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At last I have found a use for this
very unusual piece of music from the 1930's.
As some of you may already know,
my Dad was in the RAF during the war.
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.
(Wish I had my Dad's good looks.)
He was a maintenance engineer on ground crew,
and as far as I know, he never got round to
learning to fly.
He went up on the planes for 'test flights',
and once told me how he was involved
in 'target towing'!
His job was to sit in the rear of a Westland Lysander and wind out a wind-sock behind the plane. The gunners on the ground would take pot-shots at the wind-sock for practice!!!
I understand, they used blanks rather than live ammunition.
Whilst in the RAF he got into building model aircraft in his spare time. Some were made out of Perspex and some from solid brass.
These were not meant to fly, they were more of the sort of thing, to sit on the mantle-piece at home.
After he got 'de-mobbed' I remember him coming home with this huge model aeroplane kit.
It was a flying model of a Lysander, similar to the one he did the 'target towing' in.
The war must have ended before he got round to building it.
It lay there, up in the loft, for probably twelve years,
before he thought I was good enough to build it.
Well I did, and the finished model won First Prize
in a Model Engineering Exhibition.
(Yes Helen, I still have the certificate somewhere!)
I also know there is a photograph of the finished model somewhere,
although I have still to track it down in Dads vast hoard of old pictures and negatives.
What I did find however, were a couple of pictures of other models I built way back around 1958. (I was sixteen then.)
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A four engined Handley Page Halifax.
(This model won the First Prize the following year.)
After this I was banned! (Only joking.)
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Another picture of the Halifax,
this time with a model Hurricane.
We even had a "Workshop Manual".
.
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(This is actually a spoof for Angus!)
About sixteen years ago, I took Dad down to Brooklands,
which had been recovered from the bottom of a lake.
There was a bit of a museum there with lots of Vintage bits including this Rolls Royce engine from a Hurricane.
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His Baby!
Dad knew where every 'nut & bolt' came from,
even after fifty odd years!
I could probably write a book on all the goings on
connected with aircraft. Brother Colin took up flying and even now my nephew Owain represents Britain in the Microlight flying competitions.
But what started me on this rambling old blog,
was when, on one of my riverside walks, I noticed a chap flying a radio controlled model aircraft in the 'regatta' field where I had been playing a couple of weeks earlier.
From here down - is now OUT of DATE.
Now take a peek at this.
He has a wee camera under the planes wing, and using an electric motor,
it is powered up to a couple of hundred feet and then it glides around filming.
The motor runs for about 30 seconds at the start.
As it glides around, you can see terrific views of the Thames, Cookham and even Bourne End in the distance.
JUST MY LUCK.
After all this effort - the chap has closed his
YouTube account!
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Sometimes I think I'll just give up!
Sorry. This has made a right mess of my blog.
This is the sort of thing us brothers could have only dreamt of, all those years ago when we were young 'aero-modellers'.
And just to finish.
One of those trees in the arial shots is no more.
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It blew down into the river a couple of weeks ago.
A week earlier I was standing just yards away
playing the organ on a similar windy day.
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Bernard, first of all, I know it was a long time ago but lots of congratulations on winning first prize in the Model Engineering Exhibition. And you've never looked back. We're very impressed here in Welshpool of what you can do. The wind made a fair job of that tree. The river looks full its banks too. Autumn's arrived with a vengeance.
ReplyDeleteWhy, your blog is not messed up. It is fine without the film.
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting about your dad and his stint in the air force.
All of those guys are heros. Without the men on the ground there would have been none in the air.
It is a shame to have lost those trees.
That was indeed a lovely and rambling trip down the lane, Mate, and much appreciated by me - despite the missing You Tube video.
ReplyDeleteOK Bernard I'm giving this one more go as I've had a bit of success this afternoon. Blogger has not been allowing me to comment on some blogs lately .. and yours is one of them.
ReplyDeleteWell here goes
Well thank goodness for that!!
ReplyDeleteThe joys of blogging - as you found out with your movie !! Never mind.
It seems you've always been a bit of a tinkerer then. I very impressed with TWO first prizes.. or are there more and you're just too modest to tell us? Those models are very fiddly so it is obvious you have always been good at that sort of stuff.
My Dad was also ground crew (in the RAAF during the war). He was an armourer - he loaded all the bullets and such onto the planes and made sure the guns all worked properly.
He served up in New Guinea and around there. At the end of the war his unit was just abandoned on some God-forsaken island and told to find their own way back to Australia. No food rations, no airflight home, Nothing !!!
The Americans who were also stationed there took mercy on them and flew them back to Townsville (with the US troops ) where the commander of the American base rang his wife at midnight when they landed and she cooked a meal for them. They had had nothing to eat for more than 24 hours! A grateful government ? I think not! My Dad has come away from all that thinking his contribution to the war was worthless. Very sad and makes me very angry. (sorry for the rant !)
Cheers
Planes have been an important part of my family as well. My dad was an airplane mechanic in the Pacific in WWII, my brother flew fire tanker planes for a while and then became a master airplane mechanic as well. I remember my dad spending hours building model planes, and my brother taking the biggest one and throwing it off the roof of the hop kiln (about 3 stories high) and smashing it to bits. Brother smashed a lot of stuff, but eventually learned how to put things back together better than they were in the first place. I grew up thinking all men could build and fix things. Big disappointment. (OK, so not all women can cook and sew, either.)
ReplyDeleteThanks Molly,
ReplyDeleteI only won in the Model Aeroplane section. There were lots of different sections.
The river is not too high at the moment. That wide section there, is used by the Cookham Sailing Club.
Hi Mary,
You are probably right, but as I had planned it around the flying model in the video it was a bit annoying to find it deleted just as I published. It was a shame because I thought it was an excellent bit of filming.
We only lost one tree - but it was a big one. It might ‘sprout’ some new growth - who knows?
Hello Tom,
Glad you liked it.
I’m sorry about that Helen.
Angus just emailed me to say he can’t leave comments either.
It is nothing I can correct, as it is a blogger problem I assume.
Hi Jan,
That’s interesting to know. You must dig out a few pictures and do a wee blog.
All us boys were able to make things and build models. Dad taught us all we needed to know and bought us Meccano sets, although he didn’t like us going in his shed and using his tools.
Cheers all..... Bernard
Nice to have you back Unc and with a very interesting post.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting post, Bernard. How sad to see the poor old tree like that. I hope the 'powers that be' don't decide to remove it altogether.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you've always been good at tinkering with stuff then Bernard. At least two first place !! Well done ! I imagine there have been more and you are just too modest to tell us about them.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad was ground crew too - an armourer in the RAAF serving in New Guinea and surrounds during the war loading the guns and such on the planes. He doesn't feel his contribution was important after all the horror tales on the Kokoda Track. Isn't that a shame?
Cheers
Nice piece Bernard, Reminds of my younger days when I used to watch the air cadets flying their model planes...
ReplyDeleteA very interesting post down memory lane.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the blog is messed up at all.
That's a great post, Bernard. Quite an epic. You have obviously inherited your Dad's skill of making intricate things.
ReplyDeleteWell, well, well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kath, Doohie, Helen, Sylve,
Cherie and Foody.
I was going great on the blog until I ran a test at the end and the YT bit didn't work. I did think of deleting it (the YT bit that is) but it is still there in case the video turns up again. He may have deleted it by mistake?
Us boys got all our mechanical and gardening skills from Dad and any musical or art interests from our Mother. We were lucky. They both taught us a great deal.
Cheers.....Bernard