Air clues

RAF Kinloss had its in house flight safety mag, Coastal Clues. I was able to contribute historical items and a few cartoons . Published whenever possible from around 1980 and still may be going. Although the aircraft may have changed, the lessons from the maritime patrols of the 40s and fifties were still relevant.

It was certainly not lavish, run off on a photocopier and hand stapled but it did get a good readership.

When all the Accident Record Cards were in the old AHB anyone with a vested interest in accidents could go along to have a look at the Accident Record Cards regarding any one particular incident.

These record cards could be ‘borrowed’ in fact some were never returned as when someone was found to be named and blamed for the accident, some record cards disappeared for ever!

From an erks point of view perhaps the ‘shadow tool board’ was a giant step forward to Flight Safety as any one missing tool had to be found before anyone could leave their place of work. As for those zipped tool bags yes they could be bent, unzipped and tools taken out, with the tin boxes that was a different ball game

A pic of the metal toolboxes (on the ground) in use in 1959, the guy on the platform was sorting out a Mag Drop on a Herc (#4 Engine) of a MK C-1A Hastings at RAF Negombo

Seriously though I remember being given one of the canvas toobags(that although lockable could be opened easily) with a minimum toolkit(electrical) to which you could add any useful tool you could afford,some of which used to get left in A/c and cause accidents.Happy day when shadow boards and accountability for lost tools came in.

Ha ha! those were the days, makes you wonder how we got away with so ‘few’ accidents with the old working practices. I can say hand on my heart that today aircrew are almost falling over themselves with contrition over ‘I learnt about flying from that’ incidents – emails from individuals about the latest gotchas written by those affected are a comon feature on the front line. At our training base, the duty instructor on Friday gives a ‘dit’ to staff and students on their own hair raising past incidents.

The Flight Safety Flyer is rightfully fully inclusive of groundcrew matters and incidents. From my perspective the RAF has done much to encourage honesty and openness across the board, but not at the expense of excusing negligence (there is a difference, for example, between a mistake due to tiredness as opposed to deliberately failing to follow procedures).

Incidentally, stories from the start of flying all the way through to the present day are still published as the lessons are the same, just in a different aircraft and era. I’ve just finished reading about a Hurricane that was flying above a sandstorm, got low on juice, and had no option but to spiral down into it. After a while the pilot noticed the vis had turned from grey to brown. He eased his rate of descent when it became apparent that the ‘brown’ was the desert, landed and got help from the locals.

Nice response!It would be nice if someone could get thier hands on old copies and have them put on the web,as said the safety aspect of the magazine made for compulsive reading if only for groundcrew to say there it wasnt our fault!Seriously though I remember being given one of the canvas toobags(that although lockable could be opened easily) with a minimum toolkit(electrical) to which you could add any useful tool you could afford,some of which used to get left in A/c and cause accidents.Happy day when shadow boards and accountability for lost tools came in.

It was bad enough getting the front cover out of Wattisham in 1969 stuffed inside my sock let alone a whole magazine :p

Air Clues is back!……sort of.

Following on from my last post, The RAF Aviation Safety Group was formed in 2006, and it seems to have recognised the obvious gap of it’s own flight safety publication.

It’s now called’ Flight Safety Flyer’, and has similar content to the old Air Clues, and an updated Wg Cdr Spry has returned with his old column. Happy to say his moustache is still intact.

Flight Safety Flyer carries no security marking.

Air Clues was compulsory reading in the ATC, at least in our Sqn.!

When the Defence Aviation Safety Centre (DASC) was formed, I think in the mid-Nineties, the RAF decided to scrap Air Clues and with it, ‘Wg Cdr Spry’ (a moustached cartoon character and pseudonym for the magazine editor): This decision that was met with dismay by some within the service. Air Clues, as you say, was packed with good flight safety stuff and copies were always lying around the crewroom. This was particularly important in the days of ‘blame and shame’, otherwise there would have been little learning at all from past incidents.

The AAC and RN, however, wisely decided to retain their own flight safety magazines which still exist to this day. The RAF have realised their mistake and (I think) have recently re-introduced an in-house service flight safety magazine.

The magazine used to be classified ‘Restricted’ but in today’s ‘Open and Honest’ culture I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s unclassified.

Yes I remember it – still around in the 1990’s

I remember Air Clues too – rather more of an in-house magazine dealing with MOD related affairs, ie: not for general release if memory serves me correct?
Some of the accident reports were scary….

It was still going well into the ’80s, my dad used to bring me every copy home. Some great storys in there.

There was an airclues / I learnt about flying from that, book around a few years ago – a compilation of around 20 or so stories.

Fine read!