Can anyone advise regarding the death of Pilot Officer Hugh Thomas Weller-Poley (127049) on 15th September 1942?
I know he was with No.1 Glider Training Squadron at Thame from 13th May 1942 as an NCO pilot, and commissioned the following month.
His death is registered in Abingdon, but I couldn’t find a mention in the Thame GTS records. Another unit?
Thanks in advance.
By: Sabrejet - 10th August 2015 at 12:08
Killed when No.4 GTS combination hit ground at Wytham near Oxford.
Tug was Hector K9706 and glider was Hotspur BT505. Weller-Poley was pilot in command of the glider. Combination took off at 02.00 into low cloud.
Form 1180 copyright RAF Museum
http://www.rafaircraftaccidents.com/F1180/1942/September_1942/15_9_1942/04101768.JPG
http://www.rafaircraftaccidents.com/F1180/1942/September_1942/15_9_1942/04101769.JPG
Ross
Nice one! Many thanks.
By: adrian_gray - 10th August 2015 at 10:01
Hence, presumably the nicks in the edges – those being where a hole has been opened?
Thanks Ross, that’s really interesting.
Adrian
By: Ross_McNeill - 10th August 2015 at 09:53
This version of edge code card was for “manual drop” and was used from 31st Dec 1941 in the Form 1180 series.
To denote a condition the perforation was opened up.
When a search was to be undertaken then a stack of cards arranged in a similar manner would have long rods passed through the relevant space (one edge at a time) eg for No.4 GTS two rods would be put through the stack at 7 and 2 in the Unit Class.
The whole stack would be picked up by the rod ends and shaken – all cards for No.4 GTS would drop out because of the open perforation.
Cards that dropped could be gathered together and sorted again by using the same method until you got the ones that you wanted.
No need to replace the cards into the stack in orginal order after the sort any subsequent search will find matches regardless of stack position (it’s why some cards appear out of order in the microfilm)
This card shows one of the disadvantages of the drop as two aircraft types are listed on the same card and they could not open up the aircraft type perforations correctly. So any drops for Hector, type 53 or Hotspur, type 183 would not find this card.
Later machine readable versions were optical coincidence where the holes were filled until the info was entered then a hole punched. To find a match the card was passed over a light source – where it showed then a match was made.
Ross
By: adrian_gray - 10th August 2015 at 09:19
Good grief, the cloud must have been low because the highest point of Wytham is only 164 metres!
Am I right in thinking that the perforated card is designed to be sorted by machine? I’ve read about them, but that’s the first I’ve seen.
Adrian
By: Ross_McNeill - 10th August 2015 at 07:09
Killed when No.4 GTS combination hit ground at Wytham near Oxford.
Tug was Hector K9706 and glider was Hotspur BT505. Weller-Poley was pilot in command of the glider. Combination took off at 02.00 into low cloud.
Form 1180 copyright RAF Museum
http://www.rafaircraftaccidents.com/F1180/1942/September_1942/15_9_1942/04101768.JPG
http://www.rafaircraftaccidents.com/F1180/1942/September_1942/15_9_1942/04101769.JPG
Ross
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August 10, 2015 at 6:37 am