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Post by Luther Moore on Feb 1, 2012 17:19:52 GMT 12
Heads up for Captains of the Clouds on TCM channel tonight .From what I have heard and read it's meant to be about British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada and also is filmed at the of the bases in wartime.
Should be good to see where everyone trained.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 2, 2012 1:59:50 GMT 12
It is about a group of bush pilots who join the RCAF, train up and then get into the group that ferry Hudsons across to britain. It has some superb coloured footage of the various aircraft in it, including loads of lovely Hudsons. But the story is pretty dull and a bit hokey.
Another old film with lots of coloured RCAF footage is one of the WWII lassie films. Never seen nthe whole thing but the RCAF stuff is on Youtube somewhere.
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Post by Luther Moore on Feb 2, 2012 4:33:37 GMT 12
It was ok,a bit cheesy but wow I loved the training base footage with all the Harvards in colour!It was great to see in colour what it would of looked like for all aircrew and pilots of that time.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 16, 2012 23:16:02 GMT 12
I'm rewatching this film. It's better second time around. A couple of things puzzle me relating to the RCAF.
When the four bush pilots land at RCAF Uplands hoping to join up they are "seen off" by an RCAF chap who's referred to as Sergeant Major. Did the RCAF have Sgt Majors?
And a little later at 1 hour 4 minutes a scene of the military parade shows RCAF airmen including a flight of trainee aircrew with the white flashes in their hats, marching down the street in the RCAF station the bush pilots arrive at for training. They are wearing Field Service caps but the caps have thin chinstraps! I have never seen a chinstrap on an FS hat before.
Another thing I noticed when the four bush planes landed at Uplands they all have wheels. Before that they had floats!
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Post by Luther Moore on Feb 17, 2012 2:28:56 GMT 12
The Sergeant Major one I have no idea about,but I find that interesting.You can also see on his arm he has a red arm patch,I have never seen that before.
Are you talking about when the bush chaps get off the back of the truck and the lads are marching with rifles? If so they look very formal, so maybe they put white in their caps as well as wear the white belt.
I never noticed the wheels part, haha, well done, it just added to the cheesyness of the movie.
Watching it again I noticed how good those Harvards? look with the lines on them.They kind of look like Tigers.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 17, 2012 20:24:16 GMT 12
The Sergeant Major wears the Warrant officer's crown (a Sgt Major is a W/O Class II).
Yes that scene is where they are getting off the truck but also later in the film, such as the Wings Ceremony (which was an actual genuine Wings Ceremony by the way) the airmen are all seen with FS caps with chinstraps. Was that a Canadian pattern added extra?
The white flashes were worn by all aircrew trainees in the Commonwealth Air Forces, as were the white belts. In the modern day RNZAF a white belt meant you were on jankers.
All the aircraft look great in this film, the scenes of the mass take offs were great.
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Post by davidd on Jul 30, 2012 14:24:17 GMT 12
Dave H,
I have no knowledge of RNZAF trainee aircrew in the WW2 period wearing white belts during their period of training, just the while F/S cap "flash" (or "peak" as it was officially known.)
David D
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Post by ngatimozart on Aug 7, 2012 20:02:51 GMT 12
White belt for jankers? Must be a new innovation because I did a fair whack of jankers from 1974 - 80 and never had to wear a white belt. The only time I wore a white belt was on parade with matching white belt for SLR. The only time I had anything to do with white on jankers was at Shelly Bay when had to white wash the stones / rocks that lined the road. Whilst looking for the move on You Tube I found a clip about chem trail clouds.  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 9, 2012 10:52:38 GMT 12
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