That *could* have been a disaster: No Chuck! No Dr. Flash!
Charlie
On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 10:06 AM, Chuck Norcutt <
chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> There's a little story that goes with my father and P-38s. He was an
> aircraft mechanic and not a pilot but he did have to move aircraft himself
> from time to time so the mechanics were at least taught how to start and
> taxi an aircraft to a different location.
>
> The mechanics preceded the pilots to Honington in early '44 when the P-38s
> were flown in by transfer pilots. The transfer pilots just left aircraft
> at the end of the runway and left immediately to pick up more aircraft. It
> was up to the mechanics to move the aircraft to their normal parking
> places. It was late at night and my father had moved very many aircraft
> and was dead tired. To move them to the parking spots he had to taxi the
> aircraft down a runway that was lined on both sides with hundreds of drums
> of aviation gas. He was so tired that at one point he fell asleep at the
> controls and suddenly awoke to discover that he was airborne. Fortunately
> he had not lifted off very far nor veered off to the side and into the gas
> barrels. It could have been a really bad and probably fatal accident.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
>
>
> On 1/26/2015 12:56 AM, ChrisB wrote:
>
>> I read the entry for P-38 and it doesn’t mention in the summary at
>> the start that it was a virtual death trap. It had problems of
>> compressiblity at high airspeed which the engineers did not solve
>> until well after it came into service. I suppose the requirements of
>> operations forced everyone's hand, but such an aircraft would not be
>> allowed into service today.
>>
>> I do know Honington, as you say. Unfortunately it’s not a full-time
>> airfield now: it has been taken over by the RAF Regiment, and they
>> don’t fly . . .
>>
>> Chris
>>
>> On 26 Jan 15, at 01:53, Chuck Norcutt
>>> <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>> My father used to repair them during the war
>>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-38_Lightning
>>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-38_Lightning>> as well as
>>> P-51s <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_P-51_Mustang
>>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_P-51_Mustang>> He was
>>> stationed at RAF Honington from 1943-45 which Chris is quite
>>> familiar with.
>>>
>>
>> --
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