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633Squadron
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Roger, contact main forum on 127 decimal nine, hold and maintain until further instructions. Good day...
633Squadron
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The other welder, whose name I couldn't remember earlier in the thread, is a Hilka Pro-Weld 1400 arc welder.
KemppiFrog
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Hi 633, I met a couple of the guys who flew the Mosquitos for the film. Neil Williams and Taffy Ritch(sp) Long time ago. NW was then flying for the Rothmans team and TR was CFI at Swanton Morley. TR also flew in the BoB film.
633Squadron
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Blimey! I am so jealous. I wish I had met the guys who filmed the BoB and films like 633/ Mosquito Squadron. I was gutted that the actually burned a proper Mossie in 633 Squadron, although I believe it wasn't airworthy.
KemppiFrog
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Couple of good stories from then. Neil had not flown a Mosquito, so Taffy flew a few circuits to show him the speeds and handling. They landed and got out so Neil could swop to the driving seat. Taffy then shut the hatch... from the outside. Neil shouted " Aren't you coming too?" " Not if I can't reach the controls, i'm not!"
Since the rudder was small and single engine work a bit tricky, there was some discussion about slow rolling on one engine, a bet followed and Taffy took one a/c up to 20,000 and won the crate of champagne.
For the same reason, an engine failure on take off was very bad news, so Taffy told Neil if it happened to shut down the other and take his best chance ahead. Much later Neil did have one, but kept going and swept a huge curve at under 100 ft until he could get the speed up to where the rudder could keep her straight.
In the early 70s we used to do good fabric work and often had control surfaces from interesting aircraft in the shop. Some came from the Strathallan Collection. So I get a call from them asking how much spare room we had in the hanger. Not a lot was the answer, Why? Oh, we have our Mosquito down your way in a few days and need somewhere to keep her over night. As you can imagine, I was wondering who I could boot out for the duration. But it wasn't practical. One of the bigger a/c hogging the space was our own DH87 Dragon Rapide, bought for the princely sum of £200. It had been left at E. Midlands and we paid off the hangerage and flew her out. Different days..
Since the rudder was small and single engine work a bit tricky, there was some discussion about slow rolling on one engine, a bet followed and Taffy took one a/c up to 20,000 and won the crate of champagne.
For the same reason, an engine failure on take off was very bad news, so Taffy told Neil if it happened to shut down the other and take his best chance ahead. Much later Neil did have one, but kept going and swept a huge curve at under 100 ft until he could get the speed up to where the rudder could keep her straight.
In the early 70s we used to do good fabric work and often had control surfaces from interesting aircraft in the shop. Some came from the Strathallan Collection. So I get a call from them asking how much spare room we had in the hanger. Not a lot was the answer, Why? Oh, we have our Mosquito down your way in a few days and need somewhere to keep her over night. As you can imagine, I was wondering who I could boot out for the duration. But it wasn't practical. One of the bigger a/c hogging the space was our own DH87 Dragon Rapide, bought for the princely sum of £200. It had been left at E. Midlands and we paid off the hangerage and flew her out. Different days..
KemppiFrog
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I think 633 is the historian, but, the big letters where unit codes i.e. which squadron the a/c belonged to. GZ would have been a Hurricane from Biggin Hill in 32 Sq but based at the satelite field of Hornchurch . Some where else and much smaller ( usually on the tail) would have been a serial no. particular to that airframe.
Edit: It is actually the Nato phonetic alphabet. Pre late 40s they used an earlier version; So G-ASSD (the actual civilian reg. of a Spifire used in the BoB film) would have been George- Able, Suger, Suger, Dog. Nowdays, it is Golf- Alpha, Sierra, Sierra, Delta.
Edit: It is actually the Nato phonetic alphabet. Pre late 40s they used an earlier version; So G-ASSD (the actual civilian reg. of a Spifire used in the BoB film) would have been George- Able, Suger, Suger, Dog. Nowdays, it is Golf- Alpha, Sierra, Sierra, Delta.
633Squadron
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The ident codes such as DW-K was so that individual aircraft could be identified by squadron. For example, DW-K was a Spitfire from 610 'County of Chester' Squadron. Ident codes for individual squadrons changed several times during WW2, to keep the Luftwaffe guessing as to how many aircraft the RAF actually had. Serial numbers, e.g. N3200 would denote where the aircraft was built, as blocks of serial numbers were allocated to factories for production. Large numbers as part of the RAF squadron codes(e.g. B6-G) were introduced from 1943 onwards. More here:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAF_Squadron_Codes
Incidentally, 633 Squadron never existed in WW2 and is entirely fictional, although some 600-series squadron numbers were used by the RAF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAF_Squadron_Codes
Incidentally, 633 Squadron never existed in WW2 and is entirely fictional, although some 600-series squadron numbers were used by the RAF.
