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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0945.PDF
17 July 1953 99 SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm News R.N.F.C. "At Home" B AD weather restricted the attendance and activities at the annual "At Home" of the Royal Naval Flying Club at Gosport last Sunday. Indeed, part of our road journey from London had been made through cloud, hanging low on the hills, and it was no surprise that the only air- fa arne visitors to arrive had come from nearby Portsmouth. After an excellent lunch in the ward room of H.M.S. Siskin, awards were made at the club-house to winners of the various competitions. To Mr. H. Mitchell, C.F.I. of the Portsmouth Club- in Autocrat G-AIGU—went two prizes, one for possessing the most elegance in the Concours, and one for arriving at the predetermined and sealed time. Mr. P. Wannop of the same club repeated his Fair Oaks success with Messenger G-AVWB to win a further bottle of the gin on which his aircraft is alleged to run. By parking nearest to the club-house, he was adjudged to have travelled the greatest distance. The prizes were presented by Mrs. McWilliam, wife of Captain H. H. McWilliam, R.N. (Rtd), one of the directors of the club. 101 Celebrates O N Thursday evening of last week, No. 101 Squadron celebrated 36 years of existence by holding a guest night, at which a number of wartime and pre-war members were present. Among these were A.V-M. J. R. Whitley, A.O.C. No. 1 Group (a flight commander in 1931"), A.V-M. W. J. Seward, A.O.C. No. 63 Group, and A.V-M. F. C. B. Betts, who commanded the unit in 1933. Present also was Mr. J. D. North, chairman and man aging director of Bolton Paul Aircraft Ltd. It was Mr. North who designed the Boulton and Paul Sidestrands and Overstrands with which No. 101 was equipped in 1934, and FLY-PAST GLIMPSE: An impression, taken from a Transport Command Hastings during a re hearsal, of how much air crews participating in the fly-past would see of the Royal Review parade at Odiham. "Flight" photograph it was because of the latter being the first machine in service to have a power-operated turret that a turret— albeit a castellated one —appears in the squad ron badge. This turret was one of the special items demonstrated to the late King George V at the Royal Review held at Mildenhall in 1935- After-dinner speakers all recalled old days with No. 101, J. D. North remembering that S/L. Coleman, when he was not flying Sidestrands, practised the pastimes of glass-eating and fireblowing; the latter is not an entirely lost art in the squadron today. G/C. N. C. Hyde, the Station Com mander at Binbrook, proposed the toast of the squadron and referred to the halo which surrounds No. 101 as the first unit to get Canberras. That the pilots are the glamour boys of Bomber Command is be lieved, he said—even by the Wing Com mander Flying. For S/L. John Crampton the occasion was his last guest night with the squadron as its commanding officer, before handing over to S/L. W. D. Robertson next week. He is off to a staff appointment at No. 1 Group—his first non-flying job for over T3 years. With no Canberras to fly he will have to content himself with some fast motoring in his Maserati. "Binder" PET of the late W/C. Paddy Finucane— and indeed of the many hundreds who have passed through Hornchurch since the Battle of Britain—"Binder," the station mascot, is dead. Found in a half-drowned condition he had to be destroyed. He was a puppy in the early 1940s and grew up in an atmosphere of war, waiting always for his master" to return from operations. When the unhappy day came that Paddy did not return, "Binder" roamed the camp for many days looking for his master. From then onward he was a station dog, with many friends, but no master. More Arctic Supply Flights FOR the third year in succession, the R.A.F. is to undertake a series of flights within the Arctic Circle to assist the British North Greenland Expedition. On August 1st, five Sunderlands of No. 201 Squadron commanded by S/L. R. A. N. McCready, will leave R.A.F. Station Pembroke Dock, South Wales, for Greenland. Their base will be at Young Sound, on the north-east coast (position 74 deg 29' N, 20 deg 40' W), to which the expedition ship, the Polarsirkel, will deliver the stores. On August 5th the "Flight" photograph IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER: Six command ing officers attending No. 101 Squadron's thirty-sixth anniversary: A.V-M. F. C. B. Betts (1933), S/L. R. I. Alexander (1944), W/C. M. H. de L. Everest (1944), S/L. P. Wimberley (1948), S/L.J. Crampton (1952) and S/L. W. D. Robertson, who takes over next week. (See "101 celebrates," above.)
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