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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1552.PDF
656 FLIGHT, 26 October 1961 SPORT AND BUSINESS ... Rideout, has retired, and to the great loss of the Club "Tony"O'Connor joined the Cavalrymen. But with Mr Blackburn beaming around, with Chris Nutter o.c.bar, and Fred Arthur as head porter,the Club continues fortunate in its servants. As for "Elsie"—she is the one who ought to write the Inside Story, and what a taleshe could tell over five and a half decades! Many have left the caravan as it passed on; and before memoryfades completely may I indulge in some pen-portrait recollections? At random, then, 1 regret the passing of Bernard Stevenson—"Steve," so gentle and self-effacing and unobtrusively efficient as assistant secretary. In a lonely flat in an obscure London suburb,blind, aged, frail, forgotten, died Maj C. C. Turner, who in 1908 flew to Russia in the Mammoth balloon. Not so long ago, HarryDelacombe was out and about; in advanced age he was as spruce and sprightly as when he was a midshipman in 1872 (Harry wasoriginally barred from membership because, around 1906, he wrote for The Times newspaper). Then that unique character C. G. Greytook the long trail; he hated to be called a journalist, but in fact he was one of the best, and his duels in print with that Canadiancrustacean Cy Caldwell were a joy to read (Cy until at least recently was living in retirement near New York—he wrote me a letter full ofthe old fire and brimstone). Alas, no more shall we hear Goodman-Crouch and his famouscroak of a voice. As a boy Goodman was apprenticed to (I think) Renault in Paris, and his rendering of la langue verte—the almostforgotten language of medieval Paris—was a singular accomplish- ment. Impish John Boothman, so modest despite his so manyachievements, is sadly missing; but for the Armistice of 1918 he would have been court-martialled for joining the French ArmyRed Cross and serving at Salonika wildly under-age! The saga of Claude Grahame-White has also ended: the things that man didin the pioneer days, when—pace the SBAC Farnborough Display figures—no fewer than five million people turned out to see someof his flights! One of my particular buddies was Prince Viazemsky; he wouldexplain how easily his name could be remembered, because via meant road and hence earth; zem meant water in Russian; andsky was obviously air. I believe his account of his man-powered flight attempts and minor successes pre-1910 has never been pub-lished—but please, Messrs Gibbs-Smith, Geoffrey Dorman, etc, note that he never claimed a First (see above). He was concernedwith the big Sikorsky bomber, vintage 1914, but for many years lived in a vast house on Wimbledon Common, dreaming of inven-tions that did not materialize. Cheerful Col W. C. Devereux has also gone. The official historybooks ignore the fact that he (a) was certain the Germans would bee-line for his factory—this before 1938; and (b) actually built hisown air raid shelter in anticipation of an event that did come true. In his foresight, he asked the Home Office to supply him with anincendiary bomb and a shovel for picking up same. They did. When he had a dummy run in his factory, the incendiary easilyburnt through the official shovel. To his complaint about this the Home Office replied that he was "using the wrong type of shovelfor that type of bomb"! Sadly I personally miss Frank Hillier, who at the age of 17 waspicked out by the great Lord Northcliffe and packed off to America to open an office. Frank subsequently lived long in Paris, and hisanecdotes of La Ville Lumiere were joyous indeed. And then Guy Trundle, immaculate, always talking of the hunting field (so muchso that some thought he should have been with Hunting instead of with G.E.C.). Robert Blackburn, that great-hearted Yorkshireman, was one of those with fickle memory. I used to consult him in his flat at55 Park Lane, and after a few whiskies he would say: "Come up M Yorkshire—I've got the records there." But in Yorkshire there wasgreat hospitality, talk far into the night, and an assurance that the records must be in London after all. Maurice Wright was a man for all seasons. His stories of hisflights in Arabia in the First World War were a delight, whilst in the days when the Salon Aeronautique was in the Grand Palais hetook particular delight in not paying the old woman in charge of the toilette the then customary 20 francs on the ground that he had"hen fait." A strange death overtook Capt C. W. Byas, one of the earlyFleet Air Arm pilots. He fell out of an aeroplane while on a joy ride in East Africa. Coming from South Africa, at first he had theobvious nickname in the Royal Navy of "Baas." At an early stage in his Service career it was changed to "Boosy" after some hecticparty in the dear old Glorious; then it reverted to "Baas" as he rose in rank, and finally reverted to "Boosy" as he passed the chance offlag rank. It was in his flat in Fulham, on his farewell party when he decided to quit England for Africa on retirement, that the presentRAeC secretary-general, Col Rupert Preston, showed the photo- graph of Hume, of Setty case notoriety, which proved invaluableto the police. Hume had had no photographs taken except one for his "A" licence . . . and the Royal Aero Club had it! Nobody can fill the gap left by Sir Francis McClean, all of whoserecords were destroyed when his house at Henley-on-Thames was taken over by the Army in 1939. Nobody knew why it took club-member John Newling about five years to paint the excellent portrait of him now in the possession of the Club. The fact is Sir Frank—hewas always "Frank McClean"—liked to come to the bar on Saturday mornings where, ostensibly, dear John Newling was studyinghim . . . Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe; Gordon Olley; Gp Capt Rollason;Raymond Quilter; Capt A. G. Lamplugh; Air Cdre Maycock; Maj Shilson; Bennett-Baggs; Fred Sigrist; Mike Hawthorn;Ronald Walker (he really did come from Wagga Wagga!); all these have gone in the past decade. But perhaps nobody worked moreindefatigably abroad than Capt "Ken" Bartlett. . . the parfait gentilhomme in glorious morning dress at the Paris Salon. TheFrench used him as what might be called a second-line broadcaster at Le Bourget displays. Once, at Le Bourget, he reassured the massesby saying both in French and English: "There is no need to worry —the Salon authorities have at their disposal 70 ambulances, andmore than 100 doctors of the Reserve are in attendance!" Perhaps his greatest feat was not in aviation at all. It happened this way.As the Germans advanced into France in 1940 there was a retreat to Bordeaux. British people were advised to get out quickly;priority was given to married couples living in France. Now, the fact is that many "married" couples were not married by law, andrefused to be parted. Ken found the consul's office deserted, and with great initiative used that official's stamp to "marry" devotedcouples who, thus armed with the requisite piece of paper, escaped by sea to England and security. Clearly, the Royal Aero Club has never been devoid of colourfulcharacters, and so it remains today—though it would be clearly invidious to mention names from the present 2,000-p!us members.One knows some of the members of the Lansdowne, and without denigrating them in any fashion one can truthfully saythat they will benefit by the combined operation soon to be in being. Perhaps one may add a small warning: on the walls of 119Piccadilly used to hang, in a glass frame, the Rules of the Club. One day a completely exasperated member seized an orange, flungit at the rules, smashing the glass, and shouted: "Tell the secretary I'm the only man who has broken all the rules of this club. Giveme a resignation form!" No names, no pack drill... ANNUAL DINNER of the Association of British Aero Clubsand Centres will be held at the Waldorf Hotel, London, on Friday, November 3, at 7 for 7.30 p.m. THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT'S SUBSIDY to gliding clubs is to be increased this year from £3,403 to £5,000. Of this amount £2,600 is to be distributed directly to clubs by the Gliding Federation of Australia, in proportion to membership and the number of gliding certificates gained during the past year. The Government is to consult with the GF A Council as to the best manner of distributing the remaining £2,400. In addition, a grant of £800 towards the operating cost of the National Gliding School in South Australia will again be made this year. INCREASED RANGE for the Grumman Gulfstream has beenmade possible by the addition of extra wing fuel cells which increase the fuel load by 1,6401b to a total of 12,1001b. This modification,recently certified by the Federal Aviation Agency, increases the range by 400 miles to 2,940 miles. A modification programme fora number of the 75 Gulfstreams currently in service has been started. ARMY PUP/LS of the RAF Geilenkirchen Gliding Club, in Germany, with one of the club's Slingsby Skylark 3Fs
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