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Walter 63

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June 18, 2009 at 8:56 pm in reply to: Aircraft Recovery Group '40-'45 Holland- contact? #1209233

Walter 63
Participant

Stan, you should be able to contact Hans Nauta via the RAFCommands forum (http://www.rafcommands.com), he’s an active member there.

Cheers,

Walter

June 18, 2009 at 7:43 pm in reply to: .303 Browning flash eliminator #1209327

Walter 63
Participant

Many thanks Air Ministry 🙂

Cheers,

Walter

June 7, 2009 at 8:20 pm in reply to: Help needed to identify Blenheim part #1220405

Walter 63
Participant

Elliot just beat me too it 🙂

June 7, 2009 at 8:19 pm in reply to: Help needed to identify Blenheim part #1220407

Walter 63
Participant

Hi Bob,

That second part (AD10415/1) might well be one of the rear crutches of a Light Series Bomb Carrier. Attaching a (smallish) image of one – looks like you have part of the adjusting wingnut on the side too.

Cheers,

Walter

March 27, 2009 at 7:47 pm in reply to: Floatplane ID wanted #1227521

Walter 63
Participant

Thank you John, those photos must indeed be much earlier than I thought then!

Cheers,
Walter

March 25, 2009 at 7:57 pm in reply to: Floatplane ID wanted #1230096

Walter 63
Participant

Steve & Dave,

Thanks for the added info!

Steve, there were only two more photos in the album, one view amidships and one from the bow but no aircraft on them – sorry! The prints are actually tiny, about 5 by 7 cm or so.

Cheers,
Walter

March 24, 2009 at 8:00 pm in reply to: Floatplane ID wanted #1231262

Walter 63
Participant

Thanks SM, thought the tail looked “Hawkerish”!

Cheers,
Walter

February 7, 2009 at 7:41 pm in reply to: Halifax Mk V – LK629 – "F-Freddie" 427 Sqdn #1214185

Walter 63
Participant

Many thanks for the link T-21, will see if those people can help.

Cheers,

Walter

January 22, 2009 at 8:13 pm in reply to: Westland Whirlwind Fighter Cockpit, information needed… #1233249

Walter 63
Participant

Stuart, you may find taking a look at spitfirespares.com helpful. They not only sell Spitfire stuff and every instrument listed is illustrated with a nice colour photo so you could do some matching with your Whirlwind panel photos to identify the various instruments, maybe not all of them but I guess it would be a good start.

One question though, what is a GCI model?

Cheers,
Walter

January 18, 2009 at 2:55 pm in reply to: Help required with location of airman's family #1238121

Walter 63
Participant

Gerry, have a go at http://www.rootschat.com, lots of people on there who know the finer points about family history research. I found them very helpfull with my own research and you can register for free.

Good luck with your quest.

Walter

January 17, 2009 at 8:21 pm in reply to: Nash & Thompson FN4A rear turret #1238720

Walter 63
Participant

Hi guys,

Sorry John, still not satisfied with your theory! On the first pic I posted one can clearly see that the loop is closed, it’s firmly attached by both its ends to a triangular mounting plate in the middle of the gun cradle, between the shell ejection holes. It is also quite short, if memory serves me correctly it can’t have been more than, say, 12 cm or so in length. So, as it’s a closed loop there’s no hooking things on it, also there’s only one loop per cradle but you have two rear gun securing pins per cradle so by your theory you’d need two bungee ends per cradle. The rear sear release hoses do dangle down when not connected to the guns.

Finally, none of the photos or drawings we both have show the rear pins to be attached to anything and furthermore, the detailed drawing of such a pin in AP 2799R shows no hole where you could hook your bungee up to!

I for one am sticking to Mike’s explanation which is backed up by his FN121 manual. This is good fun though, isn’t it :)?

Cheers mates,

Walter

January 12, 2009 at 8:10 pm in reply to: Nash & Thompson FN4A rear turret #1163988

Walter 63
Participant

Hi Mike,

This is fun indeed! I’ll be happy to post some pics of the model project once it finally materializes – you’ll have to be very patient though as my darling wife keeps feeding me with additional things to do in and around the house :(!
In meantime I’m happily collecting reference material though!

Cheers,
Walter

January 11, 2009 at 8:02 pm in reply to: Nash & Thompson FN4A rear turret #1165206

Walter 63
Participant

Hi John!

I was expecting a reaction fm your end 🙂 ! Attaching a photo of the RH gun cradle of the Brussels turret prior to restoration, clearly showing the original bungee loop between the guns. Second photo shows same cradle after restoration minus guns – you can hardly see the loop but the dangling hoses are clearly long enough to be secured by the loop. Third photo (WW2images) shows an FN4 interior minus the guns and though unclear it would appear the hoses are “attached” to the top of the cradle. The hoses in the Brussels turret were plain rubber, ie not sheathed, braided or however you call it so pretty flexible, even after the odd 60 years. I for one am perfectly happy with Mike’s answer…

Cheers chum,

Walter

January 11, 2009 at 2:31 pm in reply to: Nash & Thompson FN4A rear turret #1165677

Walter 63
Participant

Mike, thanks ever so much for clearing that mistery! The loops in the FN4A are in a somewhat different position than those shown on the FN121 (is the one in the photograph an FN121 too?) but they are identical in “construction” to the ones shown in the AP page and your photo.

Thanks for your photo and info offer too! As for me, I’m not into restoring (in Belgium we sadly haven’t any scrap yards where one could find surplus RAF turrets!) but the RAF’s WW2 turrets have always fascinated me and back in ’95, thanks to Wallace’s excellent volumes on British Aircraft Armament I was able to correctly identify a tail turret on show in the Brussels Army Museum as an FN4A originating from a Whitley (till then it had simply been labelled as “a British rear turret from a Lancaster”). Then the idea sprouted of building a scale model of the turret and the museum kindly allowed me full access to their example and I was able to take lots of detail photos and measurements. And then we bought this house in need of renovation and the model project was put in the freezer so to say. The project was sort of revived again when 3 years or so ago I saw that the museum was restoring its FN4A. Got in touch with the restoration team leader and found he had documentation I didn’t have and vice versa so we exchanged and I had another photo session of the turret minus the cupola. As an added bonus the team leader got me in touch with John Blair who as you know his singlehandedly restoring the UAS’ FN4A and a brilliant job he’s made of it too. I’ve seen it myself when we holidayed in N.Ireland last July!

That’s the story in a nutshell! I can fairly say that even if I don’t own an FN4A I know it pretty intimately. As for the model project, well the house renovation is nearly finished…

There now remains only one FN4A mistery to solve – on the below extract of the Air Diagram we have object no 8 identified as a photo flash bulb. Any idea as to what that would be for because firing off a flash bulb next to the gunner’s head wouldn’t do his night vision any good, nor his day vision either!

Cheers,
Walter

January 11, 2009 at 1:59 pm in reply to: Blenheim sirens #1165769

Walter 63
Participant

Brilliant!

Many thanks Dogsbody, that’s the first pic I’ve seen of those sirens – sadly not too sharp but it does give an idea of what they looked like! Apparently they’re showing it in the operating position, ie lowered into the airstream.

Cheers,

Walter
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