Maybe the Spatrtan is trying to emulate Charlie (HotShots) Sheene, or keep up with “Spitting Image”.

Cabbage

My Dad may well qualify for this thread. Called up in 1942, and volunteered for aircrew. Served as groundcrew on several Bomber Command airfields, servicng Lancasters and Halifaxes.
Eventually sent to Terrel, Texas, in late 1944, and completed flight training around about V.E.Day
Returning to the U.K. was kept waiting for a while before joining 51 and then 511 Squadrons, flying Yorks (Including Mountbatten’s) to and from the Far East, as a Sergeant Pilot.

Demobbed just before the Berlin Airlift, became a Church of Scotland Minister, married, and then me and my brother arrived.

Rejoined R.A.F. in 1961, as an Officer (CSFC Padre), he served at MELKSHAM. LAARBRUCH, COSFORD, ADEN, SCAMPTON, CYPRUS, HEREFORD, and finally SWINDERBY, before retiring in 1977 on the same day as I completed recruit training. He retired with the rank of Wing Commander.

Regards, Cabbage

I believe the early Westland Lysander’s had a message hook similarly attached, slightly off to one side of the centre line.

I have seen a picture of a 208 Squadron Lysander, with it’s hook deployed ready to collect a message, flying at a very low level.

Cabbage

Don’t forget the Mig-23 and Mig-27 on display at Newark Air Museum.

Cabbage

Had a marvelous day out ,today, in spite of the weather. Unfortunately left before “Princess Elizabeth” stretched her wings.

I was great meeting 2 other forumites, “Penpusher” and one other who I hope will forgive me for forgetting his moniker. He did however point me in the right direction for the recently restored Vampire T.11 . It was in the hangar I’d walked past twice, without realising that I hadn’t visited it. Talk about blinkered vision.

The only downside for me, and I want to point out that it isn’t a moan or criticism, was that with my basic camera, and tightly packed airframes, I couldn’t always get the picture I wanted, particularly in the “Flying Aircraft” Hangar. I desperately wanted a good shot of “Snafu”, but as the engineer I spoke to said, the weather was against her being moved. It was nice that he took the time to point that out to me.

Any way I’ve over 100 pictures to adjust, crop, and generally smarten up, to keep me busy for a few days.

Regards, Cabbage

A normal “war load”, when I worked on the Mk.2s, was 6 torpedo (Mks 44 / 46 / Stingray) on front 2 stations, and 2 “buckets of sunshine” on the rearmost station. The remaining bombay stations were left empty.

All fuel was carried internally, so the bombay was clear for weapons only.

The S.A.R. load was as follows. 3 Liferaft Containers on stations 1 &2. These were linked together from Station 1 to 2 ie. left container on 1 tied to left container on 2.
Stations 3 & 4 carried a central Liferaft container flanked by 2 supply containers linked together on the carrier.

Station 6 & 6A carried a total of 18 Recce Flares, until the incident at St Mawgan, and again after they were cleared for carriage.

I never saw, or fitted mines or depth charges, during my 7 years on the kipper fleet, as an Armourer. The torpedo was the main anti-submarine weapon.

There was a wide variety of every-day loads used for training and exercises, but Station 4 always carried a liferaft / containers load as a matter of course.

Regards, Cabbage

Forgive me for being pendantic, but isn’t that a picture of a FIREFLY T.1, not a Fulmar?

Regards, Cabbage