No, Chuck would still be here since I was about 3 months old at the time
that happened. But my world would likely have been very much different
and there might well be no Dr. Flash. :-)
Chuck Norcutt
On 1/26/2015 10:29 AM, Charles Geilfuss wrote:
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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