I guess chances of aircrew survival were slight. Most of our exercises were done over the North Sea, when we were given dinghy drill we were told that we had 15 seconds to get into our little one man dinghies before we became too numb to do anything.

According to Air Britain RR396 comes from a cancelled batch of Oxfords, so something not right there.

As a child I can remember watching a damaged Fortress circling Hawkinge firing off Verey lights. We were at Elham about 3 miles away and saw it descend below the trees and the resultant column of black smoke. We jumped on our bikes and located the crash site at Paddlesworth. It had landed on top of the inland cliff which overlooks the Channel Tunnel terminal at Folkestone, approx map ref TR1938. It had gone over the edge leaving the tail at the top while the rest of the aircraft looked just like a rubbish tip down the cliff. An ambulance was in attendance and there were numerous used and unused little glass morphine phials scattered about. I think one casualty was recovered. My memory of the exact location is not clear but we were on the road which runs at the top of the cliff.

This may not be the aircraft referred to above because this occurred sometime in 1944-45 period.

Well if you want old Valetta shots, here is VX161 at Aqaba Jordan in Sept 1952

And here is a strange use of a Valetta, also at Aqaba

Silly story re this film. When it came out I was at Kabrit in Egypt, this film was only on the camp cinema for one night!
This just happened to be a night flying night, 219 Sqdn CO was an uptight so-and-so and insisted on his crews flying. Our CO had more sense and scrubbed our night flying so we could all watch. As we were flying Meteor NF13s at the time there was no way we would ever trouble this “barrier”.
At the time we were using the open air cinema and one of the 219 pilots did a nice barrel roll at low level over the cinema where the Stationmaster was also attending. Nobody let on who the culprit was so he escaped.

Because they are rotating the gear teeth only bear on a small area and wear can be a real factor. Note this stripped gear (not aeronautical). These wheels are about 15ins dia with a thickness of about about 3 ins. The teeth get worn down and can eventually strip because of excessive loading/ lack of lubrication.

A good dentist is essential.

Do you still possess the NF14?

Because of the pilot occupying the LHS, on the Mosquito fighter types the entry was on the right. The pilot was always captain and so was first to enter and last to leave.

The reason for the 1919 ruling can be blamed on the railways. When the first airliners started regular London to Paris flights there was intense competition to maintain a service, regardless of the weather. So the pilots pressed on whatever the conditions and navigated by the railway, which across Kent went in a lovely straight line heading towards Croydon. The fateful day came when a London bound airliner, being flown from the LHS, met a Paris bound plane driven from the RHS, and they collided because both pilots were concentrating on following the rails.