (
AFAIK) outside Page 1 or 2 of "Military Aircrew", lately extended to "Military Aviation" (and who could cavil at that); the most Posts and "hits" of any Thread bar "Caption Competition" (and that's a special case, as it naturally brings in a host of one-liners and hits - doesn't everybody look-in every time they log-in ?)
Your story of the barrel-rolled Varsity was going around in my day: the form in which I heard it had it that a later pilot who'd not heard of the affair came down complaining of the odd "trim" of his aircraft : they investigated and found the fin and rudder 7° out of vertical. (This is typical of a flaky story, the teller seeks to convince the hearers of the truth of his yarn by quoting "exact" figures). Where have we noticed this in another context ? Politics, perhaps ?
Seriously, a 707 has been barrel-rolled by a Boeing Test Pilot; there are inside photographs of it inverted to prove it. I suppose there is nothing in principle to prevent
anything being barrel-rolled, so long as you keep +1G to +2G, and no more on all the time, but the pax (or your Company !) may not like it.....D.
cockney steve,
Your :
"the illuminated windows spelt V A T several storeys hight, many storeys high".
Rather a neat idea (with the taxpayer paying for the electricity !). I spent my first year with them in Old Trafford (Manchester) in a mini skyscraper, but we didn't think of that (and anyway it would have made us a target for the IRA, which were waging a mainland campaign at the time
"fuel was dispensed from ancient clock-face pumps". Them were the days !
"He laughed and said "NO! I'm actually a VATman!!!!" Some of us were almost human.
"
Wasn't you, Danny? around 1980? (Apologies for thread-drift)"
No, in '74 we got back to North Yorkshire, and have never left......D.
MPN11
Your:
"
Hello, hello, has Danny42C been rumbled as a Eye reader? Could explain the piquant wit!!"
Wit attributable to Hiberian ancestry. Not seemly for a servant of the Crown to be seen reading such subversive literature !....D.
Tim Mills,
You're welcome, Tim !....D.
Goodnight to you all, (Good morning to Tim), Danny.