OFSO
9th Jun 2009, 19:51
Just received this from a former RAF Armourer colleague - one thinks of an earlier and simpler age (I didn't say better, that's up to you, the reader...)
"Talking of pitot tubes reminds me - (kindly swing the lamps gently, thank you) I was aboard HMS Chaser, an escort carrier in 1944, en route to Kola Bay, and one of our Martlet/Wildcat aircraft came in just a few feet too far to port (that was all it needed), and his pitot tube, on the extreme end of the port wing, just clipped the wooden wind protection board behind (I should say abaft, shouldn't I?) which the 'batsman' stood.
I think I was the only person who noticed it, (Bats certainly didn't, he had ducked!) and when I took a closer look, the orifice in the pitot tube had been neatly plugged with wood - hardly noticeable, but would have been a considerable inconvenience next time the aircraft became airborne. My good deed for that day!"
"Talking of pitot tubes reminds me - (kindly swing the lamps gently, thank you) I was aboard HMS Chaser, an escort carrier in 1944, en route to Kola Bay, and one of our Martlet/Wildcat aircraft came in just a few feet too far to port (that was all it needed), and his pitot tube, on the extreme end of the port wing, just clipped the wooden wind protection board behind (I should say abaft, shouldn't I?) which the 'batsman' stood.
I think I was the only person who noticed it, (Bats certainly didn't, he had ducked!) and when I took a closer look, the orifice in the pitot tube had been neatly plugged with wood - hardly noticeable, but would have been a considerable inconvenience next time the aircraft became airborne. My good deed for that day!"