All Weather and Night ratings 1950's

[DODGYOLDFART]

Got into a slight argument with another "Oldfart" over the extra amount of flying pay awarded for these flying ratings. I seem to think in 1958 the rate was an additional 28 shilling per day (£1.40 in modern money) for both.

Am I right or do owe my pal a pint?

Please forgive the intrusion but we are both now well into our ninth decade.

[Addlepate]

I can't comment on the pay scale, but it might have been worth more than you think - 28 shillings then is worth £33.44 now in purchasing power, or £77.56 relative to average earnings ...

[MPN11]

… and don’t forget the free watch! 😀

We did manage to get a couple of pirs of sunglasses for the Local Controller at Tengah, but they were on the Tower Inventory of course. 😎

[Bill Macgillivray]

DOF, I don't remember this extra pay (although I did have an IR - White, then !). I do remember that my monthly pay was about £17-12s (Including flying pay!) Seemed pretty good then! as a young batchelor!

[Lancman]

When the Shackleton squadrons were forming in the early 1950s the individual aircraft were allocated to individual crews and not to Engineering Wing as they were later. One rather vainglorious captain had this label painted below the cockpit window of “his” Shack.

Flt. Lt. XXXXXXX,
“A” Flight Commander.
No. 269 Squadron.

To which somebody added

White Card.

The ratings went White, Green and Master Green.

[Cornish Jack]

In 1953, 28 shillings was the weekly pay rate for aircrew cadets, increasing to 42 shillings when flying commenced. Military financial calculations seem to have little to do with reason, so 28 shillings may well have been a 'standard' amount for all sorts of functions and achievements !

[DODGYOLDFART]

In 1953, 28 shillings was the weekly pay rate for aircrew cadets, increasing to 42 shillings when flying commenced. Military financial calculations seem to have little to do with reason, so 28 shillings may well have been a 'standard' amount for all sorts of functions and achievements !
I am fairly certain that 28 shillings was the standard weekly starting rate of pay for National Service tradesmen.
Incidentally the argument that gave rise to this thread was: Was there a further increase if one was awarded a Master Green?

[binbrook]

4 shillings a day was certainly the rate for a NS AC2 in 1953. After a 3s 0d deduction for NI that left 25/-, and to make the Paying Officer's job easier you were given £1 one week and £1.10.0 the next. I think the regulars were getting 7s 0d per day at the time. As a P/O I cleared about £32 a month before the big pay rise in April 1956.

AFAIR pilots and navs got the same Flying Pay and I don't recall a variation which depended on Instrument Rating. A copy of the contemporary QRs should have the answer.

[Dunhovrin]

When the Shackleton squadrons were forming in the early 1950s the individual aircraft were allocated to individual crews and not to Engineering Wing as they were later. One rather vainglorious captain had this label painted below the cockpit window of “his” Shack.

Flt. Lt. XXXXXXX,
“A” Flight Commander.
No. 269 Squadron.

To which somebody added

White Card.

The ratings went White, Green and Master Green.

The 8 Sqn QFI at the end of the Shack (RR) told us how waving his Master Green card stopped his crew getting arrested in Changi in 66. Worth the effort for that alone!

[pr00ne]

The 8 Sqn QFI at the end of the Shack (RR) told us how waving his Master Green card stopped his crew getting arrested in Changi in 66. Worth the effort for that alone!

8 Squadron were a Hunter FGA9 squadron in Aden in 1966.
By the time they reformed on Shackletons Changi had closed.

[oxenos]

8 Squadron were a Hunter FGA9 squadron in Aden in 1966.
By the time they reformed on Shackletons Changi had closed.
But he could have been Master Green in Changi pre 66

[oxenos]

The ratings went White, Green and Master Green.
A White meant you had to add a bit onto your decision height.
A Green and a Master Green both had the same decision Heights, and to gain Green or M.Green you had to fly within the same limits on the Instrument Rating Test.
An old I.R.E. was (allegedly ) asked how he decided which to award to someone who flew the test within limits. The reply was " I tell him to raise an arm. If there is a sweat patch, he gets a Green. If he did it without raising a sweat, he's a Master."