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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0856.PDF
12 FLIGHT, 3 July 1953 CORNISH NAVAL AIR DAY R.N.A.S. Culdrose Stages a Successful Coronation Display SHORT of going to sea in an aircraft carrier, there is no better way of learning about the Fleet Air Arm than to attend one of the air days held annually by Naval air stations. Such an event was staged on June 20th by H.M.S. Seahawk, alias R.N.A.S. Culdrose, which is situated in typically beautiful Cornish countryside near Helston. In an area which is sparsely populated, the attendance figure of 9,000 is indicative of the interest displayed by the neighbouring public. Housing a great diversity of aircraft, Seahawk is one of the most interesting Naval air stations, as well as one of the most attractive, with its rural setting, neat buildings and trimly cropped grass enclosing long runways. In the words of its commanding officer, Capt. H. C. N. Rolfe, it is also "the most modern and probably the busiest." Culdrose is responsible for the advanced training of all Naval fighter pilots, and the circuit is used daily by all the latest Naval types of jet and piston-engined high- performance aircraft. In addition, it is the base for an early- warning squadron and, when necessary, for one or other of the carrier air groups. Over the past year the Fleet Air Arm has undergone a good deal of reorganization and re-equipment, and this is reflected by the present set-up at Culdrose. No. 736 Squadron, the advanced jet unit, is fully equipped with Attackers and Meteor 7s, and is feeding pilots to the new front-line Attacker, Sea Venom and Sea Hawk squadrons. First principles of jet-fighter handling technique are taught, in Meteor 7s, Vampire T.ns and Sea Vampires, by No. 759 Squadron. Sea Furies—both single-seaters and tandem training versions—equip No. 738 Squadron, whose strength was increased from 14 to 28 aircraft when 736 Squadron re-formed with jets last August. AH three squadrons of the Naval Air Fighter School were represented in the composite Sea Fury-Attacker-Meteor mass formation which flew over Culdrose during the display. Many of the participating pilots had arrived there only within the past two or three weeks on completion of their 15 months' basic and elementary flying courses, but the formation was near-perfect. Also at Seahawk is the only American-equipped squadron of the Fleet Air Arm—No. 849, which has three-seat Douglas AEW Skyraiders. These mighty single-engined machines carry a power ful under-belly search radar, whose two operators scan the movements of ships and low-flying aircraft. Skill, precision and dash are all demanded of the Naval pilot— and these qualities were displayed from start to finish of the Culdrose flying programme. The curtain-raiser, billed as "Vam pires in Combat," was performed by Lt.-Cdr. Price and Lt. Whitehead, who dog-fought with great realism. Their mock battle was followed by an exhibition of dive-bombing, combined with trim aerobatics, by three Sea Furies (pilots, Lt.-Cdr. Abraham and Lts. Young and Austin). A small water tank in front of the control tower, containing an occupied one-man dinghy, then attracted the attention of the crowd and of an S-51 Dragonfly. The rotorplane windmilled to an aerial standstill overhead, dropped its rescue harness and, in now customary fashion, winched up the "stranded pilot." An informative programme pointed out that the S-51 is in fact maintained for this very pur pose, supplementing the A.S.R. launches at Falmouth. An item we had not seen previously was the relay race between two three-man teams ("old pilots and young pilots") flying, in each case, one Attacker, one Sea Fury and one Meteor 7, but in different orders of take-off. An Attacker and Sea Fury set off first; the second and third aircraft in each team were flagged away as their respective predecessors re-appeared overhead. There was, of course, no need for handicapping, as the average speed of each team was potentially equal. Aircraft remained in view throughout the 11-minute, three-lap race. The result was a win by at least 20 sec for the young men, who saved their Meteor 7 for the final lap. The printed programme explained the background to the next "Flight" photograph ROTARY RESCUE: Culdrose maintains an S-51 Dragonfly at constant readiness for rescue work, as demonstrated here during the recent station's air day. event—an Army-support demonstration in which soldiers called up two Sea Vampires from a "cab-rank" to soften-up a strong point. Culdrose houses the H.Q. section of the Carrier-borne Ground Liaison (C.B.G.L.) Group, which attaches small Army sections to both ships and air stations and provides the link between the land forces and the F.A.A. One of their many tasks is to brief and train Naval pilots, including those now serving off Korea, in ground-support duties. The CO. of No. 736 Squadron, Lt.-Cdr. Rawbone, led an aerobatic team of four Meteor 7s which remained inseparable even at the point of touch-down. Despite a stiff cross-wind gusting up to 30 kt, they made a flawless landing in box formation. In contrast, Lt.-Cdr. Abraham's Sea Fury formation performed synchronized aerobatics after taking off from opposite ends of the runway. A "cross-over" was the finale of this event, the Sea Furies approaching from four points of the compass to pass each other in the centre of the airfield. Between aerobatic shows there was a fire-fighting competition in which the Penzance Brigade fought gallantly but were outstripped by the Seahawk team. Judging from the buzz of excitement produced by its arrival, the Canberra B.2 brought from Manby by Cdr. Stovin-Bradford (who is undergoing a course at the R.A.F. Flying College) and F/L. Ringer was the first seen at close quarters in this part of Cornwall. The R.A.F. pilot's demonstration routine was simple but extremely effective : a steep climb on take-off, very slow up wind run past the enclosures with "everything down" and another steep exit from view, followed in quick succession by a speedy fly-past at nought feet. Another fine display was given by a Brawdy-based Sea Hawk of No. 706 Squadron, whose Ace of Diamonds emblem was plainly visible on the fuselage. We heard praise from all sides for Comm. Pit. Walker's handling of this trim, lively fighter—the latest in service with the F.A.A. The success of the Culdrose display could be attributed not only to the quality of the flying and precise timing of events, but also to imaginative presentation. The Skyraider's appearance, for example, was transformed from just another demonstration flight into an event of outstanding interest—by the simple expedient of linking a G.C.A. controller's microphone to the public-address system. Better than any printed explanation, the Skyraider's approach showed exactly how the talk-down is accomplished. The final item was the fly-past and stream landing by 16 Sea Furies, eight Attackers and eight Meteors. Many of the Navy's guests remained after the display for Autocrat or Gemini joy- rides, or to inspect the static exhibition of aircraft and equipment. MOCK ASSAULT AT SCULTHORPE EARLY on the morning of Sunday, June 21st, a British para chute battalion made a mock attack on the U.S.A.F. base at Sculthorpe, Norfolk. The units concerned were a composite company of the 13th (Lancashire) Battalion, the Parachute Regi ment (T.A.), supported by detachments from 300 Airborne Squadron, Royal Engineers (T.A.), 46 Parachute Field Ambulance (T.A.), 46 Airborne Workships (T.A.) and 5 and 6 sections 16 Airborne Divisional Provost Company (T.A.). On the previous evening four Fairchild Packets had flown at 700ft over a field to the west of the base and put down 152 parachutists. A diversion ary raid was made by about a score of men around midnight, and two hours later the main force penetrated the airfield perimeter.
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