When I joined the RAF to do my 2 years national service in September 1952, I volunteered for “aircrew”. This was an option in those days as the Korean War was still going and the powers that be thought it a good idea to build up a reserve of trained pilots for the expected WW3.
What followed were the two most exciting years of my life. Once through the initial training and flying aptitude tests I was shipped off to Canada in a BOAC Stratocruiser to start training in Alberta.
We flew the Harvard MK2 and MK4. Having narrowly missed death on 3 occasions I was posted to Portage la Prairie in Manitoba for jet training on the T33, later known as the T-BIRD. I left when my 2 years were up, but sometimes regret not having taken up the option to sign on for a further stint, or go into civil aviation like many us did.
Are there any old Canada hands out here?
By: trumper - 7th May 2011 at 21:50
No – my last solo flight was from RAF Oakington near Cambridge in Vampire T11 number XD402 on 5 July 1954. They also let me fly the single-seat FB5 Vampire, but only once for 40 minutes circuits and bumps.
You may be interested to hear they are trying to keep part of Oakington open as a memorial
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=105431
By: course5303 - 7th May 2011 at 18:54
National Service Pilot
Thanks for your reply.
When I was in Canada (in 1953/4) I wrote a number of letters to my dad and mum describing your amazing country and what I was trying to do there while attached to the Royal Canadian Air Force.
I’ve started typing out these hand-written letters in preparation for my third book, which will describe my National Service – including the dangerous practice of stopping Canadian Pacific Railway trains on single-track lines by flying towards them at low level with the landing light of a T33 switched on (pretending to be another train on collision course). Needless to say i was too ashamed to describe this crime against the CPR to my parents.
My tearaway friend who committed the deed was killed in a car crash two years later.
By: Camlobe - 7th May 2011 at 18:16
Well, I am from Canada, and I fly, and according to my 29 year old daughter, I am old, but…
I am not the kind of ‘old Canada hand’ you are hoping to contact. I have met a few chaps over the years who followed the same (or similar) route as you did, but I am not in contact with any of them now.
Probably like others here, I would like to hear a more detailed account of your National Service time.
camlobe
By: course5303 - 7th May 2011 at 18:05
National Service Pilot
No – my last solo flight was from RAF Oakington near Cambridge in Vampire T11 number XD402 on 5 July 1954. They also let me fly the single-seat FB5 Vampire, but only once for 40 minutes circuits and bumps.
By: piston power! - 7th May 2011 at 16:39
Do you still fly?
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May 7, 2011 at 3:21 pm