Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator Posted October 16, 2018 Share Posted October 16, 2018 LOL - excellent! BEB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KiwiKid Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Just something that occurred to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Lomax Posted November 5, 2018 Share Posted November 5, 2018 Posted by KiwiKid on 17/10/2018 01:42:51: Just something that occurred to me. Shortly after I started aeromodelling, I was chatting to a guy at a model show (probably Wings and Wheels) who was a Polish ex-RAF WW2 pilot. He said that the evening before D-day all pilots and ground crew were sent out with buckets of white paint and yard brushes and told to put the stripes on as quickly as possible. He said that any scale models with straight white lines were a dream and not reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastFlyer Smyth Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Acland Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Posted by Vinegar Dave on 10/01/2015 15:03:52: Again apologies if you have heard this one but WW1 pilots were told on take off that if their engine was to fail 'Don't Turn back'. If you bank to the left you will burn and if you bank to the right you will crash so go straight on and you might crash or burn but you have a chance! Average life consistancy of a pilot was 12 days to be shot down and a 1 in 3 in that is excluding a chance of being killed in take off or landing... and they wanted to get out of the trenches? More pilots were killed in training in WW1 than were actually killed in action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 My father was lucky then. He was an observer on DH4s on 18 squadron. (6 confirmed kills from the back seat) The day he was going pilot training he volunteered for a last raid with his pilot. He was shot down and badly wounded. At least it saved him from pilot training!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Christy Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Posted by Vinegar Dave on 10/01/2015 15:03:52: Again apologies if you have heard this one but WW1 pilots were told on take off that if their engine was to fail 'Don't Turn back'. Not just WW1! That's what I was taught when learning full-size in the 60's! As far as I am aware, its still the advice given today! Trying to turn 180 degrees at low altitude with a dead engine is almost guaranteed to end in a spin. -- Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Posted by Peter Christy on 18/03/2020 14:04:21: Posted by Vinegar Dave on 10/01/2015 15:03:52: Again apologies if you have heard this one but WW1 pilots were told on take off that if their engine was to fail 'Don't Turn back'. Not just WW1! That's what I was taught when learning full-size in the 60's! As far as I am aware, its still the advice given today! ...except from Brian Lecomber who wrote an interesting article on the subject back in the 80s. His suggestion in a situation where landing ahead was not a viable option - although still the best choice in most cases - such as when he was teaching people to fly in the West Indies from runways terminating in shark infested seas was to use a slipping turn - without the higher wing loading of a balanced turn increasing the stall speed and top rudder meaning it was less likely to drop a wing plus the high rate of turn negating the additional height loss, he argued that it was a better option. Edited By Martin Harris on 18/03/2020 14:48:51 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Christy Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 I can see where he was coming from, but Brian Lecomber was very much an expert! I wonder how many novices could successfully carry that manoeuvre out! -- Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 I have quite a few modern crash reports which all blamed "turing back with a dead engine. Even suposedy experienced pilots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted March 18, 2020 Share Posted March 18, 2020 Posted by Peter Christy on 18/03/2020 15:31:35: I can see where he was coming from, but Brian Lecomber was very much an expert! I wonder how many novices could successfully carry that manoeuvre out! -- Pete From what I remember of the article, all those that he taught from the Caribbean island airfield! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted March 19, 2020 Share Posted March 19, 2020 The Handley Page Hamden bomber under restoration in Canada was recovered from a lake almost intact. Early in ww2 some were converted for torpedo practice and a target was set up in one of the great lakes. They had to make a low level run drop the torpedo and then climb straight and level, the urge to see if they had hit the target was too great for some and they turned too soon to see if they had a hit at which point the plane dropped into the lake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john davidson 1 Posted March 21, 2020 Share Posted March 21, 2020 My old boss was a wireless operator at the end of WW2, one of his anecdotes was A pilot was court martialled for chasing a WRAF in the nude round the accomodation block He got off by pointing out that in Kings Regulations it said that an Officer could dress appropriate to the sport engaged in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 Come on guys did you really think this had been checked before you went live with this page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 In case of any confusion: Edited By Martin Harris on 01/07/2020 15:56:26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 Martin, I see what you did there. A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Jenkins Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 I once heard a night flying brief on how to deal with engine failure. "Turn into the forecast wind direction and when the altimeter reads 500 ft turn on the landing light. If you don't like what you see, turn off the landing light!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted August 15, 2020 Share Posted August 15, 2020 If you order goods from North Vietnam it takes months to get here, no good getting Hanoi-ed about it those people have no Seoul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maurice Dyer Posted August 15, 2020 Share Posted August 15, 2020 Posted by Martin Harris on 18/03/2020 23:01:32: Posted by Peter Christy on 18/03/2020 15:31:35: I can see where he was coming from, but Brian Lecomber was very much an expert! I wonder how many From what I remember of the article, all those that he taught from the Caribbean island airfield! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted August 15, 2020 Share Posted August 15, 2020 Posted by Eric Robson on 19/03/2020 08:57:53: The Handley Page Hamden bomber under restoration in Canada was recovered from a lake almost intact. Early in ww2 some were converted for torpedo practice and a target was set up in one of the great lakes. They had to make a low level run drop the torpedo and then climb straight and level, the urge to see if they had hit the target was too great for some and they turned too soon to see if they had a hit at which point the plane dropped into the lake. The Hamden was very narrow. The pilot could not get out if his seat in flight. If he had drunk too much tea before a flight it could present a problem. On the Hamden this was solved with a long rubber hose. If the pilot was unpopular with the ground crew it was not unkown for a knot to be tied in the hose Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john davidson 1 Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 A tribe of native americans asked their new chief if he thought the coming winter would be cold one. being brought up in recent times and not learned in the old secrets he had no way of telling from nature so to be on the safe side he advised the tribe to gather plenty fire wood for a cold winter. After a few weeks he checked with the weather service who said a cold winter was very likely ,so went back and told the tribe to gather even more wood. Just to be sure after another few weeks he asked the weather service again and they said it was definitely to be very cold , asking why they could be so sure they replied that the native americans were gathering trailer loads of firewood! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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