Winston Churchill the Pilot

[olympus]

I originally posted this in Jet Blast but on reflection thought that it may be more appropriate here.

In today's Telegraph accompanying S/L Neville Duke's obituary there is a photograph of Duke with Winston Churchill who is in full fig as a senior RAF officer (don't know what rank) with many rows of medal ribbons and the RAF pilots' brevet.

I know that as a young man he was commissioned into the Army and fought at Omdurman so I am assuming the RAF rank is honorary. But when and where did he earn his wings or are they honorary too?

[brickhistory]

Some info contained in this thread:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=268663

[Kitbag]

Damn, knew I'd seen it somewhere, don't you just hate it when someone else does that?

[Granpa]

Churchill got honorary rank of air commodore (one-star general) in 1939. He was given honorary pilot's wings later in WW2 although he learnt to fly pre-world war 1...

[Landroger]

I always understood that Mr. Churchill was taken for a flight in a Meteor NF and that when the pilot explained about the ejector seat, he said;

"If I say 'eject, eject, eject' and you say 'pardon?' Prime Minister, you will be talking to yourself."

My hat is calling.

Roger.

[Milo Minderbinder]

If you read his memoirs of WWII he often took the controls on long-range flights - for periods (and often to the dismay of the pilot...)
Can't be sure without checking, but I seem to remember him stating he piloted one of the PAN-AM Clippers on the way back from the USA, and also the special long-range Liberator called "Commando"

[Shack37]

On another occasion when flying in (I think) an Anson the pilot gave him control which he immediately lost. The pilot recovered and said "no problem sir, a fall between two stools" to which Churchill reportedly replied "more like a stall between two fools"