|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 5, 2017 10:31:18 GMT 12
Getting into a fight with a civilian and going through the civil court accordingly could ruin a pilot's career if found guilty of assault. I know of a Pacific bomber pilot who experienced this, and though he retained his rank he was grounded and given a desk job.
|
|
|
|
Post by isc on Feb 5, 2017 19:51:01 GMT 12
Could the loss of a Devon at Wigram be the reason a certain officer was posted to the Boy Entrant School in 1964. He still flew the station Harvard at times. isc
|
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on Feb 5, 2017 20:31:03 GMT 12
In my time all the senior Officers seem to have lost an aircraft, it almost appeared a rite of passage. One guy made Group Captain but he took two goes at it just to make sure. Check out the Group Captains and Air Commodores of the late 70's and early 80's.
One of my peers got busted for low flying and lost seniority, he still ended up just weeks ahead of me though so he was spared the junior bog-rat routine.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 5, 2017 20:50:41 GMT 12
Yes that is true, most of those who made Air Rank had some sort of accident or write off early in their career, even the fabled Ian Morrison who wrote off an aircraft, from memory while low flying!
|
|
|
|
Post by errolmartyn on Feb 5, 2017 22:08:03 GMT 12
Yes that is true, most of those who made Air Rank had some sort of accident or write off early in their career, even the fabled Ian Morrison who wrote off an aircraft, from memory while low flying! IGM's write-off event was when he was captain of DH.86 NZ554 on 13 Nov 40 at 0415 hrs. He crashed when taking off from the wrong end of the flare path. The accident card categorises the event as 'carelessness' but also goes on to say 'insufficient data on file to show underlying cause of this accident.' 'Unknown' is entered against the 'Disiplinary action' panel. Errol |
|
|
|
Post by baronbeeza on Feb 5, 2017 22:39:58 GMT 12
I am sure the list will soon lengthen but the names I can recall from that period;
Curly Rudd, Pat Neville, Geoff Hubbard, Stu McIntyre, Tommy Thompson, Ross Donaldson, Fred Kinvig, Dave Crooks,
|
|
|
|
Post by isc on Feb 6, 2017 20:57:25 GMT 12
A "good" service pilot does need discipline, but also must be able to push the limits, preferably not enough to bend anything (kite, rules), it's then up to the Air Force to decide whether to keep or discard.
When you think back to war time, these lads were todays "boy racers" often in the hottest bit of machinery built up to that time. isc
|
|
|
|
Post by davidd on Feb 7, 2017 9:41:12 GMT 12
Baron,
That list of subsequently senior officers immediately prompted my mind to attempt to identify the particular incidents in their early careers which you are alluding to, although off the top of my head I can think of only a few well-known ones. The first which sprang to mind was Rudd's collision with Kinvig (both pilots under training at the time) near Cust in 1953 (two Harvards written off), Ross Donaldson's collision with a large bird whilst flying a US Navy A-4 in the late 1960s in Florida, and Crooks' misfortune in (I think it was an undercarriage-less) landing in a Canberra (at Ohakea?), and his even more famous flight when he had to ferry the said aircraft to Woodbourne with just a windscreen to shelter behind, with no canopy. However none of these three accidents were caused, so far as I can recall, by any breaches of flying discipline or the like. The Harvard collision may have included an element of some unwise manoeuvres at worst, but I know little of this incident apart from what was published at the time, and I am fairly certain there was no serious disciplinary action taken against either pilot. In other words I think that being involved in a serious flying accident during a military career does not automatically indicate that this was caused by ill discipline or bad airmanship on the part of the pilot at the time, something which this thread has wandered into. On the other hand, I am aware of one accident featuring a certain well-known Group Captain who happened to be the CO of an RNZAF base, in shall we say the Devon era (1948 - 1981) who put up a real black one dark night, and involving his 'personal' aircraft. For his troubles he was informed that he had "earned the displeasure of the (Air) Board", which in those days was not a good thing to have on your personal records. I think the tenor of the Board's considerations of the accusations was along the lines of "serious lack of judgement" and "putting a lower ranking pilot in an invidious position" or some such officialise, but there seemed to be no other action taken against him. Possibly his relatively high rank, his previous good record, and fact that nobody was hurt saved his reputation outside the service, and he was retained in the RNZAF for a several more years up to what was considered a decent retiring age. Legend had it that when he stepped out of his aircraft immediately after the incident (his Devon happened to be a couple of feet closer to the ground than when it had taken off), he is quoted as stating, "Well, there goes my seat on the Air Board!" Despite the obvious nervousness about his future, in fact he was appointed to that Board a few years later.
David D
|
|
