Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II
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You certainly would have done. His lifelong passion was X boats and in particular X25 Morven, which he sailed competitively for the last time just after his 90th birthday in 2010. Many thanks for your thoughts Wander00
Sandisondaughter and Justin (sorry to have misread your ID, Sir!), I wonder if we can trouble you to locate the respective logbooks in question, if at all possible? Whether the pilot in question survived the war or fell victim to it, nonetheless his logbook was maintained from the very first flight until the last, and should have survived no matter its owners fate. Far more reliable than the idiosyncratic nature of a diary, it was by contrast an official requirement to maintain, and outlines the path to operational flying from the very first steps into the military world. With the right interpretation it is a biography of the aircrew member in question. That right interpretation can happen here. All that is needed is the raw data, duly certified each month by a superior officer. Those units, those locations, those aircraft, can trigger many facts and figures. They are in short the description of how Allied Airpower was mobilised to safeguard the world against the greatest tyranny ever faced. The young men who trained to do that, and thereafter faced some of the most dangerous challenges of any Allied servicemen, are rightly revered in this thread that is dedicated to their achievement and to their memory.
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FED (#9617),
A step up from the ataps (I believe that is the right term for the equivalent of our bashas ?)
War is hell !
Danny.
...To this end we were banished to the Membedai, which was the Shell Brunei oil company’s leave and recreation centre down by a small beach. Fully air conditioned in brick built accommodation at two to room with a palatial terraced bar and lounge...
War is hell !
Danny.
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Sandisondaughter and Justin (sorry to have misread your ID, Sir!), I wonder if we can trouble you to locate the respective logbooks in question, if at all possible? Whether the pilot in question survived the war or fell victim to it, nonetheless his logbook was maintained from the very first flight until the last, and should have survived no matter its owners fate. Far more reliable than the idiosyncratic nature of a diary, it was by contrast an official requirement to maintain, and outlines the path to operational flying from the very first steps into the military world. With the right interpretation it is a biography of the aircrew member in question. That right interpretation can happen here. All that is needed is the raw data, duly certified each month by a superior officer. Those units, those locations, those aircraft, can trigger many facts and figures. They are in short the description of how Allied Airpower was mobilised to safeguard the world against the greatest tyranny ever faced. The young men who trained to do that, and thereafter faced some of the most dangerous challenges of any Allied servicemen, are rightly revered in this thread that is dedicated to their achievement and to their memory.
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Justin and ian16th (#9622),
Wants to take the wire out of his hat (and kick it around for a bit) to really look the part. And get the Sweetheart of Sigma Phi to sew his braid onto a proper cuff - it'll be round his neck soon !
Seriously, what a lovely picture ! (even I was young once).
Eheu ! fugaces....
Danny.
EDIT:
The cover of a set of sheet music from 1924
Wants to take the wire out of his hat (and kick it around for a bit) to really look the part. And get the Sweetheart of Sigma Phi to sew his braid onto a proper cuff - it'll be round his neck soon !
Seriously, what a lovely picture ! (even I was young once).
Eheu ! fugaces....
Danny.
EDIT:
The cover of a set of sheet music from 1924
Last edited by Danny42C; 29th Oct 2016 at 15:14. Reason: Small Latin and less Greek ! Chi, of course,
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Chugalug (#9624)
I believe that, if you exclude smaller groups (eg Commandos), it was second in the mortality stakes, pipped at the post only by U-boat crew.
Danny.
...The young men who trained to do that, and thereafter faced some of the most dangerous challenges of any Allied servicemen...
Danny.
Sandisondaughter:-
Thank you for your response, and of course all completely understood. Your contributions, when you are quite ready, will be greatly appreciated. We await with much anticipation. 
I hope to add more information to the forum eventually but not ready to do so yet.
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Labuan Island was on the Western end of North Borneo, which was our operating area. We had two forward bases; Sepulot and Tawau. There were rotations to Sepulot that lasted about three weeks, which was long enough to live primarily on Compo. Tawau was longer, as being a fixed base shared with the RMAF it was a lot more comfortable. The majority of operations were near the border to Brunei then eastwards to Tawau. The following map was printed in 1969 and shows all the airstrips that were available. There had been an intensive reconditioning of these airstrips in case the Indonesians had started to advance into Borneo. It never happened so the locals got airstrips, sometimes capable of accepting Beverleys, for nothing.
Our maps were slightly different. There were no accurate maps available so they had to be produced. The basic information used on ours were rivers. These had been ascertained by PR coverage using Canberras, The Royal Engineers had a map making department and they would shin up hills and using trigonometry, establish the heights and positions of a prime mountainous features. The result was a map with spot heights, rivers and noticeable habitation. Rivers run along valleys so there are hills either side. The further the rivers are apart the bigger the hill, if they meander around a bit then it is a plain…….Simples.
The first week or so was doing the usual theatre conversion where you find out that a Whirlwind at +35C isn’t quite as agile as one in the UK at +5C. Then is there the vertical climb Air Test.
The Whirlwind 10 was powered by the Gnome gas turbine which was immensely more powerful than the piston engine that it had replaced. The engine was derated somewhat but there was not a torquemeter to actual tell you how much power was being delivered and too much would shred the inside of the gearbox. To this end one used the large fuel flowmeter guage. In normal flight this indicated around 400lbs/hr. but the max permissible was about 520/530 which was indicated by a moveable red line. Periodically a full power climb would be done to establish the fuel flow that provided the maximum power that the gearbox could cope with and the measure of satisfactory power was that it had to climb vertically, at MAUW, two hundred feet in one minute. This was because if you were in a clearing in the jungle you could have 160/190ft. trees in front of you and you needed to get above them for the clear air above.
The aircraft would be fuelled and ballasted up to MAUW and one would carry out a full power climb using the existing red line. Should the aircraft fall short than the line would be moved around the gauge and it would be tried again until it passed the test. Sometimes the aircraft would outperform the clock but that was put down to parallax error.
All those preliminaries having been done it was then time to be shown the ropes.
To be continued................
Our maps were slightly different. There were no accurate maps available so they had to be produced. The basic information used on ours were rivers. These had been ascertained by PR coverage using Canberras, The Royal Engineers had a map making department and they would shin up hills and using trigonometry, establish the heights and positions of a prime mountainous features. The result was a map with spot heights, rivers and noticeable habitation. Rivers run along valleys so there are hills either side. The further the rivers are apart the bigger the hill, if they meander around a bit then it is a plain…….Simples.
The first week or so was doing the usual theatre conversion where you find out that a Whirlwind at +35C isn’t quite as agile as one in the UK at +5C. Then is there the vertical climb Air Test.
The Whirlwind 10 was powered by the Gnome gas turbine which was immensely more powerful than the piston engine that it had replaced. The engine was derated somewhat but there was not a torquemeter to actual tell you how much power was being delivered and too much would shred the inside of the gearbox. To this end one used the large fuel flowmeter guage. In normal flight this indicated around 400lbs/hr. but the max permissible was about 520/530 which was indicated by a moveable red line. Periodically a full power climb would be done to establish the fuel flow that provided the maximum power that the gearbox could cope with and the measure of satisfactory power was that it had to climb vertically, at MAUW, two hundred feet in one minute. This was because if you were in a clearing in the jungle you could have 160/190ft. trees in front of you and you needed to get above them for the clear air above.
The aircraft would be fuelled and ballasted up to MAUW and one would carry out a full power climb using the existing red line. Should the aircraft fall short than the line would be moved around the gauge and it would be tried again until it passed the test. Sometimes the aircraft would outperform the clock but that was put down to parallax error.
All those preliminaries having been done it was then time to be shown the ropes.
To be continued................
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 29th Oct 2016 at 19:07.
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Hello all.
Continuing from a thread I started in AHN at the suggestion of AA. Edited to say that the thread was "Far East Mosquito", concerning my great uncle who was a navigator on 110 (H) Squadron. It is his flight commander S/Ldr Ira Sutherland DFC RNZAF we are talking about here.
Good morning Danny.
Yes, there is no doubt that it was the same chap. There is a bit about it on aviation-safety.net
ASN Aircraft accident 28-JUN-1945 de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB Mk VI RF582
I have seen elsewhere copies of two letters he wrote to families of men killed under his command - they were written at length and full of detail about the men's life on the squadron (8 IAF IIRC) as well as the circumstances of their deaths, so he obviously had a caring side even if it was well hidden at times.
W/Cdr Saunders also died in an accident - disappeared without trace along with his navigator and others in a transport aircraft returning from India to Yelahanka.
One thing you might know - there are a couple of flimsy typed documents pasted into the log which appear to be intelligence reports on results of their operation. One of them is headlined "Strawberries." Any idea what that means?
O-D - thanks I will look for the book.
AA - I would be happy for this to be in pilots brevet if that is better.
Jerry.
Continuing from a thread I started in AHN at the suggestion of AA. Edited to say that the thread was "Far East Mosquito", concerning my great uncle who was a navigator on 110 (H) Squadron. It is his flight commander S/Ldr Ira Sutherland DFC RNZAF we are talking about here.
Good morning Danny.
Yes, there is no doubt that it was the same chap. There is a bit about it on aviation-safety.net
ASN Aircraft accident 28-JUN-1945 de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito FB Mk VI RF582
I have seen elsewhere copies of two letters he wrote to families of men killed under his command - they were written at length and full of detail about the men's life on the squadron (8 IAF IIRC) as well as the circumstances of their deaths, so he obviously had a caring side even if it was well hidden at times.
W/Cdr Saunders also died in an accident - disappeared without trace along with his navigator and others in a transport aircraft returning from India to Yelahanka.
One thing you might know - there are a couple of flimsy typed documents pasted into the log which appear to be intelligence reports on results of their operation. One of them is headlined "Strawberries." Any idea what that means?
O-D - thanks I will look for the book.
AA - I would be happy for this to be in pilots brevet if that is better.
Jerry.
jerryH99,
I think you have just found the spiritual home for your posts. If you can read this whole thread from post number one and you will agree.
I am certain I speak for all when I say we look forward to more of your story.
I think you have just found the spiritual home for your posts. If you can read this whole thread from post number one and you will agree.
I am certain I speak for all when I say we look forward to more of your story.
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Sad Story.
jerryh99 (#9635) and aa62 (#9636),
Jerry, thanks for the link - so that was the end of Boss Sutherland:
Damned thing should've been grounded (as they all were at first). We understood that the problem had been solved by de Havilland (at the production stage) around October '44 (so my services as a Vengeance Instructor were no longer required), all with unmodified glue withrawn, and only new ones issued to the Squadrons in '45.
If it's not fit to fly on 'ops', it's u/s and not fit to fly at all ! Who took this decision ? (should have faced Court Martial for it, IMHO).
Two months later and it was all over...... To die in this way after getting a DFC on bomber ops in UK (as I surmise)........It's a bit hard.
I second aa62. This is the place to Post all your material.
Considering only Threads with 1,000 Posts plus (to allow the Law of Large Numbers to take effect), and ignoring "Stickies", the ratio of 'hits' : Posts is a good indicator of the popularity of a Thread. On "Military Aviation", therefore, some revealing recent figures:
Title....................................................... ...........................Posts..Hits
"Caption Competition" (a runaway winner, you might suppose ?)....38750 140
"F-35 cancelled - then what ?"................................................. 9864 167
"Global Aviation Magazine - 60 years of the Hercules".....................4509 183
"Future Carrier (Including Costs)"...............................................3867 187
"Here it comes: Syria"...................................................... .......1839 107
"Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II"....................................9636 238
though must admit that it is outclassed by:
"Hawker Hunter Loss at Shoreham Airshow "................................1638 467
(but then, don't we all love a good accident - and hasten to weigh-in with our ad hoc explanations !)
So, Jerry, you get maximum publicity here. Welcome aboard !
Danny42C
STOP PRESS: To All:
Join me and raise a glass to MPN11, (whose natal day is nigh, I believe)..... Ad Multos Annos !
D.
Jerry, thanks for the link - so that was the end of Boss Sutherland:
...Broke up in air nr Pauktaw 28.6.1945 on farewell flight by Sutherland to see friends before repatriation to England. This aircraft was designated as not to be used on operations due to aircraft skin delaminating/glue issues...
...This aircraft was designated as not to be used on operations due to aircraft skin delaminating/glue issues...
Two months later and it was all over...... To die in this way after getting a DFC on bomber ops in UK (as I surmise)........It's a bit hard.
I second aa62. This is the place to Post all your material.
Considering only Threads with 1,000 Posts plus (to allow the Law of Large Numbers to take effect), and ignoring "Stickies", the ratio of 'hits' : Posts is a good indicator of the popularity of a Thread. On "Military Aviation", therefore, some revealing recent figures:
Title....................................................... ...........................Posts..Hits
"Caption Competition" (a runaway winner, you might suppose ?)....38750 140
"F-35 cancelled - then what ?"................................................. 9864 167
"Global Aviation Magazine - 60 years of the Hercules".....................4509 183
"Future Carrier (Including Costs)"...............................................3867 187
"Here it comes: Syria"...................................................... .......1839 107
"Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II"....................................9636 238
though must admit that it is outclassed by:
"Hawker Hunter Loss at Shoreham Airshow "................................1638 467
(but then, don't we all love a good accident - and hasten to weigh-in with our ad hoc explanations !)
So, Jerry, you get maximum publicity here. Welcome aboard !
Danny42C
STOP PRESS: To All:
Join me and raise a glass to MPN11, (whose natal day is nigh, I believe)..... Ad Multos Annos !
D.
Last edited by Danny42C; 30th Oct 2016 at 14:05. Reason: Correct Spacingm
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Oh, bless you, Danny42C ... yes, indeed, the sands of time click up another birthday tomorrow. "The span of man is three-score years and ten", so I've had a small bonus. However, my filthy smoking and drinking habits will inevitably prevent me achieving your score.
Still, it's been a good 2016 ... Hawaii, Jamaica, Arizona, Alaska, Virginia ... and South Africa to come in a few weeks. They say 'travel is good for the soul'. So it might be, but it gets more tiring every time we do it. A 30-hour run home from Honolulu is quite knackering, even in 'Premium' cabins.
Still, it's been a good 2016 ... Hawaii, Jamaica, Arizona, Alaska, Virginia ... and South Africa to come in a few weeks. They say 'travel is good for the soul'. So it might be, but it gets more tiring every time we do it. A 30-hour run home from Honolulu is quite knackering, even in 'Premium' cabins.
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MPN11 Have a good day tomorrow!
Danny, my apologies for the break in the John Dunbar/Burma story. Normal service should be resumed within the next few days.
In the meantime, do you recall being issued with 'Ghouli chits'. Attached are photos of three pages from a seven page set.
Danny, my apologies for the break in the John Dunbar/Burma story. Normal service should be resumed within the next few days.
In the meantime, do you recall being issued with 'Ghouli chits'. Attached are photos of three pages from a seven page set.
Last edited by Box Brownie; 30th Oct 2016 at 22:20. Reason: letter deleted
jerryh99
Possibly a laudatory term the opposite of "Raspberry"?
Some dicussion here: Super Strawberry
One thing you might know - there are a couple of flimsy typed documents pasted into the log which appear to be intelligence reports on results of their operation. One of them is headlined "Strawberries." Any idea what that means?
Some dicussion here: Super Strawberry
Last edited by Warmtoast; 31st Oct 2016 at 00:08.
