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

Feel absolutely gutted tonight. Haven’t been around for a while so decided to catch up with the world and see how Rich and the gang are getting on with ’63 (not that I have any interest of course:D).

Picked up that ‘Boots’ Henken is no longer with us. Gutted. 🙁

Group Captain Dave ‘Boots’ Henken had a long association with Shacks well before he joined us on the Mighty 8 as ‘Boss’ in the mid-80’s. Boots was one of those larger-than-life guys who led by example with a total can-do attitude. He demanded the maximum out of everyone, and gave his maximum in return. An ex-Halton ‘Brat’, Boots understood how aircraft worked, and because of this ‘insider knowledge’ was able to get the best out of an aircraft, and was able to shoot down any engineering ‘bullsh!tter’. Life was never quiet or boring while he was around, and especially while he was ‘running the show’.

Many happy memories from those days, and a couple from his later career as the Defence Attache in Brussels.

Mo has commented on the red noses. The story behind these was typical off-the-cuff Boots. Following the five-ship flight to Woodford for the 40th Anniversary, Boots was insistant that 8 Sqn would outdo the single red-nosed Harrier – by having ALL the Shacks do the Rudolph. Cue a bunch of guys trying to scrounge red paint from the BAe staff. No idea where it came from, but brushes and steps were also provided (long way up, you know). Wet paint duly slapped on, five Shacks flew back to Lossie, only to be greeted by a very upset squadron painter (Mac). It took him ages to get the red off. Actually he missed a bit – Mr Rusty still has some red edges.

There was the Iclandic rescue trip where Boots quickly threw together a scratch crew to personally deliver spares to a broken Shack at the US Naval Air Station Keflavik causing panic amongst the ‘septics’ because a ‘Lewtenant Kernal’ was coming, the France and Cyprus trip that went on and on and on…, the little 90 year old French lady who we kept awake by being ‘excessivly boistrous’ over many drinks in Boots’ room next door, the Corporal in Akrotiri MT who gave him a Mini instead of a Cavalier, the static wicks being torn off by ‘shrubs’ followed by the mainwheel sinking into tarmac (‘shrubs’ were Boots’ description of 15 foot tall trees), the ground-looping Chippie, the Boots operational procedures to deal with the brake-sac problems, the list goes on.

After the Shacks were retired from RAF service, WL747 and WL757 were flown out to Paphos. Some considerable time later, Boots and a few others (names omitted to protect the guilty) flew a Shack around Cyprus for five hours…but that is another story.

A true leader, excellent pilot, great boss, superb host, he will be sadly missed, but remembered by all who met him.

camlobe

Ah, the Welsh Wooden Wings story.

Not far away from here in wild, North-west Wales, near the town of Pwllheli, there is a large estate, known as Broom Hall. Broom Hall is not far from Butlins. Mr Billy Butlin is known to have visited often in his own aircraft (sorry, I don’t know what type).

Ever the businessman, he introduced pleasure flights for the holidaymakers in DeHavilland Rapides operating from Broom Hall.

Back in the mid ’90’s, I was asked to have a look at a couple of wings in a shed at Broom Hall. The grounds were being revamped, and the buildings were being made habitable by humans, so the wings had to go. But at least someone had the foresight to contact the local airfield. Hence my visit.

Leaning against one wall were two wooden wings. Fabric long gone and with corroded metal fittings, but wood in beautiful condition. The channelled spars and leading edge slats made identification relatively easy. Into the back of my van they went.

For the last 15 years or so, they have resided in the museum at Caernarfon, one of them attached to the ‘Tiger Moth’.

One of my minor contributions to the preservation of aviation history.

camlobe

With regard to the DeHavilland contra-rotating props on the Shacklebomber, please allow me to inform, hopefully without sounding pedantically picky.

The fitment of contra-rotating props on the Shack allowed the full potential of the engines to be utilised without the prop tips going supersonic as they would on a large diameter single propeller. Remember, the Griffon 58 was capable of generating 2490 hp at 3000 ft when in high gear (full speed) and with water-methanol injection (2450 hp at sea level).

The added benefit was a bomb bay that was at a ‘sensible’ height for the armourers. Compare the length of a Shack undercarriage against a Lanc.

The method of pitch translation between front and rear prop was, as previously mentioned, via a Translation Unit. This device, manufactured by Martin Baker, was basically a ball-race bearing. The controlling propeller was the front, hydraulically moved. The piston was fixed and oil was pumped via the Constant Speed Unit to the front or rear of the piston, thereby moving the external cylinder forward or rearwards. The cylinder (which looked more like a Rotol unit than a Hydromatic device) had three corners at its base machined to slide over rack bolts. Rack bolts were so named as their fore and aft movement was converted into rotational movement of each of the blades at their roots by the rack-and-pinion method, found in most car steering systems today. The rack bolts on the front propeller protruded fore and aft of the front propeller hub. The front protrusions engaged into the base of the cylinder and were retained by nuts, duly splitpinned. The rear protrusion of the rack bolts engaged through the front of the translation unit and were retained by nuts duly splitpinned. This front part of the translation unit was connected to the inner race of the ball bearing. The outer race was connected to the rack bolts of the rear prop which were also retained by nuts and splitpins. We now have a method of ‘Translating’ the pitch change of the front controlling prop to the rear prop, but only because the inner surface of the inner race was able to slide along a smooth part of the prop shaft.

Oil to the front of the propeller dome moves the dome forward.
The dome pulls the front prop rack bolts forward.
The front blades coarsen.
The rearward protruding front rack bolts pull the translation unit forward.
The translation unit pulls the rear prop rack bolts forward.
The rear blades coarsen.

When the engine is running, the front propeller rotates left (when seen from the rear) and the inner race of the translation unit also rotates left. The rear propeller rotates right and the outer race of the translation unit rotates right. Should the pitch of the front propeller change, the translation unit will move forward or rearward, altering the pitch of the rear propeller. Easy, huh?

Every four to six hours, a TU lube was required. This required the slowing of the engine rpm’s to approximately 1250 rpm by use of the propeller pitch control levers, (the Griffon engines/DeH props on a Shack had the widest constant speed range of any CS VP piston prop – 1250-2750 rpm) thereby allowing the spring plungers (three in all) to re-prime from the oil (OEP 70) held in the tank surrounding the outer race. These plungers were critical to the safe operation of the aircraft. There were three small pipes that led from the plungers to lubricate the bearing. On occasions, the pipes would crack, leading to loss of TU oil, observed as clean oil on the rear prop spinner. Ignored or unobserved, this led to the loss of at least one Shack.

The reason being, the oil in the TU leaks away, the unlubricated bearing breaks up and fails, the TU breaks up and seperates, inner race away from outer race. The rear prop is no longer governed. Aerodynamic Turning Moment acts on the rear propeller, allowing the rear propeller blades to fine off to the fine pitch stops. The CSU senses the increase in engine rpm and sends more oil to the dome. The front prop coarsens. Depending on the power setting on the engine, the front prop alone may not be capable of controlling the rpm. Either engine overspeed and failure, or reduction gear overload failure ensues.

Due to the aerodynamic effects of propeller tips, should the rear props be the same diameter as the front, the rear prop tips would be travelling through very disturbed air. Have a look side-on at a propeller at high rpm on a damp or wet day. You will see the tip vorticies converging behind the prop. This disturbed air would lead to resonant problems for the rear prop. Therefore, the rear prop was six inches less in diameter, but to compensate for the reduced blade area, the rear blades were made a little fatter.

camlobe

Yesterday afternoon, I flew back from Cannes and crossed Le Manche via Abbeville to Shorham. London Info and Shorham were both rather busy with foriegn registered microlights.

I just realised, our crossing time was almost exactly the same as Monsuier Bleriot’s.

Even though we had a much longer crossing distance, the Bonanza is a quick aircraft. Almost wish it was mine. Another interesting 100th aniversary entry for the logbook.

camlobe