Not as good as Rikki Fulton.

FED,

Priceless !

Danny.

Chugalug

Just a quick reply, if I may.

We never, ever landed with our hook down ashore. If needed to prevent an overrun it could always be lowered during the landing run.

Where the confusion arises, I think, is that after landing we would pull the stick back to give maximum aerodynamic braking until we were down to 90 knots or so before lowering the nose. Occasionally, we would overcook it a bit and scrape the tailskid on the runway amid a fine shower of sparks. We were warned off the process when the Crabs complained we were digging holes in their runway.

Incidentally, we didn't use the same drills ashore and afloat. If we could wake him up, the looker would read out the appropriate drills. Simples!

Danny

They gave me a Seafire to beat up the fleet,
I beat up the Nelson and Rodney a treat,
Forgot the tall mast that sticks out from Formid,
And a seat in the goofers was worth fifty quid.

I thought I was coming in low enough, but
I was fifty feet up when the batsman gave 'cut'.
Loud in my earholes the sweet angels sang,
Float, float, float, float, float, float - barrier - PRANG.

Cracking show etc.

Schiller, thank you for the explanation of the runway grooves that so enraged the Changi SATCO. It does indeed make rather more sense than deliberately trying to engage non-existent arrester wires and grabbing for asphalt instead. Just as well you didn't emulate Danny's WWI and reverse your tail skids. Then he would have had real cause for complaint!

The most impressive aspect of the arrival of the FAA was a helicopter lift ashore of a number of 2cv pickups, which ensured instantly available wheels. To we crabs, obliged to apply via higher authority to the MTO for RAF transport only to be peremptorily refused, such largesse bound us in the bonds of envy and avarice.

The largesse stretched to their hangers as well. When 103 and 110 moved from Seletar to Changi we took over the Navy hangers on the eastern side of the airfield.
Massive modern hangers and palatial accommodation with a gallery overlooking the hanger floor. To top it all there was a separate recreation building set out like an open air café.

It has since been replaced by runways and terminal buildings.

Yes, Chugalug, the 2CV pick-ups were useful.

To get the maximum out of them you could sit them out like a racing dinghy, which gave much better performance going round corners. To add gaiety to the whole deal you could all suddenly bale out together leaving the guys in the front seat to execute a sudden and unexpected snap roll before ending up in the monsoon drain.

Gosh, we were witty.

Schiller,

If you Google "A25 Song", you get the lot (inc the music !)

Danny.

Google is very useful when following the posts here ... ;)

The A25 Song, together with just about every other imaginable mess ditty, is contained in The Fleet Air Arm Song Book. It is currently unavailable from that South American river company, but is allegedly still for sale at the FAA Museum. Worth a try?

It comes with a warning that it is for private circulation and is not for people who are offended by profane language. (Yes indeedy.)

It also comes with a collection of highly amusing cartoons by Tugg ... "She's gotta face like a mess deck scrubber - eyes like a Dogger Bank cod" ... priceless!

Here you go: http://www.maritimequest.com/warship...ons_page_1.htm

:)

God bless Tugg :)

Danny, wondering if you knew this gentleman.

Thomas Dobney added 4 years to his age and joined the RAF as a pilot in 1941 at the age of only 14.

After training in Canada, he was awarded his wings at 15 and was posted to a Whitley bomber squadron.

He flew over 20 operations before his true age was revealed when his estranged father saw him in a photograph talking to King GeorgeVI who had visited his station in East Anglia.

The astonished father contacted the Air Ministry to ask why his 15 year old son was dressed in a pilot's uniform and talking to the King. Thus his true age emerged.

He was immediately discharged with a letter saying "The reasons are soley that you are below the minimum age".

He rejoined in 1943, but suffered serious injuries in a crash following an engine failure on take off, and by the time he recovered the war had ended. He remained in the RAF, flew in the Berlin Airlift and became a pilot in the King's Flight.

He then joined the Metropolitan Police before returning to the RAF as an Air Traffic Controller, and subsequently became a deputy art editor with the Daily Express in Manchester.

Tom Dobney died of cancer in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire in April 2001.

sidevalve another Obituary.


30 JANUARY 2018 • 6:40AM
Gordon Mellor, who has died aged 98, was shot down over Belgium and managed to evade capture. With the help of the Comet Escape Line, he made his way to Spain and eventually reached England.

Gordon Mellor, bomber navigator who escaped down the Comet Line ? obituary

megan

the story about Thomas Dobney is remarkable. He was awarded his brevet at the age of 15 and flew bombers on operations!.

megan (#11793),

Nope, sorry. How did he get in (with big brother's birth certificate ?) This got me thinking, was I required to produce mine when I joined ? - don't think I was, in fact. Anybody else ? Could you do this now ?

This went on wholesale in WWI, I believe. The Army asked no questions ("If it's big enough, it's old enough"). I heard this first said by an old Flight Commander of mine, but in a different context.....

Danny.

Nobody looked at my birth certificate. If they had they would have found out I was a foreigner and wouldn't have let me in. I'd served 5 years before I was found out as being neither a British, Irish nor Commonwealth citizen and had to apply for British citizenship.

I was inducted without a Birth Certificate in 1952.
My parents lost all of the family documents in a house move and never bothered getting replacements.
It became a problem in 1959 when 214 went to Karachi and we had to have passports. My passport was issued before I had my Birth Certificate, but the passport was only valid for 6 months and was renewed when I produced a Birth Certificate.

Hugh Findlater ex RNZAF B-25 pilot
 

Just found this on another forum

https://forum.keypublishing.com/show...Hugh-Findlater

With links through to

WONZ 173 ? Hugh Findlater « The Wings Over New Zealand Show

Could well be of interest to followers of this thread

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

Thanks for the links PZU. What an interesting and varied career! Many different A/C types flown, from the Fieseler Storch to the B737. Interesting that he (and his crew?) attended two OTU's; No.34 at Pennfield Ridge, Nova Scotia, on Venturas, and No.13 at Finmere, near Bicester, on B25's. I wasn't aware before that British Commonwealth Air Training Plan crews attended OTUs in Canada, presumably then to potentially join operational squadrons directly.

Another remarkable man of a remarkable generation from a remarkable country. New Zealand, though a small country, proportionally made a greater contribution to WWII than any other Commonwealth country.

Chugalug,

Met many New Zealanders during the war. How come, that of all the "colonists" of the former Empire, they most closely resembled us Britons in speech, mannerisms (and uniform), to the extent that they were (and are) often mistaken for such ?

Whereas the (geographically) closer Aussies could never be mistaken for anything else on the planet (and sported their own RAAF dark blue uniforms to rub in the fact !)

Passing strange, methinks .............

Cheers, Danny.