Newsletter

M. Hill (103 VR Squadron) Rogues Gallery VIC CULPAN AND DENNIS SPENCE 737 CONVERSION Hugh Slatter (Writes:- Really proud of all our pilots who have gone on to make such successes out of careers in flying - well done Dennis and Vic. Since I remember some pretty hairy x-wind landings in the Prov on BFS with you guys, I\'m not sure I\'ll risk it with you again!! Incidentally, the newest 737 ( 737 MAX ) is the program I\'m working for GE/CFM with BOEING - great fun, and it\'s going to be another really good 737. Best wishes Refer. http://rhodesianforcesreunions.blogspot.com/2013/05/vic-culpan-and-dennis-spence-boeing-737.html HUNTER IN RIYADH Vic Wightman (RhAF) Writes:- Geoff Oborne\'s happy snap of a Hunter F6 in Riyadh caught my eye. From my log book I see that I am one up on Geoff, having seen the inside of that aeroplane as well as the outside. My seven year spell with the Saudi Air Force started in Riyadh in 1966 and included in the early months the opportunity to fly the Hunters on an informal basis. It looks like I flew this particular one twice in October out of Riyadh and three times out of Taif in November. The King used to spend some of the hotter months at his summer palace in Taif so I guess we were involved in some sort of flag waving exercise. OP DINGO Bill Sykes (RhAF) Writes:- Ian Pringle’s letter mentioning Chiswiti airfield sparked a few visual memories ... The five or six Dakotas, and the Lynxes, were parked at the beginning of the runway, with 32 helicopters arranged sixteen a side down past the halfway mark. Any Dak taking off was watched with great interest, nay alarm, as its wingtips skimmed over the blades of the Alos. One swing on take-off and at least a dozen aircraft would have been written off. Scary stuff ... I had photos but destroyed them. Refer. http://rhodesianadvertisements.blogspot.com/2013/05/rhodesian-armoured-car-regiment.html FLT LT. DES PLUNKETT - GREAT ESCAPE MAPMAKER Mike McGeorge (Air Rhodesia) Writes:- Just reading about Des Plunkett, perhaps this may interest the older folk. My twin brother John and I met Des Plunkett and his crew at the Coq d,or, Baker Avenue one day in September 1951, he was with Hunting Air Survey and here on a contract to map the Kariba area. Their Dak was parked at Belvedere Airport. As we had an interest in photography from our experiences with the Brit army in Palestine, meeting the photographer, Vic Harding, who could assist us in setting up a dark room at our home, we jumped at Des ,s invite for us to go on a mapping operation over Kariba. Taking off from Belvedere one October day in their Dak, There were some oxygen bottles down the side of the fuselage, which they said we must use if necessary by sucking from a tube attached to the bottle, as we were flying over ten thousand feet AGL. Quite an experience, so started a long friend ship, often meeting for the odd drink etc., Vic sorted out our first dark room where we made our first print, which gave us the same feeling as going solo at the gliding club, which was on Thorn Park on the Mazoe Road. I remember attending a Royal Aero Society meeting where Des spoke about his experiences at Stalag Lift 111, the consequent escape in 1944, where Des made all the escape maps, which you can read about in the book the Great Escape. He was picked up by the Gestapo in Prague, but can\'t remember how he got out of being shot like 50 of his colleagues. Des was very fond of Amirila cigars! I have a vague recollection that his co pilot was someone Campbell? I know he flew the Dove for Air Survey company for quite a time. I have a studio photo of him somewhere amongst my old prints. Very happy days, also flying from Belvedere in the Viking to Ft Jameson in Northern Rhodesia., as I was a tobacco buyer for Bindi Noakes, we were attending the NE sales where tobacco was off quota, consequently prices were very good, strip leaf going for 60 pence per pound! I think we needed an iron lung to get us back to normal on our return from a week in Fort Jimmy!! Refer. http://rhodesianheritage.blogspot.com/2013/05/flt-lt-des-plunkett-great-escape.html CARLTON HOTEL MENU Bill Teague (SAAF and RCAF) Writes:- What a wonderful global family you have created with ORAFS. It enlightens every day...... The Carlton Hotel prices for “To-Days Suggestions” menu is an eye popper and a scream. Can you believe it, Grilled sirloin steak for R1.15.... and now 50 years later I had a sandwich at our local airport cafe yesterday which cost C$14, at to-days exchange rate that is R126.....yikes Thanks for the memories.......... Refer. http://rhodesianheritage.blogspot.com/2013/04/carlton-hotel-menu-january-1963.html 617 (DAM BUSTING) SQUADRON Mike Hamence (RhAF) Writes:- I was very taken with Bill Teague\'s item about \'The Dams Raid\' and would like to refer you to comments made by Ken Brown in Chapter 13 of \'The Dambusters Raid\' by John Sweetman (Time Warner Books, 2003): \'Conclusion: Reflection, Significance and PostScript\': F/Sgt Ken Brown, pilot of Lancaster ED 918 (AJ-F) added a postscript to the statement, \"The story of the raid is one of sloppy planning, narrow-minded enthusiasm and misdirected courage... A conjuring trick, virtually devoid of military significance...\" Ken Brown publicly declared in 1992 that the raid that \"the raid was not worthwhile and the loss of eight crews unjustified\". On a personal note, Bill Jelley and I did the BofI on the tragic and unnecessary loss of Ian Donaldson and his crew in Canberra R2514 on Jan 12, 1977. Another comment: The term \'Wallis Bouncing Bomb, according to the Germans was incorrect - it was a \'Revolving depth charge\'. A true \'bouncing bomb\' was of course P-B\'s \'Alpha\' weapon. AIR RHODESIA BOEING 720S CONTINUED Reg Mullen (Air Rhodesia) Writes:- Thank you for this wonderful article Mitch, which has brought back wonderful memories of a great period of my life, of a great aircraft and everyone who flew in her. I will treasure this always. I did post a comment at the end - but not sure where it went to? Thank you so much for making all this possible.. Refer. http://rhodesianheritage.blogspot.com/2013/05/air-rhodesias-boeing-720s-continued.html AN AMAZING MAN A follow up to the article that Darryl Burlin made available to ORAFs. If you have not done so then please Google the women that are mentioned. These are Hanna Reitsch. She was the first woman astronaut and test pilot The other woman was Irma Grese, read her story and then you describe her, perhaps a monster from hell. Eric Brown (the amazing man) book \"Wings on Sleeve\' will be available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wings-My-Sleeve-Worlds-Greatest/dp/0753822091/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368776773&sr=1-1&keywords=eric+brown MASHONALAND FLYING CLUB - AIRDAY 95 Robb Ellis (The Bearded One) sent in this link:- Visit. http://vimeo.com/8608544 (Good footage) NZ SOLDIERS PERFORM EMOTIONAL HAKA FOR FALLEN COMRADES Sent in by Stretch Merrington (RhAF) More than 200 soldiers from New Zealand paid their respects to their fallen comrades by performing a mass Maori Haka at a repatriation. The emotional video, which has gone viral, shows the men from 2nd and 1st Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment performing the ancestral war cry for Corporal Luke Tamata, 31, Lance Corporal Jacinda Baker, 26, and Private Richard Harris, 21. The dead comrades were killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Afghanistan. The ceremony at Burnham Military Camp two weeks ago showed the coffins arriving by car to be greeted by the mass of soldiers. The group then break into a huge emotionally-charged haka war dance, similar to ones displayed by the All Blacks rugby team. Major John Gordon, a spokesman for the NZ army, said: “Many soldiers don’t tend to show their emotions but today you saw their collective grief.” Visit. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4510470/NZ-soldiers-perform-emotional-haka-for-fanormallen-comrades.html ORAFs records its thanks to the Sun (Wednesday) May 15, 2013 As Stretch says - This video is very stirring and certainly impressive – I think the dead silence at the end makes it all the more moving. JOCK OF THE BUSHVELD Stretch Merrington (RhAF) Writes:- I have searched You Tube for the Jock of the Bushveld song I want, but can only find the song by Johnny Clegg; Great Heart from the film starring the late Jonathan Rands. This is not the song I am after. The lyrics of the song I wish to obtain are:- “I sing of Jock of the Bushveld, a legend to this day, all the way from Lydenburg to Delagoa Bay”. Can anyone help in any way or offer any suggestion? I have done an internet search and come up Replies to Stretch on stretch.michele@clintmerrington.com MIKE HOMAN Mike has now moved in with family and ORAFs respectfully requests that all please keep Mike in their thoughts and prayers. Pauline (Mike\'s ex) can be reached on 072590492. Pauline and her husband, Peter from RhE, are looking after Mike. Please keep them in your thoughts - they are doing a wonderful job. GROUND LOOP Tony Smit (RhAF) Writes:- HI Guys, From what I remember, Ed Paintin landed at Rushinga to drop off supplies for the SAP. There was a crosswind from the left on Runway 09? Plus the fact that the SAP/Army had some RL trucks parked on the left as well. So!!! When he has a right brake failure, the aircraft started swinging left, and in order to correct it he applied power to the left engine. Eventually, with not much runway left, he had to apply a lot of power to the left engine to groundloop the aircraft or run over the edge of the runway where there was quite a drop. The result was as we see it in the pictures. He was very lucky not to be killed, as, on the Dak if the prop hits the ground with power on, it shears off chopping up the LH pilot area. This can be seen in one of the photos. I don’t know if Ed has seen this on ORAFs yet, but maybe he can give the actual account? Eddy Norris (ORAFs) Writes:- Ed is very welcome, to send ORAFs his account, in actual fact it would be greatly appreciated. Chris Higginson Wrote to Gerry Cleveland (PRAW) as such:- Hi Gerry Thank you for forwarding this to me. What Chris Dams writes is correct and describes very well the forces involved, but a contributing factor is that people tried to fly the Dak according to the \"Book\", and that is where part of the problem lies. I had the privilege of flying the Dak with people like Scotty Fraser who I believe had somewhat over 12000 hours on Daks which included flying the Berlin Air Lift etc etc. as well as up and down Africa. 12000 hours is not equitable to the same time on modern jets where the legs are long, the landing aids and facilities are new and all the runways are hard surfaces!! Dak flying was always a way to separate the men from the boys. But back to landings. After I did the Air Rhodesia Dak course and route checks I flew with Scotty Fraser on my first line flight. It was from SAY FTV BFO FTV SAY. On the approach into FTV we had to use the secondary runway (short) as the longer one was under repair. I set the aircraft up as taught, which if I remember correctly was 80 Knots on the Approach and 65 over the fence (long time ago now). Scotty watched what I was doing and said, \"No, that\'s not the way to fly the Dak. That\'s the way Operations says to do it, but let me show you what you really should do!\" He took control and reduced the speed until there was no speed registering on the ASI. The Dak was sitting comfortably in its \"wake\" like a speedboat \"off the plane\" and we crossed the fence, he closed the \"throttles\" and the aircraft sat on the ground in a three point attitude. The ground run was probably 150 yards (yes yards in those days, not metres) and we were at taxi speed. He had to apply power to get to the \'cross\' runway. Of course after that I had to vary what I did on the Dak depending on who I was flying with. At that speed ground looping is almost impossible. The problem is when landing at the \"recommended\" speed, the main wheels are on the ground, the tail wheels is high and there is stacks of inertia to get rid of, and the way to do that is to apply the brakes which induces all sorts of problems so ably described by Chris Dams. I did my worst take-off ever also at Fort Vic in a Dak. The problem was mixing the flying of the Viscount and the Dak, with much more time on the Viscount. On the Viscount the operational technique was to hold the \"stick\" forward to increase the nosewheel contact and traction, whereas on the Dak you held the \"stick\" back to keep the tailwheel, which was \"locked\" in the central position, on the ground for directional stability, until the rudder had sufficient airflow to maintain direction, then you raised the tail wheel off the ground. I did the unthinkable by pushing the stick forward on the Dak, and raising the tail too early. What followed was spectacular and memorable. We stayed on the runway, but only with the application of brakes. It was a severe lesson for me, and I was trained initially on tail wheel aircraft. Good Dak pilots are a special breed. I had an uncle who flew one into Eastern Poland during the war to pick up some VIPs. He landed in a potato field at night with just the light of four hurricane lamps, after flying through the Alps from Brindisi. He was given the Polish VC for that flight and there is a memorial there to commemorate the flight and every year members of the family go there to commemorate the event. A couple of years ago they even had a Dak fly over the field (not land) as part of the celebration. One of many Dak stories! Refer. http://www.ourstory.com/thread.html?t=328546&comments=1 COMMENTS FOR ORAFs Some user have difficulty in updating their comments direct to the ORAFs blogs, may I suggest that if you are \'clued up\' on this then please rather send your comments to ORAFs and I will update them on your behalf. I would recommend that you use the email addresses that is include against the article. This help me a lot and please remember to put your name and unit, i.e., RhAF, RhArmy or whatever. To clarify. I would add this address for replies regarding this request. Try it and see if it works for you. Send your answers/comments direct to Eddy Norris at orafs11@gmail.com SMILE A WHILE The Pastors New Teeth.... A Pastor goes to the dentist for a set of false teeth. The first Sunday after he gets his new teeth, he talks for only eight minutes. The second Sunday, he talks for only ten minutes. The following Sunday, he talks for two hours and 48 minutes. The congregation had to mob him to get him down from the pulpit and they asked him what happened. The Pastor explains the first Sunday his gums hurt so bad he couldn\'t talk for more than eight minutes. The second Sunday his gums hurt too much to talk for more than 10 minutes. But, the third Sunday, he put his wife\'s teeth in by mistake and he couldn\'t shut up. \"I got caught taking a pee in the local swimming pool today. The lifeguard shouted at me so loud, I nearly fell in.\'\' End of Newsletter Comments are always welcome - send them to Eddy Norris at orafs11@gmail.com Ref. Rhodesian Air Force, ORAFs