Thought this site might be of interest
 

http://www.petermcleland.com/logbook_001.htm

Ex RAF chap outlines his career in the 50's RAF.

Check out the commendation letter. AOC 81(F) Group !!

Them were days.

Amazing to see how things were done in those days, there are a few "look how horrible the RAF are being to me" posts buried on here where people might benefit from a look at how "good" the good old days were. 12 Ship transit from Wunsdorf to Rhodesia with a Chipmunk instrument panel and a very big map must have been interesting.

A very real personal account that brings history to life. Thank you for sharing it sir. !!

A fascinating and well illustrated site.

Coincidentally I just by chance happen to have in my collection a series of press cuttings and photos about the Rhodes Centenery Air Rally in Salisbury, Rhodesia in June 1953. This includes a piece about the visit of 266 Sqn to Salisbury and mentions by name P/O P. R. E. McLennan as being a member of the 266 Sqn aerobatic team that "gave a superlative display".

What a small world after 50+ years.

266 Sqn itinerary for visit to Rhodesia 1953 from my records:

Second Tactical Air Force Flight Itinerary for Visit to Southern Rhodesia - 1953
31st May Wunsdorf - Istres (refuel), Istres - Luqa (night stop)
1st June Luqa - El Adem (refuel), El Adem - Fayid (night stop)
2nd June Fayid - Wadi Halfa (refuel), Wadi Halfa - Khartoum (night stop)
3rd June Khartoum - Juba (refuel), Juba - Entebee (night stop)
4th June Entebbe - Tabora- (refuel), Tabora – N’dola (night stop)
5th June N’dola - New Salisbury.
Note
(a) The above timing is dependent upon weather conditions and satisfactory refuelling facilities being available en route.
(b) The return journey over the same route will commence on approximately 17th/l8th June, 1953, arriving at Wunsdorf on 22nd/23rd June, 1953

Thanks very much for your kind remarks chaps...I really must do some work on my site to get the other stuff in there (more Venoms and Hunters in Kenya, Rhodesia and various spots in Arabia) :)

regards,

Peter McLeland.

Great site Peter - I will be checking regularly for updates!

It's made me wish I had taken more photos to accompany my log book.

It is a great site... sadly these days it is very much discouraged to put photos in the log book and I don't know why. Mine though is full of them and I will continue to put them in. I was once told that it is because it belongs to the RAF... would they really take your log book off you though? I doubt it.

Tonks :cool:

Just had a look at the site, Peter and I must say I'm looking forward to seeing more.

I've only ever put a couple of photos in my logbooks, but Mount Pleasant Airport from 2000' doesn't stand out well.

Without wishing to hurry you Peter, please hurry up and add some more stuff to your site! :)

Truly wonderful time machine.

If you'll forgive me the quiet way you remark on friends lost is remarkable.

I had the honor of reading my old Ops Officer's logbook some 20 years ago now. It was full of exotic names and strange aircraft. I would imagine some of the aircrew logbooks of today are starting to look a little like that.

Do you think a dedicated website of logbook entries would be possible ? Would anyone be interested in reading them? Are they in anyway classified ? I don't mean the modern stuff, I am assuming they are classified.

I had my first four logbooks leather bound into one volume and it is rather a thick tome to carry around. After my 12 years as a fighter pilot I moved into civil aviation and it lived in my briefcase. My case got much lighter when I had filled up that tome and only had to carry the single thin new one. On the website the thick tome moves in from the right on the welcome page but the years have rubbed and faded the gold print on the cover and I can hardly read it here in front of me. I have two of the thin ones now and refer to them all quite often.

Oh yes, the point I was going to make is that when I had the first four bound into one thick one, I had 25 heavy plain paper pages bound into the back, especially for photographs.

And yes...I'm determined to get back into adding material to my site...It is all sitting here waiting :)

My goodness Peter, this brings it all back! Marvellous. We must have glanced off each other at Sylt, I was a staff PAI '54 to '57 with the likes of Ken Goodwin, Lee Jones, Chunky I'Anson and all. Recognise several names and faces from those days. And I agree, the Venom looked better with tip tanks!

I remember the Venom fire problems, very sad. Apart from that, a very nice fun aeroplane I thought.

My turn in an aeros team came later, ex RAF, and in No.3 slot. Great fun.

Very much looking forward to future installments, all the best.

Tim

Peter, I have a vivid memory of watching one of you 2nd TAF Venom guys landing at Tangmere about 1953 or 54.

Four of them were staging through for customs, and the cloudbase suddenly dropped to low.
The number four, for some reason, overshot, and being rather short of fuel made a very tight circuit; so tight that he was still straightening up as he came past the caravan.

By the time the runway controller got a red Very off to tell him that his wheels were not down, it was too late.
As it skidded to a halt it was burning quite nicely, the hood wound back rapidly and the pilot hit the ground running.

He got about 20 yards away and stopped, turned round and ran back into the flames.
When he reappeared he had his SD hat, which he had rescued from the cockpit. :D

Must have been a Bates!

STH

Hi Tim...I did a Vampire T11 dual flight with Ken Goodwin on 26th September 1953...My second Sylt detachment of seven. This detachment was just after our return from "Operation Longtrek" to the Rhodes Centenary celebrations in Rhodesia. :)

A very interesting insight into the days when the UK could afford a proper Air Force!

Avidly looking forward to more fascinating glimpses of history on your superb website, Pete!

In particular, more of Rhodesia - hurrah!

(Can't think why I said that .....................)

Thats an interesting, gentle, well paced and thoughtful read. Nice one Peter.

Nice collection Tony. I notice that all of your pictures are pin sharp, except the two of Miss Bardot at Abingdon, camera shake?:)

Tony,

Here is a post I made somewhere else...I wonder if you know any of these chaps:-

A Rhodesian friend has just visited for a few days...I hadn't seen him for half a century, when we served together on 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron at Wunstorf and Fassberg in 2nd A.T.A.F. Germany in the 1950s. Naturally there was a lot of reminiscent chat and viewing of old photos...I spotted this rather nice photograph in his album and he let me scan it:-
http://www.petermcleland.com/misc/RhodesianSpitfire.jpg
These chaps were doing their flying training on Spitfires in the Royal Rhodesian Air Force and three of them later joined the R.A.F. and were posted to 266 in Germany...They were Roy Morris, Wally Hinrichs and "Dup" du Plessis...Dup was my visitor and he is labelled as "Self" in the photograph. I just thought it a splendid photograph and decided to share it here. :)

Tony,

Here is the actual route and timings from my logbook:-

1953

May 29th Wunstorf to Istres 578nms 1hr 25mins nightstop
May 30th Istres to Luqa 614nms 1hr 35mins nightstop
June 1st Luqa to El Adem 522nms 1hr 15mins
June 1st El Adem to Fayid 437nms 1hr 15mins nightstopx2
June 3rd Fayid to Wadi Halfa 508nms 1hr 20mins
June 3rd Wadi Halfa to Khartoum 381nms 1hr nightstop
June 4th Khartoum to Juba 640nms 1hr 30mins
June 4th Juba to Entebbe 290nms 55mins nightstop
June 5th Entebbe to Tabora 305nms 55mins
June 5th Tabora to Lusaka 668nms 1hr 50mins nightstopx3 including an Air Demonstration Lusaka on 6th June
June 8th Lusaka to New Salisbury 210nms 1hr 5mins

Seven Formation Aerobatics displays were flown in connection with the Rhodes Centenary Air Rally and we left on 17th June to return to Wunstorf by the same route, arriving back on 25th June...Twelve Venoms there and Twelve Venoms back.

The aircraft were Venom FB1s and had tip tanks only (pylon tanks were not yet ready). All Formation Aerobatics were in clean aircraft. I flew "S" WE330 all the way there and back and the fuel gauge read Zero for the entire time as they were unable to fix it :)