"Main Point" (Archive 26).Main Point Newsletter Archived 18th March 2010.
Update for the "Remembered" Section. I have just received an email from Clive Hall with information about the tragic accident that killed Paddy McMahon in 1966.
John Joseph McMahon 588231.
"J.J. McMahon 588231 - died on 12th August 1966. Flt Lt Paddy was killed in a Chipmunk accident at Shawbury. Cemetery Name St Mary the Virgin Churchyard Cemetery Address Shawbury Shropshire Included on Armed Forces Memorial not Included on Roll of Honour." Reported by Clive Hall.
Veterans-UK for Information.
A further email gives the following advice.
This website helps one find most of the guys on the memorial at the arboretum:
www.veterans-uk.info/amf2/index.php
I had heard of his accident but the site filled in the details.
Best wishes
Clive
Google does it Again.
It is fair to say that 74th Website often gets discovered by surfers on the Web looking for references to past friends and aquaintances; often Googling for past employers and work memories etc.
Tony Merry with Cossor Electronics and his Young CAD Tutor.
In May 1987 Tony started with Cossor Electronics, subsequently Raytheon Systems Ltd, who had the SCIDA task for the then new NATO bunker at HQ Strike Command, RAF High Wycombe.
"The Systems Co-ordinating Installation Design Authority was an organisation set up by the MoD to co-ordinate the installation requirements of all the agencies, equipment suppliers and operators for the new building.
" I had an excellent tutor (a lad not much older than my son) and soon became proficient at CAD, bye, bye pens and pencils."
Old Aquaintance: Tony's Excellent Tutor turns up on our Website.
I've received an email from Tony Merry as follows:
"Last night when I checked my e-mails you could have knocked me off my chair, as I told him, with a dead dingo's tail, as I had an e-mail from a former colleague who now lives and works in Australia.
He had been surfing and put in SCIDA at RAF High Wycombe, and got a link to my article on the 74th.co.uk Website! If you refresh yourself on the content of my profile you will see that I mention a young lad who taught me, at the age of 50, to work with autocad. It was him who had contacted me.
"This might be a useful snippet.
"Cheers Tony"
[Editor]
Readers! Have you any useful snippets to add to the Website Newsletter?
Hard to Believe but...
RAF Service memories recalled by Stan Norris 74th.
[Ed: Can anyone please come up with some answers to the questions posed at the end of Stan's story? Or any other Canberra stories.]
The Canberra T4 Servicing That went with a Bang!
When this sequence of events happened it was nearly 40 years ago and I was personally involved in only the first incident. Oh yes, there was more than one incident and they all featured one particular aircraft. I will not name individuals, the squadron or the station. The aircraft concerned was a Canberra T4. We had two on strength, tail numbers 849 and 861 but, if my memory is correct it is to 861 that this saga relates.
The swing or evening shift came on duty about 4.30 pm. The priority aircraft for recovery was 861 partially through a routine servicing but awaiting armament and electrical checks before further progress could be made. A Corporal electrician on the swing shift entered the aircraft and a few minutes later there was a significant bang! Without taking you through the actual servicing procedure and the whys and wherefores, when the Corporal applied power the canopy detonator bolts fired - curiously, only 24 of the 32 detonators fired. With the uneven stress created on the canopy the perspex cracked in all directions.
The Squadron Commander pressed for Disciplinary Action
Inevitably a unit inquiry was convened., conclusions and recommendations submitted. The Squadron Commander pressed for disciplinary action, the Snco i/c shift and the Corporal were duly charged with wilful negligence and negligence respectively and a Board of Inquiry was quickly convened. Legal Services were not satisfied with the submitted documentation and suggested that the unit re-convene the Board of Inquiry. This was done, but again the evidence was deemed unsatisfactory and unsafe to proceed with Courts Martial and the case should be dealt with at Unit level. The evidence was said to be very unsafe and the disciplinary action fizzled out with an admonishment to the two NCOs by the Station Commander.
Not Again?
Sometime later after I had left the unit, the aircraft was repaired and delivered to the line ready for use. Overnight there was a very heavy rainfall. Next morning, when electrical power was applied, the canopy detonator bolts fired, all 32 this time. The unit inquiry apparently concluded that the cause was ingress of water into the electrical system. For a second time 861 underwent the repair process.
And Again?
Repaired and ready for a squadron deployment to a neighbouring airfield, 861 taxied out piloted fittingly enough by the Squadron Commander himself - and the canopy detonator bolts blew! The findings of the unit inquiry? The seam on the thumb of the pilots flying glove was extra prominent, by about 1/16" to 3/32" and accidentally activated the canopy jettison firing mechanism.
I was told that this event featured in Air Clues although cannot remember reading about it.
Canberra 861: Question Time.
I never heard what happened to 861 after that. The rectification involved reaming out the bolt holes and fitting oversize bolts, but I think that could only be done three times.
Where did 861 go after the third uncommanded jettison? Scrapped? Ground instruction?
Did it happen again?
Why didn't all the detonators fire in the first incident? I never heard if that was investigated.
One Aircraft, Three Similar Incidents, Three Different Causes?
I was off the squadron when the second and third incidents occurred so my knowledge of them is third hand. It is a curious memory to retain but - one aircraft, three incidents, three different causes all in the space of a few months. Remarkable coincidences? An intermittent undetected defect triggering the circuit under three different circumstances?
In the years since I left the service, for some reason or other I have thought about those few months, very sceptically I might add, often doubting my own recollections. Or was it strange but true?
Stan Norris. (74th).
The OTHER 74th Entry! RAF Locking.
Report from Tony.
An item in the latest Haltonian caught my eye, Page 53 "From Western Australia", in which is mentioned one Tony Littler, 74th, as being a volunteer on the staff of the RAAF Aviation Museum in Perth.
A scan of my records could find no trace of said Brat.
After some correspondence with the Museum I received the email below from Tony.
It might be worth inviting ex Locking 74thers to join us.
Message from Tony Littler.
You were right I'm an ex Locking Brat. From the 74th ,my service No. (FO) 588736, I never worked out if the O in FO was an O or an 0 in those new numbers we were given later. We used to have our own website but it didn't last very long. I hope this answers your query.
Regards
Tony Littler the youngest 74er (I was 15 on the 11th April 1953)
Tony Merry. (74th).
Check This Out!
NOTE: The current Locking 74th Entry Website can be found at.
lock74apps.dnsalias.org/74th/contents.html
News Items and Stories Needed.
[Editor] Please send me any news items or stories that may be of interest to members of the 74th Entry Association or any other visitors to the 74th Entry Website.
Joe Bosher (74th).