May - June 2022 Newsletter

CLUB PROGRAMME to August 2022
Tuesday 24 May Club Social Afternoon Club Lounge 1330
Tuesday 7 June Club Social Afternoon Club Lounge 1330
Tuesday 21 June Club Luncheon Club Lounge 1230 for 1300
Tuesday 5 July Club Social Afternoon Club Lounge 1330
Tuesday 19 July Annual general Meeting 1300
Tuesday 19 July Club Social Afternoon Club Lounge
Tuesday 2 August Committee Meeting 1230
Tuesday 2 August Club Social Afternoon Club Lounge 1330
Tuesday 16 August Club Luncheon Club Lounge 1230 for 1300
Tuesday 30 August Club Social Afternoon Club Lounge 1330

PRESIDENTS NOTE

What a tumultuous year we are experiencing. Covid has impacted all of us to a greater or lesser extent and it has certainly impacted our Club programme. Flexibility, one of the primary principles of Air Power, has been right to the forefront of our activities and we have needed to demonstrate it frequently. The uncertainty surrounding Covid rules and regulations and how we are supposed to respond has kept us on our toes. Sadly, commemoration of ANZAC Day nationally was one of those events that were affected and we could not find a way to make it happen. I hope that you were all able to at least reflect on what the day remembers and that 2023 will see a return to normality.

The absence of committee members has also necessitated some date changes:
The 2022 AGM now Tuesday 19 July and Lunch in Brevet Lounge 21 June.

If any member is interested in serving on the committee please discuss with the Secretary or myself; similarly with items for the AGM agenda.

Meantime keep safe, keep warm and I look forward to welcoming you to our Tuesday afternoon social gatherings.
Kevin

Luncheon: 21st June 1230 for 1300
We trust you will all make it to our Luncheon next month. Please advise Kevin by Thursday 16th of June that you will be attending and the usual cost of $20 per head applies

LEAP OF FAITH

In WW1, fighter pilots went down with their aircraft. Could a bag of folded silk save them? In 1917, a New Zealander jumped out of a plane to find out.

AS CAPTAIN CLIVE COLLETT clambered out of the rear seat of the Royal Flying Corps BE2 and edged out onto its lower port wing, he could see, 180 metres below him, an ambulance and fire tender drawn up on the field. Shouting tersely to the pilot about the poor likelihood of either being of any use, Collett paused to steel his nerves, then launched himself head-first towards Suffolk. A cinematographer caught on film Collett’s tumbling fall, the jerk of his trailing cord as it pulled the folded silk from a canvas bag on the aircraft’s fuselage, and then his slow drift to earth beneath his billowing parachute.

It was January 13, 1917 and the 30 year old from Blenheim had become the first person to make a successful parachute descent from a Royal Flying Corps aircraft. The demonstration at the Orford Ness Experimental Station, and a second equally successful jump several days later, were important. Across the Channel, in the skies of France, the raging air war was taking its toll on young British pilots who all too often died at the controls of their flimsy and highly flammable aeroplanes. Indeed, just 3 months later, in “Bloody April”, the Royal Flying Corps would lose 245 aircraft and 211 crew, killed or missing during the British offensive at Arras.

For years, stricken balloonists had made use of primitive parachutes. Now, thanks to the work of inventor Everard Calthrop, a more advanced and less cumbersome version- he called it the “Guardian Angel” – promised to do the same for pilots of heavier than air fighting machines.

Collett was the ideal man to test Calthrop’s life saving device. A skilled and daring pilot, he had returned from the Front for medical treatment after crashing his plane the previous April, and after recovering, had been transferred to Suffolk as a test pilot. Shortly after the parachute trials, he was back in action over France, flying the British fighter, Sopwith Camel. He had a reputation as an aggressive pilot-he “used to come back shot to ribbons nearly every time he went out”, remarked British air ace James McCudden.

Inevitably, he was soon wounded again, this time purportedly by the Bavarian flying ace Max von Muller.

In a letter sent from a French hospital in October 1917, Collett told his mother: “I was fairly successful during this last spell in France, and managed to shoot down 14 German aeroplanes. In my last scrap I shot down 2 double seater aeroplanes, one after the other; then attacked and drove down one of their fast fighter scouts.” These and other exploits on the Western Front made him New Zealand’s first fighter ace and earned him a Military Cross and bar.

His luck wasn’t to last. On December 23, 1917, Collett was killed while test flying a captured German aircraft in Scotland, after apparently misjudging his height above water and plunging into the Firth of Forth. The parachute silk he had given his sweetheart Peggy was never made into the intended wedding dress. Instead, the fabric, with traces of Orford Ness beach sand in its folds, was sewn into more practical garments for others to wear.

As to the jumps themselves, despite Collett’s achievement, and in the face of mounting casualties, the British High Command was reluctant to issue parachutes, fearing, in the words of an unofficial report, that they “might impair the fighting spirit of pilots”. There was also doubt about the suitability in combat of static line parachutes. When, after the war, the newly formed Royal Air Force did introduce parachutes, they were of American design.

LANCASTER
We received a delightful comment from Jack Hall, sent to John Lay, in regard to the Lancaster story in our last newsletter. Thank you Jack:

“Hi John, Just a small observation re the LANCASTER article. After delivery of WU13 from New Caledonia, another Lanc came down to Whenuapai to return Capt Rivera and crew to Base. I
was fortunate to be included on the crew of WU13 for the 3 hour show- flight over the North. Highlight of my career! Regards. Jack Hall”

Note: For some years after the Lancaster was settled at MOTAT the late Brian Senn, known to many members, would run the Lancaster engines from time to time.

GONE FISHING
One morning a husband returns to the cabin after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap.
Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out, since it is such a beautiful day. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book. Along comes a Game Warden in his boat.
He pulls up alongside the woman and says, " Good morning, Ma'am, what are you doing?" "Reading a book," she replies , (thinking,"Isn't that obvious?") "You're in a Restricted Fishing Area," he informs her. "I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing, I'm reading."
"Yes, but you have all the equipment. I'll have to write you up a ticket. " "For reading a book,?" she replies. "You're in a Restricted Fishing Area ," he informs her again ."
"But officer, I'm not fishing, I'm reading." " Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to write you up a ticket and you'll have to pay a fine."
"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault," says the woman." "But I haven't even touched you," says the Game Warden . "That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment." "Have a nice day ma'am," and he immediately departed.
MORAL:
Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think.
Send this to four women who are thinkers. If you receive this, you know you're intelligent.
Sure God created man before woman. But then you always make a rough draft

Keith Jolly, Editor
The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance