Nostalgia in the Air: DeHavilland Chipmunk

I have many fond memories of the Chipmunk, back in the late 60s I was in the air cadets and we used to get a couple of air experience flights a year in them. My squadron (No. 493 Kings Heath & Moseley) was in Birmingham and we would go up the Birmingham University Air Squadron based at RAF Shawbury in Shropshire usually in late winter or early spring for a flight and then have a second one at whichever RAF station we were based for our summer camp

De Havilland Chipmunk RAF Museum, Hendon.

The flights lasted about 30 minutes and were conducted with an experienced RAF instructor who would be happy to give you control of the plane and teach the basics of piloting, something few fourteen and fifteen year olds get the opportunity to do. Those of us who stayed in the cadets for several years would gain some flying experience from these flights and the instuctors would take us through more advanced exercises sometimes going as far as performing aerobatics. At the start of each flight, as we were taxiinig towards the threshhold of the runway, the pilot would usually ask how many flights you had already made and tailor the the lesson to your level of experience. Of course he (In those days they were exclusively men) would do all the communication with air traffic control, which meant that he would occupy the front cockpit where the radio controls were located, which would normally have been the students position.

At Shawbury one element that was looked forward to with some anticipation was the pre-flight briefing, in the wrong hands this could have been the most tedious part of the day but fortunately it was carried out by a Flight Lieutenant who understood the value of humour in keeping the attention of an audience and getting exited youngsters to remember important safety regulations. He had many years of flying experience behind him and possesed a seemly limitless fund of funny anecdotes of aviation incidents that he used to reinforce the points he needed to make. He was one of those people who always have time for anyone and was completely aproachable, happy to answer whatever questions we threw at him no matter how silly, in retrospect, they were.

A major feature of these briefings was the wearing and use (In an emergency) of the Irving seat type parachute and one thing I can say is that when you see pictures from WWII of pilots running to their machnes with this type of 'chute strapped to their posteriors, the photo is a propaganda "set up", you simply cannot run in one if it is properly fitted so that you don't fall out of the harness if you need to use it. The best that you can manage is a stooped shamble in the manner of the great apes with the knuckles of the fingers gently brushing the tarmac!