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de gaussing

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pj.ladd(at)btinternet.com
Guest

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:54 am Post subject: de gaussing

Hi,

  regarding the de gaussing posts of the last  couple of weeks.

 By coincidence, over Christmas,  I was reading  a book by a pilot in our Fleet Air Arm.

 Having finished off the war in Europe the Royal  Navy were sent to help the Americans wrap up the Pacific.  Consequently Victorious, Formidable, Indomitable, Indefatigable, and  Illustrious, all carriers, joined the Pacific Fleet and  were to carry  out a solo operation against Truk.  This pilot was just ducking under the  wing of an aircraft as it was capulted off when its wooden prop hit the deck,  split into pieces and one took nearly all of one leg off.

 Two years later, in 1947 he was still an outpatient  at hospital  and had been fitted with an  iron caliper.In `48 he was learning to fly again in an Airspeed  Oxford, a twin engined trainer, the only plane he could get into with his game  leg.

 To fly he cocked his right leg, with caliper, up on  the instrument panel and operated the rudder pedals with his left foot. After  getting lost on a couple of simple  cross country flights it dawned on him  the the caliper was upsetting the compass.

  

 Quote. "  While I lay on a bed the  caliper was taken away and put in a magnetic field. After it had been  de-gaussed, all was well and I had no further trouble"

  

 A gutsy guy  In the Service from the outbreak  of war. Involved in Dunkirk, battle of the Med. Taranto raid, Greek campaign,  Malta. crashed on a top secret mission trying to land a couple of spies in North  Africa. Due to faulty intel. he landed on a salt pan and went through the crust.  P o W of the Vichy French (who were supposed to be neutral)but the prisoners  were treated terribly with little food or water, thousands of PoW`a together in  a camp designed for a couple of hundred in the middle of the  Sahara.

 Ended as Commander with DSO, DSC.

  

 Very good read if anyone is  interested.

  

 Cheers and Happy New Year to all as I am closing  down until Jan 5th 2010

  

 Pat

   [quote][b]

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Richard Pike

Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 1670
Location: Blountville, Tennessee

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 8:55 pm Post subject: Re: de gaussing

I remember reading a book about Douglas Bader (Dogs Body) when I was back in middle school. Wasn't him, by any chance? (Been too long, forgot the details)



Richard Pike

MKIII N420P (420ldpoops)

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aoldman(at)xtra.co.nz
Guest

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 10:12 pm Post subject: de gaussing

No ,Ii don't think so , Douglas Bader lost both legs in a flying incident 

doing something he had been told not to in a bulldog I think . He over come 

that and  carried on to fly spitfires and hurricanes, he was POW and 

continued to be a PITA for his captors , ended up in colditz. As fare as I 

know he never served on a carrier or in the Pacific conflict Sorry some may 

not see this as kolb related but these are the aviators that gave us all the 

inspiration to test flight

Downonder

Kolb MK111c



Regards to all

                   Have a happy and prosperous new year and may the weather 

gods be kind to you all

---

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jbhart(at)onlyinternet.ne
Guest

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 6:50 am Post subject: de gaussing

At 08:55 PM 12/29/09 -0800, you wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		  



I remember reading a book about Douglas Bader (Dogs Body) when I was back in middle school. Wasn't him, by any chance? (Been too long, forgot the details)



Richard Pike

MKIII N420P (420ldpoops)




	


Try:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Bader



Do not archive



Jack B. Hart FF004

Winchester, In

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Dennis.Kirby(at)kirtland.
Guest

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 7:50 am Post subject: de gaussing

Pat Ladd wrote:  << … Due to faulty intel. he landed on a salt pan and went through the crust.  >>  

   

   

Pat –  

   

Oooo … that sounds hauntingly familiar!    

Did that in my Mark-3; have no wish to repeat the episode.  

Although for me, it was a faulty preflight (unsecured oil cap went thru the prop), not faulty intel.  

   

Thanks for sharing your wartime anecdotes with us – even if occasionally stretching the Kolb-related significance.  

I enjoy your stories!  

   

Happy New Year –  

   

Dennis Kirby  

Sandia Park, NM  

Do not archive  

      [quote][b]

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pj.ladd(at)btinternet.com
Guest

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 8:42 am Post subject: de gaussing

Happy New Year -



  

 You too Dennis.  i don`t know how deep you  went in but this guy threw a bicycle from where it was lashed  to the  interplane struts and in sank beneath the surface.

  I know you are just begging  to  know what a plane was doing with the bike tied on the wing.

 The plane was a Swordfish, a radial engined torpedo  bomber with a top speed of about 90. A biplane with a crew of 3, in 2 open  cockpits. The mission was to insert an Arab sheik and a Frenchman into North  Africa as spies. The bike was for their use. Both of them turned up at the PoW  camp some months later.

 The Swordfish was affectionately known as the  `Stringbag`. Accent on the first syllable NOT String Bag`.

  

 The book is `To war in a Stringbag` by Charles  Lamb.  A fascinating insight into a very different sort of war than we have  now.

  

 Note that the top speed was about that of a flat  out, balls to the wall,  Kolb Mk3. Hows that for a Kolb  connection?

  

 Cheers

  

 Pat

   [quote][b]

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pj.ladd(at)btinternet.com
Guest

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 8:47 am Post subject: de gaussing

Douglas Bader (Dogs Body)>



Hi Richard,



no it wasn`t.

 Bader was RAF and started the war with no legs. Also I don`t thinkthere is 

enough room to put your feet up on the instrument panel in a Spitfire. Bader 

was shot down by ground fire  attacking ground targets in France. He was a 

PoW in `Colditz`. I am surprised that the German visitors do not know 

anything about the castles use as a high security camp. Perhaps Americans 

don`t either. Anyone interested contact me off list.



The guy in my story was Navy and flew an obsolete torpedo bomber called the 

Swordfish. He was wounded after  VE day.



Cheers



Pat

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Dana

Joined: 13 Dec 2007
Posts: 1047
Location: Connecticut, USA

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:43 pm Post subject: de gaussing

At 11:33 AM 12/30/2009, pj.ladd wrote:



  	  Quote: 	
		  Bader was RAF and started the war with no legs. Also I don`t thinkthere is enough room to put your feet up on the instrument panel in a Spitfire. Bader was shot down by ground fire  attacking ground targets in France. He was a PoW in `Colditz`. I am surprised that the German visitors do not know anything about the castles use as a high security camp. Perhaps Americans don`t either. Anyone interested contact me off list. 	


 Those who want to know more about Douglas Bader should check out Paul Brickhill's bio of him, "Reach For the Sky".  Besides the Battle of Britian stuff, it provides a fascinating insight into the life of an RAF officer both before and during the war.



 There have been a number of books written about Colditz.  This was where the prisoners managed to construct a 2 seat glider to be used in an escape attempt.  The plan was to catapult it off the roof using the weight of a bathtub full of concrete, but the war ended before it could be used.



 Not Kolb related, so do not archive.



 -Dana

 --

  The early bird catches the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese.    [quote][b]

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pj.ladd(at)btinternet.com
Guest

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:34 am Post subject: de gaussing

This was where 

the prisoners managed to  construct a 2 seat glider to be used in an escape  

attempt.>>

  

 Hi Dana,

 that glider was rebuilt for a BBC programme and it  flew with  several of the Colditz glider  builders  looking on. They were tickled pink that it had actually  worked.

  

 IThe design was in fact very like the German  `Grunau` on which I went solo on 21st March 1965. 3 whole minutes flying with 4  minutes on my second flight. You can tell what the glide angle was like as those  launches were on the wire probably to 1000 ft. About the same as a Kolb i  guess.

 Any glider pilot before the war would have known of  the Grunau so not really surprising that they built it that shape.

  

 Happy New Year 

 Pat

   [quote][b]

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