Geri (#10765),
So you were firmly secured for your first encounter with the Vultee Vengeance ? (just as well, I'd think !) I've never read a better description of the histrionic display that a Double Cyclone could put on, cranking-up, if it were in the mood ! I must confess that often we very naughtily "prolonged the agony" by keeping the "Energise" on after the "Engage" in the hope that just one more half-crank would do the trick (instead of going back to Square 1, and letting the impeller wind up the starter flywheel properly again).
If you were in a line-up of six for a sortie, and everyone else had got their donks running, you could almost feel the exasperation of your five mates and the Flight leader seething in fury at the delay - for of course no one could move till all were ready to go.
But even the sainted Merlin was not beyond reproach: in the "Song of the Barracuda", the True Blue relates how:
"... And when you press the tit,
It belches flame and s**t
Right in your flipping eye ..."
but then these sailors were always coarse fellows ....
"...until the tubby shape heaves itself slowly into the shimmering copper of the Indian sky..."
You have the soul of a true poet, Sir ! (and "slowly" was dead right). As I've put it:
"And tho' you'd sooner flop than fly - I found it hard to say 'Good-bye' ".
Danny.