duncan

Welcome Richard, Beattie himself was/is no mean pilot and an all round aviation person. I was lucky enough to be at RNHF when they brought the late lamented Firefly out for test flight and had close-up view(on the apron with ground crew) of the wing-fold sequence. Wonderfull,the ear defenders provided didnt dull the roar of the engine much at that range. When on the road with the carrier I`m always approached by ex Fleet Air Arm types and they have some wonderful tales to tell. Amongst the most amazing was the Gentleman who was awarded a commendation from the King for nearly sinking HMS Indefatigable while ferrying Hurricanes to Russia. I was sworn to secrecy but I have asked a few RNFA people of that time if they could confirm the details , no luck so far but it was a great story. Another one was the invention of the "ski-ramp" to assist Harrier take-off. One old matelot claimed his Flight Leader came up with this in the Med in 1942/3 when his carrier was damaged and started taking water. They decided to save the aircraft (Swordfish), stripped them of as much weight as possible and constructed a ramp at bow of the listing ship from shoaring and timbers. The Leader said he`d go first and two things were likely to happen, a. the undercart would come up through the lower wing, or b. "the damn thing will be flying before it knows it, if I get off, so can you ". Well they all made off safely and made it to land. The carrier limped into Malta 5 days later. The story-teller was livid that somebody got a few hundred quid for the idea a couple of decades later. Another with the glorious name of Falcon was going to fly one of the Lend Lease American fighters to a hideway in Spain. They were coming to FAA units towards the end of WW11 and being ditched over the side as "gash gear". Few had many hours on them, some test-flown only. Only last month a Swordfish gunner/wireless op showed me his log-book and photos. One ,probably taken with a Kodak "Box Brownie" was a broadside salvo on-board HMS Warspite taken from the foredeck...bet they were deaf for a week, health and safety.. Pwhah. Heroes every damn one.

wonwinglo

***Richard,a big warm welcome to you here,your piece of leather reminded me of incorporating a piece of spruce from a real Turbi G-APFA into yes you have guessed it ! a model of same which I built years ago.
If you want to send in some pictures of your beautiful model here then please go ahead,especially any constructional shots.
Thank you,Barry.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Bluewavestudios

Welcome to The Forums Richard, Nice to see you decided to join us then, there are many like minded modellers here and I am sure you will fit in perfectly to talk scale and swordfish as much as you like, as well as your other models of course..!!

Regards.....Mark.

wonwinglo

Yes indeed,a very warm welcome Richard,if you get a minute and have any constructional pictures and notes then we would love to see them here ?

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Richard Crapp

You realy ought to read Stanly book. He wants sales to go towards the RNHF . If you send me a stamped, selfe address envelope and a donation check to RNHF will send you or anyone elce a coppy.

Quote from Stan.......

W5856 was not with me on Macships on the North Atlantic. There we went through aircraft at the rate
of three per crossing because the hazards of landing in a space 60 feet wide and 200 feet
long,rolling 15 degrees to the left then 15 to the right ( at deck height this meant that the bridge
structure moved about18 feet to the left of centre then moved the same distance to the right). With
the stern going up 20 feet then down 20 feet it is surprising that more of us didnt kill ourselves.
Even after writing off the three stringbags which we carried,there was no peace for the wicked.
Because there were only nine RN officers aboard, the rest being Merchant Navy, we had all the duties
of the 90 officers aboard a fullsize carrier. For instance,as well as pilot, I was Engineering
Officer, Stores Armaments,Metiorological, Photographic, Safety equipment, Comforts, Entertainments,D
ivisional(discipline and promotion). The R.A.F.aircrew could walk away from their responsibilities
when they landed and go off to a pub,to the cinema or an E.N..S.A.show, with a girl friend or their
mates, then back to a good night's sleep. Our off-duty was to get our aircraft bombed-up,refuelled
serviced with any faults corrected( such as change a set of spark-plugs a
nd get rid of an electrical short circuit caused bby salt-water spray. (we had no hangar!).After
recording the use of all consumable spares such as Verey pistol cartridges, lube oil, hand rags,nuts
and bolts, we could then relax in our steel coffin in an oil-tanker dressed up as an aircraft
carrier in the middle of U-boat alley in the North Atlantic in mid-winter.
In two years of this,our squadron operated nineteen merchant aircraft carriers either oil
tankers or grain-carriers, with over a hundred complete crews each consisting of pilot, observer and
air-gunner, escorting convoys from the UK to Canada or the USA and back ,and in all that time lost
only two merchant ships in their care,,compared with 60 ships a month before Macships were used.
Here comes the injustice NOT ONE DFCor DSC and NOT EVEN A MENTION IN DESPATCHES was awarded
Only the Swordfish could do the job.
My flight in W5856 lasted less than 5 minutes. It was at Advanced Operational Training
Unit at Errol (between Perth and Dundee) where W5856 had just undergone a major overhaul by WRNS
mechanics under training. Supervision was appalling when they re-piped the petrol system and the
gravity tank and main tank connections to the selector cock were crossed. This did not show on run-
up but caused an air-lock and engine-failure on take-off,and I detail the consequences in my book

Richard Crapp

Can not quite discover how to post picturs and the thumbnails, Any help?

wonwinglo

Hello Richard,try this-
Firstly make sure that your pictures are not too large by re-sizing them in a paint programme,go to where it says 'manage pictures' just below the message box and click onto this,this will take you to the 'browse' box,click here and select the required picture from wherever you have it stored ie in 'my pictures' etc next press the 'upload' button and within a few minutes the picture will be confirmed just in the box below,exit by closing the window and it should appear as a thumbnail in your message area.
If the picture is too big or of the wrong format then it will inform you,images should be jpeg format,if they are not they can be easily converted in your paint programme by re-saving as a 'jpeg'
Hope this is fairly explanatory but if you still have problems I am sure anyone here will assist.

__________________
'And there I was oil on my goggles from a broken pipe,then I looked at the altimeter,all I could see was the makers name !'
www.wonwinglo.scale-models.net/

Greyhead

Richard

Or you can embed the photos by linking to their URL if they're already on another site by clicking on the "insert image" button above the reply box. This seemed to be the prefered method for my "Another Parnall Elf" thread.

Grahame

Richard Crapp

Myself, Stanly Brand who flew the aircraft in 1944 and Robert Blackburn
who's grandfather built the aircraft in1942. The model has the actual seat leather from W5356 so facinating to think Stanly must have sat on it in 1944.

Attached Images

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