Chipmunk Nostalgia

[Phil Perry]

Training film for Air Cadets. This stirred a few memories from the early 1960s. . .

 

[turboplanner]

Nostalgia's the word. Took over, tried to do a 90 degree turn.........straight into a wild spin!

[Phil Perry]

Nostalgia's the word. Took over, tried to do a 90 degree turn.........straight into a wild spin!

 

Now THERE is something that we have in common Sir. . . Scared the #@~* out of me, but the lovely softly spoken Welsh RAF instructor said "No lad,. . .not like that. . .Do it Gentle like,. . . and go easy on that top rudder Boyo. . . . ! ! !

[turboplanner]

Now THERE is something that we have in common Sir. . . Scared the #@~* out of me, but the lovely softly spoken Welsh RAF instructor said "No lad,. . .not like that. . .Do it Gentle like,. . . and go easy on that top rudder Boyo. . . . ! ! !

Mine had a good laugh as he explained what had happened, and said much the same, got the spitfire pilot out of me in one action. I was about 13 or 14, used to save my pocket money up for a 20 minute flight. He was Roger Pitt who had lost both legs in a tree felling accident and flew with artificial legs, went to England to meet Douglas Bader and brought me back a copy of Reach for the Sky with Bader's autograph. He was CFI at Mount Gambier for years and died as a result of spatial disorientation in a search and rescue mission for a lost fishing boat off the coast of South Australia.

[Phil Perry]

Mine had a good laugh as he explained what had happened, and said much the same, got the spitfire pilot out of me in one action. I was about 13 or 14, used to save my pocket money up for a 20 minute flight. He was Roger Pitt who had lost both legs in a tree felling accident and flew with artificial legs, went to England to meet Douglas Bader and brought me back a copy of Reach for the Sky with Bader's autograph. He was CFI at Mount Gambier for years and died as a result of spatial disorientation in a search and rescue mission for a lost fishing boat off the coast of South Australia.

 

That is a very sad story Sir. . . I was taught to fly ( Among other people ) by a Polish WW2 ace, who stayed in the UK since the Nazis had killed his entire family. . .although I could not appreciate the enormity of his grief at my young age. .. he STILL believed that the DH82A was an utter 'Pile of $hit'. . .But he was a total master of it, being a member of a B of B pilot in the war, flying Hurricanes. He was a lovely man, I attended his funeral in 1984. . . I only wish that I could have taken him flying myself in later years. . . I flew his two Sons, . . one of whom flew A-320s as an SFO for Thomas Cook airlines. which went bust a few months ago. . .I dunno who he is flying for now. I'm still searching. But he has a Polish Surname like the UK version of 'Smith' which narrows it down to around half a million Poles. . .

 

One of my friends is a disabled pilot named Steve Slade, Who,. . apart from home brewing superb beer, flies his Rans S6 three axis microlight to several records, ( one of which was landing at the most airfields in A SINGLE DAY ) does this NOT to prove that he's better than able pilots, but because he loves being in the air. . . The bloody lunatic. . .and HE was the chap who introduced me to Microlight flying in 1983. . .when he asked me to retrieve his crutches from the wing spar tubes, so that he could get out of the aircraft to have a wee. . .

 

**Memories. . .

Edited February 26, 2020 by Phil Perry

[IBob]

I'm very envious that you guys got to touch the controls. I just got to sit there, but:

 

It had been explained to us wee spotty ATCs that the flying officers flew us out of the goodness of their hearts, to always say Sir, speak only when spoken to, and otherwise be sure to keep the mic off. It was further explained that the pilot Sir would perform circuits, explaining as he did so what he was doing and why.

 

The last kid before lunch lost his breakfast.

I was the first kid after lunch. I had never flown.

 

The pilot Sir took off and proceeded to climb in a straight line. I kept waiting for a turn, but it never came. Neither did any explanation, although I could hear him humming. He worked his way through several tunes before finally finding a hole in the cloud he liked, dropped the Chippy into a dive and performed a loop.

And finally, a voice in my headset: 'Did you like that?'

'Yes, Sir' I said.

'Would you like to do it again'

'Yes, Sir' I said.

So we did.

Good memories...................)

[David Isaac]

They are a lovely balanced aircarft to fly. I loved flying one from the front seat some years back.

[planedriver]

I had a friend who used to take ATC cadets for a bit of flying experience in a Provost. On one occasion he had a youngster who requested to experience flying inverted during the flight. Half way through the manoeuver the kid threw up his breakfast which then seemed to be suspended mid air. All he could think at the time, was which way do I roll out so he gets it instead of me??

Edited March 1, 2020 by planedriver

[turboplanner]

They are a lovely balanced aircarft to fly. I loved flying one from the front seat some years back.

That's my memory too, after I stopped trying to be a fighter pilot.

[IBob]

I had a friend who used to take ATC cadets for a bit of flying experience in a Provost. On one occasion he had a youngster who requested to experience flying inverted during the flight. Half way through the manoeuver the kid threw up his breakfast which then seemed to be suspended mid air. All he could think at the time, was which way do I roll out so he gets it instead of me??

Maybe that's why ATC cadets weren't supposed to be subjected to negative Gs...though I always thought it was so our scrawny bods didn't slip through the harness. Certainly they had trouble fitting the parachute harness to us: the seat pack on me just about dragged on the ground...(

[facthunter]

They have nice "feel "of controls by a system of rods which always feel better than cables. The fin and rudder are too small and the Vne is too low. The engine is a clunker and doesn't run inverted, in fact it leaks fuel all over the windscreen. AT the TIME they were considered a real hot ship and a few flick rolled them showing off on a pull up on take off. They usually only did it once.. There was a big question hanging over the DHC-1 re the recovery from spinning predictability. It WAS cleared but I don't believe it should have. Had there been a replacement for the plane at the time readily available perhaps it would have been assessed more critically. There was a bigger rudder available for it, I'm told but I never saw one so equipped. . It probably allowed me to find out a lot about flying that other planes would not have allowed. I'm glad it was my first plane to be taught on and did all my tests in it up to Commercial + instructors Rating.. Doing it on the subsequently available aircraft would have to be less effective. Nev

[Yenn]

Long time since I flew one at Lovely Banks. That was after flying Cessna and Piper nosewheel aircraft. It took a bit of getting used to flying a taildragger, but I really enjoyed that plane. It was the reason that I eventually built a Vans RV4.

[turboplanner]