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after another two minutes. The five of us, that's the Battle Flight four and me, taxied out together, did a stream take-off, formed up in line astern formation and were back over base in 10 minutes to fly down the runway, do a formation break into down wind, and a stream landing without further ado.
1px-trans.gif, 43 bytesAlthough I had not yet been assessed as 'operational', on the 4th of December I was detailed off to fly as No.4 on Battle Flight in the morning. This meant taxying my armed aircraft out to the readiness pans close to the end of the runway where there was a dispersal hut for the pilots and necessary ground crew. The routine was, once in flying kit, to sign the Duty Book, see Chiefy and sign the Form 700 of one's allocated aircraft, and walk out to it, carry out a thorough pre-flight inspection, get in, and taxi to the dispersal at the end of the runway in use.2 Once facing in the right direction and parked up, one shut down the engine and climbed out, being careful to leave the parachute and seat straps tidy and immediately accessible for strapping in in the minimum of time in the event of a scramble. We left our helmets, with goggles and oxygen mask attached, beside the gun-sight on the cockpit coaming. We did not remove our Mae Wests during the duty period. The ground crew connected up the trolley-acc in readiness and made sure that the wheel chock chains were laid out so that chocks could be pulled away smartly. In the dispersal hut we spent away our time reading, chatting, dozing, or maybe playing cards while we waited for something to happen. Sometimes nothing did, so, at the end of our stint we just taxied our aircraft back to dispersal, duty done, signed the Form 700 and the Duty Book, and that was it.
1px-trans.gif, 43 bytesOn this particular morning we were airborne three times. The phone rang and we were given the order to scramble and make for a given height on a given heading and, when airborne to change radio channels to a given frequency and call a given call-sign. Running out to our aircraft the ground crew helped us to strap in and, sometimes even before we had our helmets fastened, we started our engines and taxied out and did a stream take-off, calling each other to check our radios. Rapidly forming up into battle formation we climbed on our given heading. The leader then told us to change channels, then another brief radio check, and the leader then called the given call-sign to see what 'trade' there was.
1px-trans.gif, 43 bytesOn those three scrambles we intercepted, under radar control, several 'bogies'. Each intercept unfortunately ended up as a tail chase, either through controller error, or our inability to see the target aircraft soon enough to carry out good quarter attacks. After each attack the controller gave us 'Pigeons to base' (the course to steer to, and distance from, base). When on potential combat missions such as these the last thing we needed to be concerned with was map reading and worrying about where we were. After landing and returning to the readiness pans our leader would debrief us and we would discuss what, if anything, went wrong, and how to improve our performance. In the meantime our aircraft would be refuelled and tended by the ground crew in readiness for the next scramble. Each of our sorties that morning lasted 45 minutes.
1px-trans.gif, 43 bytesThis was the very first time that I had personal experience of being in contact with, and controlled by, radar. The subject was still a mystery to me as I had had no training in its use whatsoever.
1px-trans.gif, 43 bytesThis, too, was the first time I was doing the job I had been trained over a period of two years to do. And I was still only a beginner.
1px-trans.gif, 43 bytesThere was another aspect to this, for I was still a novice regarding the way a Tactical Air Force was run. I had seen the mobile Group set-up at Sundern where it
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2 The Form 700 was that particular aircraft's serviceability log. It was signed by the pilot as accepting the aircraft, then, on landing, the pilot would record any malfunctions and sign the entry. The ground crew would rectify the fault (if any) and/or carry out any scheduled servicing, and record what had been done, whereupon the aircraft would be ready for flying again.
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