WWII Aviation Book
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WWII Aviation Book
Having a clear-out and among some books I’m going to sell on eBay is a copy of “Britain’s Wonderful Air Force” that I received as present around 1943-44 (I was a schoolboy at the time). It has some quite fascinating articles c/w sketches and photos of aircraft in use back then.
So before getting rid of it I thought members would like to see some of the relevant pages.
So before getting rid of it I thought members would like to see some of the relevant pages.
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Just over the road from Bicester airfield
Age: 80
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I too have one of those, also clearing the bookshelvesmyself, mostly because Memsahib doesn't want the worry of what to do with it all when I have shuffled off (not yet I hope but -) among others are the complete set of "Aircraft of the Fighting Powers", a treasure but just have to move things on, todays youngsters just don't seem to appreciate the value in them, such is life.
Zetec2. I know what exactly what you are going through but I'm not quite ready to pull the plug on my old books yet despite my age of 88.
One book is called Air Training Manual.
A practical guide to Aero-Engines, Aircraft Construction, Wireless and Electricity and Air Navigation for Members of the A.T.C and all interested in modern aeronautics.
There is no publishing date but it says Odhams Press Limited - Long Acre, London W.C. 2.
I bought it in 1951 in Sydney, Australia prior to joining the RAAF as a Trainee Pilot. One of the reasons I bought it was for Section 2 "Refresher Course on Mathematics." I was shocking at Maths at school at Judd School at Tonbridge, Kent during the war. I put this down to a sadistic Maths master who enjoyed belting us kids hard across the face in front of the class during mental arithmetic. The same bastard taught us Latin and I grew up with a terror of Maths and Latin.
I noticed I had scrawled on the front page of the book some of my exam marks gained during initial pilot training in October 1951. They serve as a reminder of how close I came to being scrubbed off course because of bad marks in the maths examination where I only scored of 37 out of 100.
Fortune smiled upon me because the kind-hearted middle aged RAAF education officer Flt Lt Fogarty, somehow surreptitiously changed the numbers to 51% out of 100 marks and that enabled me to enjoy 18 more years as a RAAF pilot.
In later years I ran into now Wing Commander Fogarty and asked how on earth had I received the magic pass of 51% all those years ago when I knew I had actually failed the maths exam miserably and that had been my last throw of the dice?
He said he had checked my Flight Grading results (six hours of dual on Tiger Moths then an assessment with the CFI) and saw they were very good. He added that he knew that good Maths results did not necessarily make a good pilot. So he quietly went ahead and fudged the figures of my Maths results to make it a Pass by one percent. .I shall forever be grateful to RAAF Flt Lt Joe Fogarty No. 013695.
One book is called Air Training Manual.
A practical guide to Aero-Engines, Aircraft Construction, Wireless and Electricity and Air Navigation for Members of the A.T.C and all interested in modern aeronautics.
There is no publishing date but it says Odhams Press Limited - Long Acre, London W.C. 2.
I bought it in 1951 in Sydney, Australia prior to joining the RAAF as a Trainee Pilot. One of the reasons I bought it was for Section 2 "Refresher Course on Mathematics." I was shocking at Maths at school at Judd School at Tonbridge, Kent during the war. I put this down to a sadistic Maths master who enjoyed belting us kids hard across the face in front of the class during mental arithmetic. The same bastard taught us Latin and I grew up with a terror of Maths and Latin.
I noticed I had scrawled on the front page of the book some of my exam marks gained during initial pilot training in October 1951. They serve as a reminder of how close I came to being scrubbed off course because of bad marks in the maths examination where I only scored of 37 out of 100.
Fortune smiled upon me because the kind-hearted middle aged RAAF education officer Flt Lt Fogarty, somehow surreptitiously changed the numbers to 51% out of 100 marks and that enabled me to enjoy 18 more years as a RAAF pilot.
In later years I ran into now Wing Commander Fogarty and asked how on earth had I received the magic pass of 51% all those years ago when I knew I had actually failed the maths exam miserably and that had been my last throw of the dice?
He said he had checked my Flight Grading results (six hours of dual on Tiger Moths then an assessment with the CFI) and saw they were very good. He added that he knew that good Maths results did not necessarily make a good pilot. So he quietly went ahead and fudged the figures of my Maths results to make it a Pass by one percent. .I shall forever be grateful to RAAF Flt Lt Joe Fogarty No. 013695.
Last edited by Centaurus; 22nd Feb 2020 at 05:32.
A lovely story. I too have to thin out my books. Very difficult when I still buy about one a week. Latest purchase off e-bay was 'Flight of The Halifax' The biography of Geoff Wikner. Published in Australia in 1993. Couldn't put it down - very entertaining!
