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Royal Air Forces Association |
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York Branch |
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April 2001 This section is a copy of the printed version of the Aldwark Chronicle produced and edited by David Taylor. There are 3 editions per year and it is circulated to all RAFA members in the York club and to others in the UK and overseas. If you would like a copy sending to someone please email tac@rafayork.co.uk with their name and address. All contributions intended for publication should be addressed directly to the editor, either at the club; at home; or by e-mail. (For Addresses click here) BITS & PIECES or THE EDITOR’S CHIT CHAT Hello again, here ‘tis, hot off the press. First, I feel I owe you an explanation: the reason for the delay in production of this newsletter has little whatever to do with my scheduled absence to more favourable - not to say gloriously hot - climes, but is a direct result of plain economics; six editions a year puts us way over budget. It has therefore been decided that we restrict ourselves to just three issues per year. The only way round this would be to obtain a degree of sponsorship/advertising, so if anyone out there has any ideas on this front, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Being very open-minded we will consider most things. (We’ll even accept travellers cheques, credit cards, bearer bonds, or cash in a plain brown envelope!) There have also been some negative whisperings as to the type & style of content, but as life itself becomes ever more serious & so-called, "politically correct" than most of us would wish, I have no intention of adding to your burdens in that direction. As we are primarily a welfare organisation, Welfare must of course take precedence, but that shouldn’t preclude the type of content that most seem to enjoy. We need to keep the members happy to keep the members, as they say; or at least I did. * * * * * * On the plus side, for those who have access to a computer, the Branch is now well represented on the Internet. Check the following site for all the latest news, reviews, & photographs of recent events: www.rafayork.co.uk This has kindly been made available to us through the good offices of member, Les Quigley & his organisation.
Please note: As required by RAFA rules, if any members do not wish photographs of, or data about themselves, to appear on the World Wide Web, please let any Branch Officer or Committee Member know immediately. Lack of response will be taken as being "no objection." * * * * Those occasionally helpful pages on teletext - Service Pals & Associations - are on the move once again; by the time you read this, Service Pals will be on page 172, Associations - on which the Branch occasionally features - is on page 173. Take a look, someone may be seeking your whereabouts * * * *
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* * * * Now, on a more serious note, here are some interesting figures for members to digest: Despite the fact that we have our own premises, open at least twice a week, & a membership of well over 400 - one of the largest Branch memberships in the area - our club has almost the smallest cash turnover, & one of the lowest attendance records! Which means not enough members are taking advantage of the facilities on offer. So, switch off the telly now and again, come along and give us a boost. Even if just calling in to pick up a book or a video from the library you will be made very welcome, & you may even be surprised. If you need help to get here, please contact a member of the committee & something could well be arranged.
* * * * * Are you an active member, the kind that would be missed, Or are you just content your name is on the list? Do you attend the meetings, and mingle with the flock? Or stay at home in comfort, and criticise and knock? Do you take an active part, to help the work along? Or are you merely satisfied just simply to belong? Think it over, members, you know right from wrong, Are you an active member, or do you just belong? Marianne Sutherland * * * * * Messages seen: On Nytol sleep aid. Warning: may cause drowsiness. (One would certainly hope so!)
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The club hosted another of Joe Murphy’s ever popular slide show’s on February 10th, and the following weekend was the occasion of Yorkshire Eastern Region’s annual dinner & dance, our club being well represented. This event was held at the Bell Hotel, Driffield, & a good evening was enjoyed by all. March 10th saw a contingent from the Branch attending the North Eastern Region’s AGM at Scarborough’s Spa Ballroom.
The day drew to a close with our allotted guides - very bright, well informed, future pilots - obviously having been well disciplined in true service tradition, leading us to the Officers’ Mess bar, and an insight as to what we can expect on the occasion of our dinner dance. It should be a truly memorable night. Be there. ^ ^ ^ ^ The Branch AGM was held at the club on the evening of March 15th, 36 members attending along with 12 Associates, plus 2 guests: Area Chairman, Mrs Olga Parker, & Brian Wilkie from Area Council. A/Cdr W. G. Gambol was offered, & accepted, the position of President in place of Canon Jack Armstrong who, after serving us admirably over the years, is being forced to retire due to failing health. And here’s one for the books: A/Cdr Gambol’s inaugural action was to pledge the first round of drinks at the closing of the meeting; a brilliant start. An era was brought to a close when our HWO, Dennis Murphy, ended a praiseworthy 15 year spell at the helm of Welfare. His successor is Norman Spence. And after 21 years of bearing the Branch Standard, Neville White hands over the duties to Fred Ullathorne, with Harold Grace as deputy. (A review of Nev’s achievements follows.) The end of yet another era.
The North Eastern Area awarded a Presidential certificate to Alf & Bea Eyeington, whilst Branch Presidential certificates - a new, & local, innovation by Alan Bott - were awarded to Neville White, & Dennis Murphy, in recognition of services rendered over the years. Our Wings Appeal £15,000 award - having previously been presented by ACM Sir John Willis at the NE Region AGM - was on display. With speeches, presentations, & digital photography for the website complete, there seemed to be a somewhat undignified rush for the bar, but being busy taking notes & talking to people, the reason slipped my mind, & so I missed out. Ah well, I was at the time quaffing a rather good bottle of wine. * * * * * OOPS!
This he did, transmitting the brief message: Tango Echo (or whatever), Sungai Petani, out; Tango Echo, Kampong Ketil, out; etc, etc. A problem arose when ATC received the call: Tango Echo, Baling, out, at which point emergency procedures came into play, aircraft & helicopters setting forth to search for the unfortunate pilot, from which nothing further was heard. The Tempest pilot, eventually landing back at Butterworth, reported his radio as being U/S. He had familiarized himself with the local terrain, but not with the correct pronunciation for such places as Baling, pronounced with a long "a", thus becoming Barling. * * * * In the second Aldwark Chronicle - August 1999 - we started what I hoped would be a series of articles, the idea of which was to spotlight the achievements of various members. Alas, despite approaches & requests, it seems all our members were too modest to respond, until now. So, the timing being ideal, we now present... PERSONALITY PROFILE No.2: Nev joined the RAF in Aug 1939 as an Aircraft Apprentice at Halton. Upon completion of his training as an instrument maker, in March 1942, he was posted to Finningley, and the Whitley & Wellington equipped 25 OTU. During the war years he served on various units throughout the UK - Lichfield, Church Broughton, Dundonald, Valley, & Fairford - being promoted to corporal in August 1943. His first overseas tour began in February 1946, travelling across France by rail to Toulon, then by boat to Port Said. During his Middle East tour he served in Egypt & Palestine, becoming tour ex in the Canal Zone in Aug 1948. Between his various UK postings - 60 MU, Rufforth, (where he met his future wife, Nell, & to where they would eventually retire), instructing at Melksham, & a spell at Northcoates - Nev completed a further three overseas tours. 1953: now married, and wearing sergeant’s stripes, he was back in the Middle East, the Canal zone again. This saw him through to 1955 & a posting to Wittering, ending up on the Valiants of 49 Sqn. As a specialist in bombing systems, Nev now found himself beneath the swaying palms of Christmas Island for the thermo-nuclear tests of 1957/58. In 1959, now back at Wittering, he was selected to travel with the Squadron on a flag flying tour of Australia. 61 to 64 saw Nev serving in Germany, then, after a 4 year spell with Scampton’s Vulcans, he was again on the overseas trail, this time to Libya, where he was promoted to Flight Sergeant in 1969. (He had been a Chief Tech, with umpteen years seniority, since the tech & command ranks merged in 1964.) Back in the UK in mid 69, Nev was to spend most of the next ten years on just two stations - St Athan & Cranwell - before retiring to Rufforth upon attaining the age of 55. Nev, who had been a member of the RAFA in Wales since 1973, transferred his membership to York branch five years later. In 1979, with the incumbent retiring, Nev agreed to take on the job of Branch Standard Bearer - he also served on the committee, & was delegate to Yorkshire Eastern region until becoming Branch Chairman for the years 1988 & 89. Until retiring at this year’s AGM, Nev White - always immaculately turned out - has proudly born the Branch Standard an average of 35 times a year, for the past 21 years - well over 700 appearances.
Any member wishing to be profiled in this series, please let me have your details; post, e-mail, or hand them over at the club. All I need are the basic facts. * * * * * Messages seen: On a Korean kitchen knife. Warning: keep out of children. (Hmm...methinks something got lost in the translation.) ............... TOPSY TURVY DOWNUNDER "To travel is to live." So wrote Hans Christian Andersen as far back as 1842, and with those words I’d have to agree, although occasionally travel can be a little confusing. Take January 16th for instance. This was, for me, a nothing day - don’t even know what happened to it. I departed home on the overcast afternoon of the 15th, and 23 hours later found myself in Auckland on the evening of the 17th. Not to worry though, I knew that on my return trip one day would be considerably longer than the twenty-four hours allocated to it, the missing chunk of my life making a magical reappearance. Although the Auckland skies were also overcast, & the temperature still read the same as it had in the UK, the difference was that New Zealand’s 28 degrees were referenced to C rather than F. Ah yes, and the days were slow and leisurely. I settled so quickly into the routine of tropical living that I was given cause to wonder if I had ever been meant to live in England. Sun, sea, beaches, turquoise waters, these were the things that appealed to me. The highlight of this tour had to be my visit to the New Zealand Warbirds base at Ardmore. You know how it is at the airport, 300 bodies jostling to board the same aircraft. We all hate it but have to put up with it, most of the time. But there are flights where this does not apply - like when there is only one passenger seat, & that often a concession. The aircraft that were to bear me aloft on a warm but marginal February day were in this class.
Oh, so you want some brief impressions? Well, of course they were all more than just good. The Harvard was roomy and comfortable, having being built with the intention of carrying two people, and I had my own set of instruments that allowed me to keep an eye on things. But it was just a sightseeing sortie.
Ha! At times I was barely able to lift my hands off my knees. In comparison the Mustang was much quieter than I’d envisaged, afforded even better visibility - especially when inverted - & was oh so smooth. Aircraft? Better pilot? Or purely more sky to play around in? It doesn’t really matter, despite the crick in my neck due to my hunched up position, the Mustang takes the honours, but not by much. And they were all great, wouldn’t have missed it for anything. Just two days later I was to be found in Geelong, Australia; there for an Australian reunion of the RAF Boy Entrant’s Asociation. This coincided with the Australian International Airshow at Avalon, a few miles up the road. Avalon is the main repair base for Qantas, but every second year it hosts the southern hemisphere’s equivalent of Farnborough, a week long trade show, open to the public on the last two days. This year’s show marked the 80th anniversary of the RAAF, therefore attracting participation from foreign air forces, USAF & RAF included. Held under high blue skies and soaring temperatures, the display itself could certainly be described as spectacular, especially the "Friday Night Alight" event, which began at sunset and continued until well after dark. This alone made the show unique. With its four turbo-compound Wright Cyclones at full power, the dusk take-off of a Super Constellation is highly spectacular, the leading edge of the wing around the engines being enveloped in purple-pink flame. Afterburner take-offs also take on a new dimension in the fading light, and for the aerobatic types, wingtip flares replaced smoke generators. The warbirds ended their display by lighting up the night sky with a wall of flame half the length of the runway, and to watch Manfred Radius’ graceful, flare-lit areobatics in his Salto101 sailplane, to the accompaniment of classical music, was a joy to behold in the now chill night air. (In daylight, his routine ends with a very low level ribbon cut, inverted!) The evening show closed at 22:00 hours with the spectacular dump and burn routine of an RAAF F-111C. Apart from all the above, the daylight shows also featured such as the world’s only airworthy Lockheed Hudson, and Boeing’s F/A-18F Super Hornet. The USAF brought along the F16 and B-1B, the latter giving a full display, in contrast to Farnbrough’s high speed, medium level, single flyby. A second B-1B graced the static display. The RAF were well represented by a Nimrod & a Tornado GR1 of 617 Sqn, this scooping the best of show prize from the organizers. In true Auzzie fashion, the GR1's display was adjuged to have been "a ripper." A VC10 & C130's J & K support aircraft were to be seen in the static park. Radials, V12's, propellers and nostalgia galore were also liberally scattered around, & most of these oldtimers took to the air at one time or another. The only disappointment was the cancellation of the RNZAF’s A-4K’s, this due to a fatal crash during a practice session the previous day, elsewhere in Australia.
Each day’s climax was provided by the RAAF, with a repeat of the F111C dump and burn routine, after which it was the usual, head-for-the-exits act. Not so bad if you were based in Geelong, but the Melbourne crowd were said to have suffered. We were probably well tanked up & tossing steaks on the barbie by the time they arrived home. A week later & I managed a flight in one of the Royal Perth Aero Club’s Chipmunks, & with cloudless skies over Freemantle harbour there was no holding this pilot back. Airlines? Forget it, this was real flying. +++++++++++++ RULES OF THE AIR 1. Every takeoff is optional. Every landing is mandatory. 2. If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger. If you pull the stick back, they get smaller. That is, unless you keep pulling the stick all the way back, then they get bigger again. 3. Flying isn't dangerous. Crashing is what's dangerous. 4. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here. 5. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire. 6. The propeller is just a big fan in front of the plane used to keep the pilot cool. When it stops, you can actually watch him start sweating. 7. When in doubt, hold on to your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky. 8. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A ‘great' landing is one after which they can use the plane again. 9. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself. 10. You know you've landed with the wheels up if it takes full power to taxi to the ramp. 11. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice versa. 12. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier. 13. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be an aeroplane going in the opposite direction. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide out in clouds. 14. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take offs you've made. 15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are. 16. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck. 17. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be. 18. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose. 19. It's always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible. 20. The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago. +++++++++ Messages seen: On a child's Superman costume: Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly. (That's right, destroy a universal childhood belief.) +++++++++ T hat’s it folks. Next addition is due around August. That is, unless you know better. For instance, should some sponsorship be forthcoming......Regards, Dave
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Last modified: November 14, 2001 |
