Cranwell
 

Found this gem.....

THE SKY IS OURS - British Pathé

Enjoy!

Excellent, and even a regional accent, if somewhat refined
Thanks for posting that really enjoyed it.:ok:

Yes, thanks Molemot. Obviously a great many changes in the 4 years that separated this film from my time there, yet some of it familiar. Notice they didn't show the Flight Cadets Instructional Workshops. Still got the table lamp that I made there.
Chip Butties, biscuits in the South Brick Lines, and is there honey still for tea?

Interesting to note that Mr Cholmondley Warner was indeed real, learning about thermodynamics no less, @ 03:36.

Top haircuts, even if it does make them look like a bunch of paedophiles.

I trust the chap @ ~7:28 got the chop. Talking with food in his mouth, what an absolute bounder.

Yes, thank you for posting that. Interesting to see spinnerless Chipmunks and the Swifts, and the Anson et al. Very enjoyable viewing.

Great! Nice to see the old place when it was being used properly! No signs of anyone playing pongoes in cabbage kit, no 'mission statements', no hi-viz waistcoats....

Some interesting period shots of 56(F) in the troubled days of the Swift - and so may different aircraft types - Chipmunk, Anson, Balliol, Swift, Hunter, Meteor, Vampire - probably others too. All RAF owned and operated, no contractorised nonsense....

'D' wing had still to be built, I see. Not much had changed at the SBLs some 13 years later, but at least we didn't have to make up bed packs!

That low flying looked very low indeed. But wasn't 50 ft a.g.l. the limit in LFAs back then?

Excellent film . I lived at RAF Cranwell AMQ 1966/7 many happy hours spent gliding on the North airfield . The shot of all the parked Chipmunks is where the present Aircrew Selection building stands. The hangar used for the raft exercises was full of Chipmunks in 1967. The hangar near to the Italian restaurant(was the Post Office then) was the Glider flight and the Flying Club with Tiger Moths and Austers.

Beags, the limit is still 50ft in the LFS for RW, with 10ft for CADs (Concealed Approach and Departure) - speed commensurate with height of course...:E

The film is an astonishing flashback to an era when the RAF didn't buy in SQEP it trained them from first principles. A vocation rather than occupation indeed.

Marvellous film !

Sadly, of the Chipmunks I could positively identify WK556 (Scrapped by 27 MU) and WP868 (Spun In Bibury Oxon Oct 1958) didn't make it to the 21st Century :(

The Chipmunks had yet to get their anti-spin strakes. Never saw the type with a bare prop.

Rosevidney1 ... During the Summer of 1949 the Chipmunk experienced a number of issues with cracked spinners and backplates while the initial production batch was being constructed for the RAF. In fact spinner problems plagued the RAF Chipmunk until late 1950 when it was removed permanently (but retained the backplate) until a completely revised spinner was then fitted (which required a slight additional mod to the cowling).

Mod H231 in Aug 1958 saw the fitting of the spinning strakes.

Cheers ...

Coff.

I quite enjoyed that, my parents live just a few minutes from Cranwell in Ruskington.

When the young lad goes solo, he's above the clouds on his first trip. Surely not? Also seemed like he got to his first squadron, strapped in a jet and off he went. A bit of artistic license?

The narrator says it took nine men on the ground to support one pilot. What's the ratio these days?

On the uniforms, they had officer cap badges in their twa* hats on top of their bed blocks, but ORs' eagles on their shoulders. What's that all about?

As for cabbage kit, the Army didn't get camouflage until 1968, so it's not surprising they were in blue battledress in 1955. Still, I suppose they stuck out a bit in blue kit when they were digging trenches and all that fun stuff in the first few weeks.

Wonderful student mates, cadets and stunning grad power.

Self important staff.

Crappy institution.

Ostentatious Imperial architecture.

...and that bloody rotating light to welcome you back....

Mam said if you can't say anything nice, don't say it.

I think that's about it..

wets

The self-important staff bit holds true - some of the Flight Commanders were truly appalling and their conduct was atrocious too. I remember one individual being ejected from a Dining-In Night by the Gp Capt (DIOT) for drunkenness, only to re-appear next day as if nothing had happened. At RMAS, he would have had an interview without coffee with the Commandant the following morning and have been immediately posted to see out his military career in somewhere like the Outer Hebrides or the Falkland Islands (I've been to both and so feel able to comment... )

Ah well F-S, that's what can happen when an elite training institution goes comprehensive.
That is not to say that alcoholic outbursts weren't totally unknown in the DS in earlier years . Some of a certain vintage might remember a GD Squadron Leader interrupting a Wednesday morning parade with loud music emanating from the windows of his room in the College overlooking the Orange.
The quick dispatch upstairs of a Rock Flight Sergeant from King Rock on the square generated a brief interchange of opinions at the door to said officer's room, this in short order resulting in the miscreant being summarily knocked out cold. All was of course heard by those gathered below.
This prompt palliative action was memorably followed by the remark:
" Do carry on, gentlemen" as the windows were closed.

Anybody remember "High Flight" ?

One of our Flight Commanders on "A" ( Sov's at the time :) ) confessed to actually being in it. Closer interrogation uncovered that his was one of the pairs of Cadet boots filmed marching up and down in the scene of the initial phase of training.

"High Flight" - made a big impression on me as a young teenager and confirmed my wish to get a place at Cranwell. (Naive young man that I was, but I did enjoy my 3 years there)

The quick dispatch upstairs of a Rock Flight Sergeant from King Rock on the square generated a brief interchange of opinions at the door to said officer's room, this in short order resulting in the miscreant being summarily knocked out cold. All was of course heard by those gathered below.

Is one therefore to assume that this means that the inability of a senior NCO to bring about a satisfactory solution without resorting to violence towards a senior officer, and by implication without disciplinary action, is considered acceptable behaviour in the Royal Air Force, either then or now?

Jack

Has anyone found a documentary of OCTU Feltwell?


Sorry … my taxi seems to have turned up ... ;)

Is one therefore to assume that this means that the inability of a senior NCO to bring about a satisfactory solution without resorting to violence towards a senior officer, and by implication without disciplinary action, is considered acceptable behaviour in the Royal Air Force, either then or now?

Jack

No, but at the time it seemed very appropriate and did the trick.

No, but at the time it seemed very appropriate and did the trick.

Good answer, although the "squabbling bleeder" might have disagreed!:ok:

Jack