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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1692.PDF
38o FLIGHT OCTOBER 2ND, Getting to Know the Chipmunk : R.A.F. Stations, Hen low, Marham and Cran- well "At Home" ; Opening Butlin's Pwllheli Airfield " Flight " photoimphMr. W. £. But/in, attracted by the D .H. Chipmunk, was anxious to exper?e«€ftJt£4i£r/o/7_in the air. This first wholly de Havilland of Canada design was of particular interest to Mr. Butlin who, though born in South Africa, was brought up in Canada. By W/C. MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.G. IT had been obvious for some time that the week-end olSeptember 2Oth-2Jst was going to be a very busy one.Had it been possible I should like, to have visited each ofthe seventy-odd R.A.F. stations "at home" to the public in recognition of Battle oi Britain week, but in addition the guestweek-Cnd organized by Mr. Butlin at his carnp at Pvvllheli in North Wales promised to be both enjoyable and interesting.As things turned out I managed to see a little of everything and to enjoy myself thoroughly in the process. Instead ofwriting individual descriptions of airfields and programmes I have decided to offer the account as a personal diary. To agreat extent the " round up " of stations was made possible by de Havilland's, who provided one of their much-sought-afterChipmunks as transport. Quite early in the week-end, as a result of the great interest shown in this attractive little trainer,I decided that a suitable slogan would be "fly a Chipmunk and feel important." On Friday afternoon it seemed that all the planning mightbe in vain ; Hatfield reported a clamp. Almost miraculously, however, conditions improved and by 5 o'clock visibility wastwo to three miles and I was able to take-off on a positioning flight to Fair Oaks, my home airfield, to prepare for an earlystart on the following morning. Some weeks ago I had flown the Chipmunk for about anhour and it did not take long to confirm my first assessment that it is an exceptionally pleasant little aircraft to fly. Theexample I borrowed had a Gipsy Major IC engine and wooden airscrew and was fitted with Canadian-style instrument panel.One on R.A.F. trials with Service-type panel and V.H.F. radio has a Gipsy Major 10 and metal airscrew. With Major ICengine, the cruising speed was about no m.p.h. indicated and 130 m.p.h. was the maximum. In view of the excellent take-off and climb performance and the tendency to over-rev by as much as 200 r.p.m. in all-out level flight I decided that acoarser pitch airscrew could be fitted with advantage for cross- country work. On Saturday morning bright sunshine favoured our take-off—my wife now occupied the rear cockpit—and Henlow, first station to be visited, was reached uneventfully on E.T.A. Incontrast to the flight from Hatfield on the previous evening the visibility, was perfect, and whereas in the first place I hadstrained my eyes peering downwards to make sure no landmark was missed, London was now spread out like a map with theenormous runways at London Airport seeming to reach out to the horizons and the belt of airfields, Northolt, Hestori, Den-ham, Hendon, Elstree, Radlett, Hatfield, Luton appearing almost to overlap. Henlow Henlow had arranged a particularly interesting display ofwhich the static exhibition was a strong feature. The station will in future be a training unit for various trades includingfitters A and E and to the armament section has recently been added a guided missile division The public Were able toexamine a Vr, a Baka Jap suicide machine, a Fritz X guided anti-ship bomb and others, including air and ground launchedguided rocket A. A. missiles such as the X4, Fuerlilie and Rhein- tochter. In the engine section were several British units and a sectioned Jumo 004 jet unit.The flying programme included a single-engine demonstrationon a Mosquito by F./O. Thomas, Halifax and Dakotasupply dropping, fighter attacks by a Spitfire on a Halifax, fol-lowing aerobatics by the Spit (pilot F/L. Dodds), also de-monstrations by F/L. Hff- croft in a Feiseler Storch andG/C. Walker in an antique Sopwith " Pup." We were due at the CentralBomber Establishment at Mar- ham, Norfolk, for lunch andagain the flight was made according to plan. The track It was no mean feat to prepare the Butlin Broom Hall airfield near Pwllheli, but the grass runways are now quite suitable for such aircraft as the Proctor and Consol. Some 38 visiting aircraft arrived for the opening ceremony.
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