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And without the protective sheeting over it...

Thanks Dixie. I love Hendon and try to go there once a year.

ORIGINAL: Speedy

Thanks Dixie. I love Hendon and try to go there once a year.

Hendon is great, I've not been to Cosford Museum since I was in training just round the corner. They've got some interesting bits and pieces there if you can get to it. An Avro Lincoln and a TSR.2 plus a new Cold War hangar that's been recently built.

This should be an easy one of chaps (or ladies) of your calibre to figure out.

Looks like the tail turret of a Lanc.

Bill

Indeed it is. Managed to get my first trip on the old girl last night [8D] 2 1/2 hours in the air and several flypasts as we went to Boscombe Down and back.

Back home safely [8D]

Cool. I'd love to fly in that.

Bill

It only took me 10 years of trying! [:D] Or 32 if you include the time before I joined the RAF.

Dog years?[:D]

Martin, Martin, Martin. You face the pointy end of the camera OUT when taking snapshots. C'mon mate. [:-]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

Martin, Martin, Martin. You face the pointy end of the camera OUT when taking snapshots. C'mon mate. [:-]

That's the thing with these new fangled camera phones, there's no pointy end. So it's too easy to get it wrong.

Here's one I took pointing the right way. This is just after a flypast of Boscombe Down, a place that used to be one of the most interesting airfields in the world. Home of the Empire Pilots Test School, a place where new prototypes were tested and also where captured enemy aircraft were evaluated.

The rear turret is an odd place to be. It's too small for me to sit upright so I had to lean on the guns to avoid neck pain. But after an hour I had lost the feeling in my nether regions, and that was on a warm day and a short flight. The whole tail vibrates, a lot. It's sat in the propwash from the two inboard engines and is also subject to turbulence etc to a far greater degree than the mid-upper turret. We also had the top hatches in which meant that the fuselage was full of exhaust fumes, so when myself and another chap switched places we both felt sick very quickly. [:(] Spending an hour on a summer evening is bad enough but it's nowhere near spending 6 or more hours on oxygen in the dark and freezing cold with the constant danger. No wonder the rear gunners I've met have all been short.

EDIT: It's amazing how quickly you end up feeling detached from what's going on as well. Everyone else is talking about things up ahead on the right or left and you've got no idea what is going on.

This is a bridge. I don't know where it is, but as I'm not a navigator no-one was bothered [:D] But speaking of the navigator, it may be surprising to know that the nav was constantly giving instructions to the crew. At one point he was telling them that they were 16 seconds ahead of schedule.

Last one for now, and a fitting one I think.

Over the piano keys as we land back home.

ORIGINAL: Dixie

Last one for now, and a fitting one I think.

Over the piano keys as we land back home.

This one is very cool! [8D]

When I rode in the B-24 several years back they said we could climb into the turrets (which they don't allow on the static tour on the ground). I started climbing into the tail turret and realized if I went any further I was not going to get out without some serious help. I'm not over-weight, but I am on the tall side. Those turrets were cramped.

Imagine riding in the ball turret on a B-17 or B-24. Those guys were almost always the shortest on the crew. I read one account of a ball turret gunner that said he welcomed the heavy flak over the target because it meant he could pop the hatch and sit up on the rim of the turret until they cleared the target area. After that it was back into the hamster ball.

Bill

Years ago used to work w/ a couple of old bomber guys - one was a b-24 pilot shotdown over ploesti (one of the later missions) & the other was a ball gunner. he said his pilot took one look at him when they formed into a crew & said you're the ball gunner (he was about 5ft & the rest were several inches taller)

Cool photos Dixie [8D] [&o]

A few from today, I managed to grab the easy role of brakes when we moved the Dak back into the hangar.

Whilst a few of the guys finished off sorting out MK356.