Most of 93 Squadron's pilots.   This photo was taken during the January 1954 detachment to Sylt, before Al Paterson left. As always in such photos, I am at the centre at the back.   [Click to see fully labelled version.]

There were joys when flying, two of which spring to mind.   One of these was, after climbing for seeming ages through dense cloud, to come out into brilliant sunlight, then, when flying over the cloud top, to look down and see myself, or rather the image of my aircraft with me in it, surrounded by an ice-crystal halo against the cloud.   With the sun shining through the canopy, and with a bit of height adjustment, it was possible to wave to myself in the centre of this perfectly circular rainbow.   Another similar spectacle was, after climbing to height on a dusk sortie, to see the ground darkening below while I was still in bright but reddening sunlight, and for this red light to illuminate the cloud columns in a pink glow, the columns themselves being white at the top and then pink as one looked down them, until they turned grey below sunset level, and, nearer the earth, turn darker, almost to black, at their bases.8   Most of us would occasionally mention these things.

A little different, but still on the subject of cloud, was the day when I was briefed to climb to altitude for a solo cross-country.   The cloud base was low and dark although the forecast was excellent.   Climbing, I was soon in dense cloud and was quickly having trouble with the climb because I was being tossed about.   At one moment my VSI showed almost no climb at a given attitude, air speed, and throttle setting, and the next I was climbing at an almost alarming rate.9   I was in extreme turbulence and suffering the effects of severe up and down draughts. Staying on my chosen heading, I eventually broke out into clear air. Looking around I realised that I had just flown up through a burgeoning cu-nim, and it was the only one anywhere over the North German Plain!10
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8 These phenomena can be seen, given the right conditions (very common), by passengers in the window seats of modern jet passenger aircraft. Sadly, most passengers are too engrossed with in-flight entertainment to be bothered even to notice these beauties of nature.
9 VSI = Vertical Speed Indicator.
10 Cu-nim = abbreviation for cumulonimbus, a cloud of marked vertical development. In this case a developing thunder cloud.
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