Nothings changed..............just 70 years later. The home of 242 Sqn RAF Duxford the home of Sqn Ldr Douglas Bader and his merry bunch of men, taken early yesterday morning in the mist.
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Nothings changed..............just 70 years later. The home of 242 Sqn RAF Duxford the home of Sqn Ldr Douglas Bader and his merry bunch of men, taken early yesterday morning in the mist.
Looks like a Mk.I like my uncle flew. I'm in the middle of re-re-re-re-reading Reach For the Sky right now.
Bob
I have that book, read it when the bookmobile would come round the old public schools...Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Womack
Very nice picture my father worked on the Spitfire and others as an LAC engine fitter in WWII
I was in early but couldn't get over to outside the Aircraft Restoration hanger to take one without the tie down concrete blocks, to make it look more authentic, before the fog dispersed.
They are all ready now to accept the three aircraft of the Memorial Flight at Duxford including the Lancaster, where their future servicing will take place...sad days when the RAF or should I say MOD farm out all that type of work. There were some brilliant aircraft engineers serving...........not long I suppose before robots take over:madsmile:
Last time I was there was greeted by the sound of the Merlin..... as I parked up, just after entering, a Spitfire was just coming in to land.... I posted a few pics somewhere.
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=40813
Sad day Indeed Gil, when the RAF farm out the winter overhauls of the BBMF.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gil Boyd
Inevitable I suppose with everything being privatised these days.
John,
I hope I am not wrong here, but with the tension building over the Ukraine/Crimea etc and the deployment of 2,000 BRITISH troops alone into the Ukraine to be completed by May next year, one has to wonder whether we have sold our assets and training off too quickly, like airfields being sold for housing sites etc.
Thats on top of bringing back thousands of armoured vehicles and closing down essential bases from BAOR prematurely in my view.
There is no way, ANY civilian organisation could maintain aircraft/tanks and other essential equipment in a conflict even if it was Marshalls of Cambridge. We still need essentail fitters and engineers in the tri services to maintain whats broke IMHO.
The sale of Bordon backfired as only the new part of it could be knocked down, the main Barracks (old part in front of the parade square) was listed so had to stay, this was the reason to flatten most of the old buildings at Lynham (so I'm told)...... before they were listed etc, so they could build from scratch and any future sell off would be straight forward.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gil Boyd
Regarding the maintenance etc, you have to remember a lot of civilians were employed in REME Workshops, link below gives the figures for 1976, 42 Command workshop was only a stones throw away from me, lot of vehicles heading to NI passed through here and returned for major repairs etc.
I mentioned it in another post when a new book arrived regarding WD Motorcycles, the scale of repairs is quite an eye opener.
REME (Civilian Employees) (Hansard, 11 November 1976)
Don't get me started.....................a woman I know is proud to serve the RAF by being the person who travels the world scrounging parts for VC10's unbelievable.
I have too many tales to tell like that, as does Peter L and others who were at the sharp end of these dangerous and unecessary cuts.:(
Here's another example ... A good friend of mine is a very highly skilled engineer who works for a local company specialising in engineering weighing and measuring machines (the sort of eye wateringly expensive, high end advanced "spatially aware" kit that can tell you if an atom on a gnats cock is out of true). He has often tried to explain to me how it works over a few pints, but a dumb *** like me can only follow him to the end of the first sentence....
Anyway I digress, this kit is sold worldwide and to all branched of the MOD, well it was, these days very little high end kit is purchased by the MOD and most goes to outside contractors who are contracted by the MOD, to "save money"
Here's a great example of "saving money" relayed to me a few years ago by my mate. Apparently when (Tornado GR4's I think it was), went for major overhaul, the radar units would be removed first and sent back to the manufacturers for repair and upgrade. The radar would be replaced by a special bolt in ballasted weight, so the aircraft could be flown to its destination.
Well, the Company that makes them used to work closely with the RAF on delivery. Not any more, today they get an email from some overweight bureaucrat at the MOD and that's it. Once they had an order for 12 units (£££££ cost to the tax payer), they were never collected, just sat gathering dust. No one at the MOD was interested ... then they received an order for 12 more, well looking in the warehouse, they tried informing the MOD that they already had 12 gathering dust and waiting to be picked up ... Not my problem said the disinterested bureaucrat, just make us 12 more please...!
This is typical of the stories he has told me over the years and is just one more symptom regarding the front line being disconnected from its trade and industry partners and having its own logistics and engineering branches run down ... he has many more tales of woe unfortunately
And meanwhile, the squaddies are being told there are big ('cost saving') changes coming for Defence Housing.
.......................................and thats why Withams : Direct Sales - MOD Sales, Military Vehicles & Used Ex MOD Land Rovers for Sale
get so much brand new kit to sell for a portion of its true cost, which does truly show those making the decisions these days are well out of touch.
If I had done that, I would have been hauled over the coals. Heyho good job Douglas Bader and the lads of 70 years ago, were kept flying by passionate designers and men who built stuff that we are so very proud of today and what they did for us............."Never was so much owed by so many to so few"
Have you heard about what Bader did with his first squadron? During the run-up to the Battle of Britain, Bader was assigned No.242 Canadian Squadron that had been fighting in France and escaped with only a handful of planes. When he arrived on-station the pilots appeared scruffy and dejected. After introductions and a half-hour of beating up the field with aerobatics to show the pilots he wasn't simply a legless swivel-chair pogue, he gathered with the pilots and asked them what was up with their attitude. They explained a history of poor leadership and loss. He gently disciplined the pilots for their haphazard uniforms and poor turn-out asked them to get squared away. They told him with some embarrassment that they had escaped with literally only the uniforms on their back. He sent them to the tailors in town and bought them uniforms out of his own salary. When he checked with the chief mechanic he found that the mechanics had only maybe three spanners (wrenches) and a screwdriver that they had begged off friends. They had no spare parts. No supplies. None.
He immediately ran up the supply chain trying to get the squadron outfitted. The swivel-chair pogues in supply, from the local one on his station to the chief of supply in the RAF, gave him the "lots of airmen needing" "sorry, we'll get to you when we can" lines. He knew that within a few hours of flying and definitely with the first enemy contact their panes would be unflyable.
Bader sent a radio message to RAF Bentley Priory (Fighter Command Headquarters) saying that the squadron was operational as regarded personnel but inactive as regarded materiel. Red Rocket! The RAF Chief of supply called and told him Head of Fighter Command Air Chief Marshal Hugh "Stuffy" Dowding would be very upset with him. The next day he was indeed called to Dowding's office and asked by Dowding in very even tones to explain his rather extraordinary message. He explained the situation and relayed the message given to him by the Chief of supply. Hugh Dowding took it in and called the Chief of supply. He asked if the Chief if he'd said what Bader said he had and the Chief said "yes." Stuffy told him to be off the station by the end of the day, saying he couldn't afford to have people take his name in vain. Then he said to Bader that they'd get the supply situation squared away and asked if there was anything elese he needed?
The next day trucks began rolling onto Bader's station with the full compliment of tools and spares for an active squadron. Bader got on the horn and declared the squadron fully operational.
Bob
Yes that was a clanger Bob, also the one where he was at high altitude and all of a sudden he heard popping which scared the hell out of him as he could not figure out was he being attacked or what the bl**dy hell is wrong with the aircraft when he had descended rather rapidly to a lower altitude the popping stopped.
It was then he had a light bulb moment the popping was from the ping pong balls he had in his tin legs at the high altitude their internal pressure from being made a sea level caused them to expand and burst the ping pong balls. He had them in his legs as if he was shot down into the channel he did not want to be dragged down by the weight of his legs filling with water.
Here is another great book to read about another British Legless pilot who flew in WWII.
Sadly the queen of the skies was retired a few years ago along with the L1011 Tristar and replaced with the Voyager. That is a nice aircraft but because it's new, the crews are very precious! There are some costly contractual cock ups to this story too!Quote:
Originally Posted by Gil Boyd
VC10? British Airways, a long, long (overnight) flight and a fond memory from decades ago.
The VC10 gave me one one of the biggest confused moments of my life. Getting on a RAF VC10 tanker in Cyprus, I sat down and looked out of the window to see the wing was fitted back to front! It never crossed my mind that I was sat down facing backwards.
Mate, I had to laugh, even though I spent a lot of being hauled places aboard military aircraft whilst facing left to right, right to left or bum end forward.
As a U.K tax payer, one aspect which I don't like about the MOD's use of the Voyager aircraft is that, if I understand it correctly, the MOD, don't actually own the the aircraft; it is on long-term lease from a private company. I have to question whether it would have been more cost effective for the U.K. government to purchase the aircraft outright.
Lost in the mud Spitfire this one was attempted to recover was a hell of a job the WWII pilot had a frightful few days but survived the ordeal.
Spitfire at Crocodile Creek | Storyteller Media - YouTube
Too bad it came out of the mud so chunked up, but I guess that's to be expected.Quote:
Originally Posted by CINDERS
As for that lost-in-the-mud Spitfire 'recovered' in Oz, if it's anything like the similar one, found under the beach at Calais as a rotted out hulk, it'll be restored to mint flying condition in a couple of years too.
I guess if they use a single part of the original, no matter how heavily they have to refurb it they call it original. Wish we could get away with that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler