And Met
 

Met used Chinagraph for a variety of jobs ...... Obvious one was briefing using OHPs.
Type morphed several times as they technology (snigger) advanced. Didn't use edge lit displays but certainly
Black red blue purple yellow (fog) and green (rain)

Fantastic! thanks! Have found several images online now having the manufacturer and type!

Cheers, Scott.

At Coningsby we had to provide met briefs for each trip. Over to the weather-guessers, get a brief, make up OHP slide.

One day there was a classic warm / cold frontal system across the UK, so I lovingly produced the blue and red frontal positions and black isobars on my synoptic chart all in chinagraph - a work of art by the time I'd finished...

Give brief. Place slide on OHP and switch on. Everything appears in black on the screen. Puzzled for a moment I realised that chinagraph is opaque, so my artistry was all silhouetted.

"Terribly sorry, it must be one of the old black-and-white OHPs", I announced and carried on with the brief. No-one queried my comment! Even the trip went well....for once!

Have I misrembered?
Given Beagle is correct re. Opacity on OHP what on earth did Met use Chinagraph for?
The other question is what was used for colour on OHP?

On the Kipper Fleet in the '90s they were mainly used to write "Spike's a Nob" on the reverse side of the radar scratchpad.

Met normally used non-permanent fibre tip pens on OHP slides back then. Which had its disadvantages...

One day at RAF Brawdy, the Stn Cdr arrived in a jovial mood and hurled a snowball at the Met briefer "Here, Met - have some actual" he remarked. It hit the MetO on the chest and bounced onto his slides, which caused all the detail to dissolve into a purple splodge.

Not to be outdone, the MetO started his brief with the immortal words "Gentlemen, it seems that today there will be snow...".

Black flag and stack at lunchtime - not even a hint of a ten o'clock clearance!

We used chinagraph propelling pencils to draw our track lines etc on fablon covered 250,000 aviation charts - so they could be used many times over.

Problem was, many of the colours would bleed into the fablon. I found that the only colour that didn't do so was the brown "leads".

I still have box of them - twenty five years after I left the service.

They were issued to us as student pilots in 1963 at Syerston. Not the wooden sort just the plastic ones with refill "leads". There were a lot of different colours and generally there were boxes of the "leads" knocking around the flight planning area.

ACW

Hi all,

I really can't believe the interest that this quick question has caused! I'm also enjoying all the stories that are coming out of this!

It's one small detail of the AEA, but I suppose to you guys, the aircrew, they were quite a significant item. And to see how many people still have them too!

Keep the dates coming! This is great to try and figure out when the entered service, and left.

Gayford, the leather pouch is very nice! I assume it's live in the nav bag when not in use?

Seeing the dates going back to the mid 60's, these pencils would be perfect for my blue / grey flying suits which are dated 1964 (Mk2/2A) and 1963 (Mk4/4A). I'm still missing the aircrew knives for them too.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....00c217065f.jpg
Mk4 / Mk4A flying suit - Oxygen hose D-Rind re-located

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....36fd2bf512.jpg

Mk2 / Mk2A flying Suit - Velcro pocket modification

I have really enjoyed learning about this period in British aviation - I used to volunteer looking after the Cranfield Lightnings XS452 and XS458, did that from the age of 11 till I had kids at the age of 30, so this era has always been of interest to me..

Cheers, Scott.

The issue torches were crap, especially the ones designed for fighters. They were practically unusable. From about 1985, most aircrew had their own 'Maglite' torch, usually bought on visits to US Base exchanges where they were approximately a third of the price of that in the UK. The small double AAA torch was popular as it would fit in the arm pen pocket.

I still have an issue kneeboard with attached chinagraph which I use for light aircraft flying. However, I'm down to my last lead.

My offer up-thread at Post #32 was genuine!
Did anyone really need that many? :)

CW-era knives come in three flavours, the last one not much use for stabbing to death an errant self-inflating SS dinghy but could slice Cheese Possessed if pushed.

I have two from my RAF-issue pencil box. Same same as Gayford's picture in post #50. Want one?

The curved aircrew knife always seemed too blunt to be of much use although I believe one 43 Sqn bod did use his to cut away his chute rigging lines after a night time mid air found him and his oppo in the North sea. Unfortunately he reportedly also severed his PSP lanyard and lost all his survival aids.
Equipment storage was always an issue on a fj Sqn. I was often called on to make up patches for circuit breaker tools, pens and torches.
Nav bags made from two lower immersion suit pockets seen back to back, with or without a pen patch stitched on one side were another favourite.

OK I'll Raise Yer: have a look at these beauties; brown chinagraph holder WITH matching lovely brown "leads"--super quality, not too soft, not too hard, "just right" or write if you prefer!

And a set of plotting thingys WITH Dayglow anti-FOD tape!
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....08a4f7b207.jpg

I may have just the thing for you-see my post of today!

Chinagraph is to ATCO as Trowel is to Bricklayer.

Exactamundo.. I ditched my issue torch, never having used it. Complete crap. The Mini Maglite, however, was/is an excellent bit of kit. Available from BXs everywhere. Mine must be 25+years old and still looks like new - and it still works perfectly. It sits on the bedside table - and it's ideal for nocturnal reading without waking SWMBO!
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5f8086dbf1.jpg

I have just remembered the sequence.
In 1962 we were issued coloured wooden chronograph lead pencils. These were just coloured pencils but the lead was chinagraph. They were sharpened the same was as a lead pencil with wood shavings into the pencil box and of course a sharp point that soon flattened. The aircraft was not particularly hot so the lead would become brittle and break.

The leap forward was the self sharpening pencil. This was a tightly bound material with a cotton thread IIRC which you pulled, the binding would unwind and a new lead would be available.

Then came ubiquitous plastic models.

Hard to imagine a flight-line or rectification flight or indeed any other 1st or 2nd Line organisation that was not dependant on chinagraphs and perspex!

The, now civilian, ex-military flying unit at which I work still has a box of brand new ones in the stationery cupboard. I don't think anybody's used one in years.

I remember as a Cadet Pilot on the mighty Bulldog that you used to lean to a 6.5psi fuel pressure as we climbed through 1500ft, and dutifully put a chinagraph mark next to the lever in exactly the same place as the last several hundred students, so that you knew where to return the mixture control to after any manoeuvering at altitude.

G

Alas, a problem which affects most of us sooner or later Nutloose :(

And of course post-chinagraph came the Stradeler(sic?) felt tips to which BE able referred. Two flavours, water soluble, easy to wipe off with spit and glove and a hazard in rain, and the permanent which one could, with care Sniff ☺ and could be cleaned off using the highly volatile solvent in a red SO tin until the HSE police banned it.

These allowed a finer line but both versions had the disadvantage that they would dry out if you left the cap off. They were much used by the Route Nav in Nimrods, not much use in a FJ in the air.

The inside of a flying glove could have many uses...allegedly!

'Mongo', our Vulcan Nav Rad, rolled an old pair into a ball, so that the inside showed. This he would sit upon as it brought much relief to his....'bottom problems'.

Back to chingraphs, during my IRT work up on the JP5 in the Summer of 1974, I persuaded the genial US exchange officer to let me fly a PD to Mildenhall, where a couple of USAFA mates who'd been to visit RAFC were waiting to go home. All went fine until the go-around, when we were given what the Instructor later described as "Clearance from Hell" - squawk this, turn on to that, climb to the other and call approach on whatever - readback! I got most of it, but was forced to ask for the frequency again. "You didn't copy it down?" queried the Instructor in a 'you useless git!' tone of voice. Whereupon I showed him the congealed lump of yellow gloop on the end of my pen, saying "Sir, my chinagraph melted!". He fell about with fits of giggles, then later told me that he dined out on the experience for weeks afterwards!

Although the mini-Maglite was OK, I bought a similar item which was smaller and neater from the PX at El Toro MCAS. Uses 2 x AAA batteries and the top is slightly tighter than the bell end of a mini-Maglite - these days it resides in my car's centre console, along with that other quintessential route steal, the excellent Leatherman multi-tool.

Torches again, at RAFC during night flying training we were entrusted with the care of Qty 1 Provost, Jet, Mk5, student pilots for the use of - but were not allowed to use the official night torches. Instead we were told to buy our own and to make sure that it was firmly attached with the usual Learning Command bit of string. So various arse looticle designs appeared from Boots etc. One chap dropped his, then pulled up on the string until he felt a strange 'click!'. It was the seat pan handle which had started to come out. So he carefully pushed it back down, but kept shtum as he thought he'd been in the poo. However, best of all was the late Don Turbett. In one leg pocket he had something from an agricultural supplier with a crocodile clip to fit the glareshield and in the other a large lantern battery, with a cable running up from the battery to the lantern. Given the duty 'total electrical failure' by his QFI, there was a moment of mumbling and fumbling before the entire cockpit was illuminated by something resembling the flash of a nuclear detonation. They both lost night vision for a good few minutes, but Don had made the point. The next course was permitted to use the official RAF torch!

I loved reading these stories, but this one had me laughing out loud!

Thank you guys for all the anecdotes that keep on coming! It gives a real human side to the kit, and more reason for my interest in learning and sharing info on it!

Thanks again, Scott

Cheap aftershave removes it.

Advice from a true expert! :D

Cape Leather gloves were another procurement balls-up! In the late '80s, some political correcto queried why they were known as 'Cape' leather. "They must come from the Cape of Seth Efrika", he mused. This was before they let Mandela out, so there was concern that MoD might be buying equipment from the nasty apartheid people....:rolleyes:

So the supplier was changed; instead of the pristine white (or rufty-tufty SH green), we began to get inferior light grey things, probably made from recycled Etruscan goat scrotums, which lasted barely a week before they ripped...

Common sense later prevailed and we went back to the previous type!