There are No New Things under the Sun ? - Yes, there are, on this Prince of Threads ! Where to begin ?
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Chugalug (#10800),
The earth/green colour sceme was like that applied to our VVs in Burma. Excellent against a jungle background. We did some "Fighter Affiliation" exercises (without a Fighter - a single VV had to do). I sometimes flew the "Fighter", and quickly learned that I could not take my eyes off our "box-of-six" for a single moment - they'd vanish in the jungle canopy, and I'd to look really hard for a second or two to pick them up again. It was hard work and we didn't learn much.
You may recall that once, alone, I snuggled against a green jungle hillside in Assam to hide from a Lone Ranger (almost certainly an Oscar) who was dogging my footsteps. I'm sure he knew something was there, but he didn't spot me, got fed up and went away.
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megan (#10802),
Another lovely pic ! So that was the one and only Griffon Tempest. Nice, clean lines, should fly very well. But what a weird, "stepped" leading edge. What would be the (aerodynamic) advantage of that, do you suppose ?
Your: "Re prop rotation. In the late 1930's the Society of British Aircraft Constructors established standardization guidelines, including the direction of prop rotation, which was clockwise when viewed from the front".
..."from the front" (so anticlock from the cockpit ?) Surely not - everything I flew, British or US, tried to swing left on takeoff, except the Griffon Spit !
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FED (#10804),
..."Americans attached the propeller to the drive end of the engine where in a car the clutch would be. This meant that the engine flew backwards with the propeller turning the other way" ...
Not sure I'm with quite with you there. Only the Stearman and the TM I flew had the prop splined onto the shaft. Everything else had reduction gearing of some sort.
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MPN11 (#10805),
Nice to hear that your "Air Commodore Byplane-Ffixpitch" and his ilk treated you with such courtesy (as one of the "newbies"); in 1955 most of our CFIs and ATCs would be wearing a row of ribbons, and many "gongs" as well. I've said somewhere that "there wasn't a Control Tower in the land that couldn't field at least one full bomber crew (and sometimes two) at a pinch". These would naturally have far more in common with the old boys than the young gentlemen hot out of Cranwell.
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LowNSlow (and plenty of top rudder on the corners ?) - (#10806),
Thanks for the link - will look it up when I have a spare moment.
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Geriaviator (#10807),
..."their signatures are preserved on the ceiling of what was once the bar"...
(Sometimes footprints !) How did that happen, one asks oneself ?
..."and became a flying instructor until the end of the war"...
Probably on a Heavy Conversion Unit (many people thought that job far more frightening than their 'ops' over Germany).
...At the age of 18 he joined the RAAF with fighter pilot training at Victor Harbor, Parafield and Deniliquin. On posting to England he was retrained as a bomber pilot and posted to 460 Australian Sqn at Binbrook...
The fate of many who trained overseas, when they returned to UK. The Fighter Sqns were not losing many, and required few replacements. In Bomber Command, it was vastly different. Probably have been my "lot" had I not been shipped to India after Fighter OCU.
Do you think there is any chance of luring Howard on here - he'd be as wecome as the Flowers in Spring (or at least tell him about us) ? He's only a sprog at 92 when all's said and done. Plenty of mileage in him yet.
Cheers, Gentlemen, one and all,
Danny.