Silly Instructions No.199

Let’s not forget the pigeons used for the same purpose. And they worked, too.

What? To raise an aerial?

Moggy

A bit worrying is the instruction ‘Crank at speed to Light speed Indicator Lamp’

I suppose that your hand is a bit of a blur at light speed? :confused:

While at the RNZAF Museum last week I attempted to photograph the Gibson Girl for you. The instructions are on top but are slightly obscured. It’s behind glass obviously so i couldn’t remove the label, but you’ll get the gist I hope. No sign of the alledged instruction as far as I can tell.

Ahhh but what about 2 swallows carrying the coconut between them?

Depends if you mean an African or a European swallow?

But is it true? Can anyone confirm the instructions? I’m making a documentary film on Bomber Command and don’t want to include any inaccuracies.

I do not recall any such instructions on/in the kit but a) it was some years ago I worked on them so maybe forgotten, and b) perhaps such stupid instructions had been amended by the time I worked on them in the 1990’s.

Perhaps an email to the RAF Museum or the RNZAF Museum (who have a full kit on display) might glean a scan of the instructions?

As an aside, another really odd thing I recall about the survival gear we worked on. The tins of water in the packs we had were all dated 1962, so the RNZAF finally decided to replace them. We got sachets of water, from Saudi Arabia! Apparently only certain countries can bottle or tin water for long periods without it going off, and NZ is not one of them. But one of the most desertous countries in the world, Saudi, exports their water to one of the wettest! Hmmm.

[QUOTE=Slipstream]

Ever ran 100 yards in a 8ft dingy?

QUOTE]

So you mean Aircrew CAN’T walk on water ….. 😉

Only the officers 😉

A bit less than it takes to get a coconut laden Swallow airborne… 😉

Ahhh but what about 2 swallows carrying the coconut between them?

[QUOTE=Phillip Rhodes] Ever ran 100 yards in a 8ft dingy?

QUOTE]

So you mean Aircrew CAN’T walk on water ….. 😉

How far do you have to run to get a pigeon airborne?

A bit less than it takes to get a coconut laden Swallow airborne… 😉

“Gibson Girls”

The shape of the box itself was such because it was designed to fit between your thighs while you turned the dynamo handle on the top to generate some current for the emergency radio. The dynamo handle was fairly stiff to crank, being fairly highly geared, and the whole thing made a typical dynamo whirring/grinding noise once up to speed.

Hence, as I was once told by an ex-RAF bomber pilot, they were called Gibson Girls “…because you had to put them between your legs and grind away on them“. 😮

Not very politically correct, but thats the way things were in those dim dark days, sorry ladies. 😮

As to running 100yds in a dinghy to launch the kite, I’m sure that the Air ministry would have thought to provide “Shoes, Running, floatable – Aircrew (ditched) for the use of.”

Paul F

But is it true? Can anyone confirm the instructions? I’m making a documentary film on Bomber Command and don’t want to include any inaccuracies.

I used to service Gibson Girls in the RNZAf in the 1990’s and I believe they still use them. They first appeared in the RNZAF in 1941 with the Lockheed Hudsons, and we were using them in Hercules, Friendships, Orions and maybe other types in my day.

They came standard with the kite and the weather balloons (2 of). These were still all original, stamped 1941 or 1942, in the same pack they flew with in WWII I believe. Ingeneous things, the balloons were inflated by attaching them to a tube which contained chemicals that, when dunked into the sea water, generated hydrogen and blew them up. I think the kit was a back up to the balloons, and for use on windier days in case the balloon blew off the wire.

The Gibson Girl itself is the radio, named so for it’s shape, like a girl. It was strapped to the user between the legs, and the handle was cranked to generate electricity, while the balloon or kite took the copper wire aerial (about a mile long) skywards. From memory they had around a 300 mile radius for transmission of Morse Code.

The kites were foldable box kites, which were very light, and yellow in colour. They were about a metre in length. I think those instructions were pushing it with a run up of 100 yards. If you had a bit of breeze they were actually easy to get flying. I know, I’ve done it without any running. The hydrogen generators and balloons are also fun to play with, we used to have to when instructing aircrew on the usage of the Gibson Girl kit. I never succeeded to do what one legendary erk before me had, in his haste to get to lunch after such a demonstration he used the vacuum cleaner to deflate the balloon. Being hydrogen, there was rather an explosion apparently!

here is a photo of the Gibson Girl radio showing the aerial being spooled from its stowage. You’ll note the distinctive curvy shape that gave it its name.

A good underhand lob ought to do it. Frantic fluttering and a loud plop will alert you to an aborted launch.

Or that it was pointing the wrong way

How far do you have to run to get a pigeon airborne?

A good underhand lob ought to do it. Frantic fluttering and a loud plop will alert you to an aborted launch.

Let’s not forget the pigeons used for the same purpose. And they worked, too.

How far do you have to run to get a pigeon airborne?

Let’s not forget the pigeons used for the same purpose. And they worked, too.

Often seen for sail on Ebay, i have a very tatty one in a yellow cylindrical tube.Used to be flown by Father/Brother when very young.

presumably its somethign like the one in the background of this shot??