Air Clues : 1968 - 1969
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Air Clues : 1968 - 1969
I just wondered if anyone might still have a copy of an edition that might help with the following (that's when Air Clues was published monthly) 
Over on the Herc Thread some pics have prompted a discussion around the support given by the RAF to an Expedition to Greenland in 1968 (Herc Thread Page 124 #2469 if you're interested). The Air Clues article is believed to feature the late S/L Mike Nash and the support given by a RAF C-130K.
It is believed that this article may relate to the British Trans-Arctic Expedition led by Sir Walter William "Wally" Herbert.
However this great achievement was somewhat overshadowed by the Apollo Moon Landings.
If you do have a copy of the article ... it would be great to include this under the RAF Herc Life Story Thread
Many thanks ...
Over on the Herc Thread some pics have prompted a discussion around the support given by the RAF to an Expedition to Greenland in 1968 (Herc Thread Page 124 #2469 if you're interested). The Air Clues article is believed to feature the late S/L Mike Nash and the support given by a RAF C-130K.
It is believed that this article may relate to the British Trans-Arctic Expedition led by Sir Walter William "Wally" Herbert.
From 1968 to 1969, Wally Herbert led the British Trans-Arctic Expedition, a 3,800-mile surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska to Spitsbergen, which some historians had billed as the ‘the last great journey on Earth.’ In July 1968, having crossed 1,900 km of rough drifting ice, Herbert and his team established a camp. Because they could not reach a position where the drift of the trans-Arctic ice-stream was in their favour, they were forced to stay for the winter, as they drifted around the pole. Only when sunlight returned the following year could they continue their journey, finally reaching the North Pole via the Pole of Inaccessibility on 6 April 1969.
If you do have a copy of the article ... it would be great to include this under the RAF Herc Life Story Thread
Many thanks ...
Just a little expansion of topic, if that's okay.
AIR CLUES was once edited by a man who went on to make his mark
as a great aviation biographer. From the website of the New Zealand Book Council -
Mackersey, Ian is a writer and documentary film-maker.
Born in Wellington in 1925, Mackersey began his career as a writer for The Dominion and later the New Zealand Herald. He learned to fly in Rotorua and in 1948 left for England to join the RAF. On arrival he chose instead to continue his career as a journalist, and worked as a feature writer for the Royal Air Force Review. Mackersey then spent a year working in Hong Kong as night news editor of the South China Morning Post. Returning to London, he became editor for six years of the RAF’s flying training journal, Air Clues, and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a part-time pilot.
In London in the 1950s Mackersey wrote his first four books - three non-fiction and one novel. The non-fiction titles were two aviation stories, Rescue Below Zero (Robert Hale, London and WW Norton, New York, 1954) and Into the Silk: True Stories of the Caterpillar Club (Robert Hale, London, 1956), and a sea story, Pacific Ordeal with Captain Kenneth Ainslie (Rupert Hart-Davis, London and WW Norton, New York, 1956). The novel was Crusader Fox King (Robert Hale, London and Henry Holt, New York, 1955).
In 1958 Mackersey went to live in Central Africa where, in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) he worked as a magazine editor and, later in Zambia, as the producer of a documentary film unit. In 1965 Mackersey returned to London as the head of the British Overseas Airways Corporation’s (later British Airways) film and television production. While at British Airways Mackersey wrote his first biography, Tom Rolt and the Cressy Years (M & M Baldwin, London, 1985).
In 1983, after a 35-year absence, Mackersey returned to New Zealand to make television documentaries as an independent director. His work on a programme about Jean Batten led to the commissioning of his second biography, Jean Batten: The Garbo of the Skies (Macdonald, London, 1991). Two more aviation biographies followed: Smithy: The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935) (Little, Brown, London, 1998) and The Wright Brothers: The Remarkable Story of the Aviation Pioneers who Changed the World (Little, Brown, London, 2003). His most recent is about the lives of young British pilots in the Royal Flying Corps, No Empty Chairs.
Mackersey’s biographies have all been well received. A critic at London’s Daily Mail writes about Jean Batten: The Garbo of the Skies, ‘Glued to this book for two whole days I find it impossible to over praise a story which reads like a superior detective novel while bringing a totally new depth of understanding to this extraordinary woman’. Another critic, writing about the Wright brothers’ biography in the Independent says, ‘Mackersey, an excellent writer as well as a keen flyer, handles his subject with the assurance of long familiarity, painlessly easing the tyro into basic aerodynamics and the history of early flight … reads like a particularly exciting novel’.
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Speaking today with Ian on the blower, he is obviously now rather frail. He implied that his writing days are over. His archive is slated to go to the National Library in Canberra.
AIR CLUES was once edited by a man who went on to make his mark
as a great aviation biographer. From the website of the New Zealand Book Council -
Mackersey, Ian is a writer and documentary film-maker.
Born in Wellington in 1925, Mackersey began his career as a writer for The Dominion and later the New Zealand Herald. He learned to fly in Rotorua and in 1948 left for England to join the RAF. On arrival he chose instead to continue his career as a journalist, and worked as a feature writer for the Royal Air Force Review. Mackersey then spent a year working in Hong Kong as night news editor of the South China Morning Post. Returning to London, he became editor for six years of the RAF’s flying training journal, Air Clues, and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve as a part-time pilot.
In London in the 1950s Mackersey wrote his first four books - three non-fiction and one novel. The non-fiction titles were two aviation stories, Rescue Below Zero (Robert Hale, London and WW Norton, New York, 1954) and Into the Silk: True Stories of the Caterpillar Club (Robert Hale, London, 1956), and a sea story, Pacific Ordeal with Captain Kenneth Ainslie (Rupert Hart-Davis, London and WW Norton, New York, 1956). The novel was Crusader Fox King (Robert Hale, London and Henry Holt, New York, 1955).
In 1958 Mackersey went to live in Central Africa where, in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) he worked as a magazine editor and, later in Zambia, as the producer of a documentary film unit. In 1965 Mackersey returned to London as the head of the British Overseas Airways Corporation’s (later British Airways) film and television production. While at British Airways Mackersey wrote his first biography, Tom Rolt and the Cressy Years (M & M Baldwin, London, 1985).
In 1983, after a 35-year absence, Mackersey returned to New Zealand to make television documentaries as an independent director. His work on a programme about Jean Batten led to the commissioning of his second biography, Jean Batten: The Garbo of the Skies (Macdonald, London, 1991). Two more aviation biographies followed: Smithy: The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935) (Little, Brown, London, 1998) and The Wright Brothers: The Remarkable Story of the Aviation Pioneers who Changed the World (Little, Brown, London, 2003). His most recent is about the lives of young British pilots in the Royal Flying Corps, No Empty Chairs.
Mackersey’s biographies have all been well received. A critic at London’s Daily Mail writes about Jean Batten: The Garbo of the Skies, ‘Glued to this book for two whole days I find it impossible to over praise a story which reads like a superior detective novel while bringing a totally new depth of understanding to this extraordinary woman’. Another critic, writing about the Wright brothers’ biography in the Independent says, ‘Mackersey, an excellent writer as well as a keen flyer, handles his subject with the assurance of long familiarity, painlessly easing the tyro into basic aerodynamics and the history of early flight … reads like a particularly exciting novel’.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking today with Ian on the blower, he is obviously now rather frail. He implied that his writing days are over. His archive is slated to go to the National Library in Canberra.
Coff
The RAF Club Library has a good collection of old Air Clues. I found a cracking article written in the 60s on landing 3x Vulcans on the grass airfield at RAF Halton!
LJ
The RAF Club Library has a good collection of old Air Clues. I found a cracking article written in the 60s on landing 3x Vulcans on the grass airfield at RAF Halton!
LJ
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The RAF Museum also has a set - contact [email protected]
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Coff
The Jan 1970 Air Clues has a 6 page article on the Apr-Sep 1969 Joint Services Expedition to North Peary Land on the tip of Greenland. The team left Lyneham in a Herc on 28 Apr and flew to Station Nord in NE Greenland via Thule AFB. It mentions that the Herc returned to Lyneham to load up with supplies which were dropped in two batches at Cape Morris Jessup and at the head of Frigs Fiord some 35 miles due south of the Cape. It states that the Herc for the supply drop was commanded by S/L Mike Nash and that the supplies landed well on target and almost completely undamaged. Another air drop was carried out later on at Cap Ole Chiewitz, the Herc made 6 dropping runs on Apollo Ice Field "throwing out harness packed supplies suspended from 33 colourful parachutes. The ever reliable and impressive low pass followed then the aircraft forged off to look for our surveying party". It mentions that this sortie was flown by Mike Nash who made a pass "so low as to almost jeopardise our radio aerial" The expedition members were picked up by Herc in early Sep from Bronlunds Fiord, where it says that "the sight of the big Hercules thundering down 5000 feet of hard packed mud will remain in the minds of all of us for a very long time."
If you send me a pm I will scan the pages to you if required.
The Jan 1970 Air Clues has a 6 page article on the Apr-Sep 1969 Joint Services Expedition to North Peary Land on the tip of Greenland. The team left Lyneham in a Herc on 28 Apr and flew to Station Nord in NE Greenland via Thule AFB. It mentions that the Herc returned to Lyneham to load up with supplies which were dropped in two batches at Cape Morris Jessup and at the head of Frigs Fiord some 35 miles due south of the Cape. It states that the Herc for the supply drop was commanded by S/L Mike Nash and that the supplies landed well on target and almost completely undamaged. Another air drop was carried out later on at Cap Ole Chiewitz, the Herc made 6 dropping runs on Apollo Ice Field "throwing out harness packed supplies suspended from 33 colourful parachutes. The ever reliable and impressive low pass followed then the aircraft forged off to look for our surveying party". It mentions that this sortie was flown by Mike Nash who made a pass "so low as to almost jeopardise our radio aerial" The expedition members were picked up by Herc in early Sep from Bronlunds Fiord, where it says that "the sight of the big Hercules thundering down 5000 feet of hard packed mud will remain in the minds of all of us for a very long time."
If you send me a pm I will scan the pages to you if required.
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Try contacting the safety boys at HQ DFT 22 Trg Gp as 5 years ago they had just about every copy of Air Clues published. Stacked in boxes in a store cupboard they may now have been passed on to Safety at the MAA. Good luck
