Which one, Flaps62?

This one:

ZH875
Or, to put it another way, the officer is there to catch the flack first as usual.

BEagle
I like those shots. Have you any in colour?

Mods
I have just had a spell-checker red underline on the word 'colour' above, indicating that I should spell it without a 'u'. Is this a problem with my kit or is there some subversive American influence at work in PPRuNe?

Nice pics Beags, Cheers!

I am another one who gets a bit fed up with the nonsense about the dogs name and whether Guy Gibson was a nice man or not whenever the Dams raid is mentioned. How about the fact that half of 617 Squadron did not return from the raid and out of those 50 lads who died 2 were from my home town. I would suggest that we need to "get a grip" and reassess our priorities!!!

Great pictures and sorry to thread drift.. but I have to ask.

I read somewhere that the TU95 was the noisiest aircraft ever and shadowing crews could hear them quite clearly... Was that the the case?

Yes - the droning noise from those big props could be heard quite clearly. When the civil version, the Tu144, came to Heathrow, it used to dislodge ceiling tiles.

No shots in colour - except the last one which was in colour, but a very grey day!

Back to the dambusters. My own tribute was a whizz round the Eder (past the castle), then over to the Mohne exactly 40 years to the day after the raid. But in a Phantom, not a VC10!

I seem to recall thay, In the days when everyone was interested in unducted fan engines, there was great interest in the Bear's Kuznetsov engines, particularly the reduction gearbox. RR thought a lot could be worked out from a recording and inquired through back channels if any assistance could be provided. Lo and behold, one of the LU QRA F4s was modified with a recorder and mikes (IIRC it was a portable controlled by the navigator with a couple of mikes strung inside the canopy after take-off). When a suitable Q opportunity came along they were scrambled and then sat in the prop wash behind the wing for a couple of hours making a tape. I doubt it was a very comfortable experience.

Beagle: When you say a whiz aound the Eder and then over to the Mohne, did you try and replicate the profile the Lancasters flew ?
I never flew a Phantom but I daresay it would be a tad marginal.

I tried it in something slower on the Mohne in daylight, and it was only then I realised what they accomplished at night.

Past the castle, down the hill, over the water. But at 500 ft, not 60ft!

Did it twice, then joined by another jet we did it in formation, then back via the Moehne to Gutersloh.

It was only then that the SNavO told us that there was an unwritten rule that the dams were never to be used as turning points......

Oh dear. What a pit. Never mind.

But they did wave from the castle balcony!

Back in '75 when I was a boy Harrier pilot on 20 Sqn we had deployed to Diepholz for the NATO exercise Cold Fire. Diepholz was a luftwaffe recruit training base commanded by one Colonel Otto Kraft. The boss took him for a spin in the T4 one day, a quick "armed-recce" through the battle area followed by a bash down Wadi-Weser and then up onto the plateau for a SAP on the Mohne Dam. As they creamed over the dam and down into the valley, the Colonel rumbled: "Zat is not so clever, Ving-Commander, it hass been done before".

Later on, in the bar, it transpired that the Colonel, who had been an Me110 night-fighter pilot, had also flown the Me262. Someone said that he'd read that the Me262 was a handfull in the circuit and difficult to land.

Colonel Kraft: " Ze only time ze 262 wass difficult in ze circuit was venn there wass a Typhoon downvind".

Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humour!

Puts on Goons voice..... "Just about everybody......"

Dambusters
 

The astrodome was right beside my wireless operators seat but when I was operating in 1945 our navigator didn't have any occasion to do any astro-navigation. But that would have been where he would have stood.

[Puts anorak on]

BEagle is of course referring to the Tu 114 (Cleat) not the Tu144 (Charger). But, I expect that could knock some ceiling tiles off too, especially with the Afterburners in. :ok:

[Takes anorak off]

Yes, sorry - typo!

Just a small tribute to the American members of 617 Squadron during the raid.
Believe there were two (but I stand to be corrected), a gunner who's name I've forgotten, and Flt Lt. J.C. McCarthy, pilot who eventually did 48 ops with 617.

Dams as waypoints?
 

BEAGLE: Past the castle, down the hill, over the water. But at 500 ft, not 60ft!

Did it twice, then joined by another jet we did it in formation, then back via the Moehne to Gutersloh.

It was only then that the SNavO told us that there was an unwritten rule that the dams were never to be used as turning points......

Oh dear. What a pit. Never mind.

But they did wave from the castle balcony!

In 1981 Germany held the World Gliding Championships at Paderborn. (Luftwaffe provided briefing on airspace included ' If you find yourself in formation with an aircraft maked with a red star and the pilot is smiling he is in the wrong place. If he is not you are in the wrong place'.:uhoh:)

RAF Germany on polite request provided recce low level photgraphs of the German selected turning points. Included were the Mohne and Eder dams.

By the way, the Champion was George Lee, then a Phantom pilot, later Cathay Pacific.

Joining together a couple of entries:

Once did the mohne in a Shackleton (map reading from the bomb aimer's position to help the Nav). I will wager that it was noisier than the Ruskies mentioned above!

Patrick Bishop's Bomber Boys mentions use of the astrodome on Lancs and in Pathfinder Cranswick by Michael Cumming it describes its use for detecting enemy fighters.

astrodomes also used during the bomb run for spotting friendly a/c overhead with bomb bay doors open!!