SLXOwft
6th May 2020, 10:38
I hope there are no objections to me posting this here.
I had the privilege of knowing Sir Brian, who died last this week, some years after his retirement. I knew he was a former Second Sea Lord and former Supply Branch Officer. I was surprised when in one of our conversations he turned to his experience of deck landing Sea Hawks.
As we never discussed the details of his career I have had to rely on Wikipedia for the following.
In the middle of the 1950s, due to a shortage of trained aircrew, the Royal Navy selected a small number of supply branch officers for aircrew training. Brian Brown was one of these (another Andrew Richmond also achieved flag rank). In addition to training units he flew Sea Hawks with 898 Naval Air Squadron and on 898’s disbandment, he volunteered for a switch to rotary which included flying Whirlwinds with 848 NAS.
He returned to the supply branch after four years with the FAA. His aviation connections continued as he had appointments as Secretary to FOCAS and Chief Staff Officer (P&A) to FONAC. Unusually, when Commander(S) onboard HMS Tiger he occasionally flew as second pilot in 826 NAS Sea Kings due to aircrew shortage. I think that may have caused some interesting CRM dynamics.
In my (limited) experience Brian Brown was a true gentleman with a wide range of interests and causes he supported. I knowingly incurred his displeasure only once; this involved my relating a story, in his hearing, in which I used the word crab. He, correctly, expected me to have a more purple outlook.
The training of aircrew for such a short period in frontline appointments was a solution of its time, I suspect it would give today’s bean counters apoplexy when considering the limited return on training costs. I understand that in the late 60s there were also a small number of pussers who were trained as rotary aircrew – anyone on here know more?
I will shortly return to goofers before I am chased out of the crew room.
I had the privilege of knowing Sir Brian, who died last this week, some years after his retirement. I knew he was a former Second Sea Lord and former Supply Branch Officer. I was surprised when in one of our conversations he turned to his experience of deck landing Sea Hawks.
As we never discussed the details of his career I have had to rely on Wikipedia for the following.
In the middle of the 1950s, due to a shortage of trained aircrew, the Royal Navy selected a small number of supply branch officers for aircrew training. Brian Brown was one of these (another Andrew Richmond also achieved flag rank). In addition to training units he flew Sea Hawks with 898 Naval Air Squadron and on 898’s disbandment, he volunteered for a switch to rotary which included flying Whirlwinds with 848 NAS.
He returned to the supply branch after four years with the FAA. His aviation connections continued as he had appointments as Secretary to FOCAS and Chief Staff Officer (P&A) to FONAC. Unusually, when Commander(S) onboard HMS Tiger he occasionally flew as second pilot in 826 NAS Sea Kings due to aircrew shortage. I think that may have caused some interesting CRM dynamics.
In my (limited) experience Brian Brown was a true gentleman with a wide range of interests and causes he supported. I knowingly incurred his displeasure only once; this involved my relating a story, in his hearing, in which I used the word crab. He, correctly, expected me to have a more purple outlook.
The training of aircrew for such a short period in frontline appointments was a solution of its time, I suspect it would give today’s bean counters apoplexy when considering the limited return on training costs. I understand that in the late 60s there were also a small number of pussers who were trained as rotary aircrew – anyone on here know more?
I will shortly return to goofers before I am chased out of the crew room.