Peter Stickney wrote:

Gord Beaman wrote:

"miket6065" wrote:
snip

Probably was
that the pilot didn't have a direct linkage to the engine. It seems
in the wings were the flight engineers and the pilot spoke into
speaking tubes
giving orders about power settings. This was almost as dangerous as
the
glider idea and Karl complained bitterly. Finally the pilot had
some direct power control on the engines.


I doubt that this is correct...on the Canadian ASW aircraft (the
Argus) the pilots didn't operate the engines either, they never
touched them, and we flew that aircraft for over twenty years
with the flight engineers operating them...no accident was ever
attributed to that fact.

Gord, good to see that you're still here!
The B-36 was also an FE-oriented airplane. The pilots had a set of
coarse throttles, but all the fiddling and fine adjustment was done
by the FEs (later models had 2 on duty at any given time). Of
course, they had a lot to do - 6 engines, 6 props, 2
turbosuperchargers/engine, multispeed cooling fans (Which would chew
up 200 hp/engine if you set 'em wrong) and, if they had nothing
better to do, they could go out into the wing & change out the
accessory sections.

Thanks Peter, U2. and yes, I have a book on the B-36...wooHoo!
quite the machine indeed, very impressive...D R O N E !... what a
sound they made when flying over...make your chest vibrate...

BTW, I just noted a new book in one of the local shops in the making
of "The Dambusters" - lots of beautiful shots of Lancasters, both
inside & out, from about your era - (Mid '50s). I think the Statute
of Limitations is off now, so - after the movie came out, you guys
weren't, uhm, taking the opportunity to practice chasing down the
local lakes at 60', were you? (Just in case they needed to make the
sequel, after all).


Sure! that's why we did it!, just to be ready.

I have 575 hours in the Lanc and I almost don't dare say what I
think of that a/c because it was loved by so many. Well, it
certainly did do yeoman service during the war but in actuality
it was a damned dangerous machine. I was in 405 (MR) Squadron in
the early fifties for 5 years. We had, I think about 10 of them
and we lost 6 in those 5 years (lots of lives lost as well). Just
for comparison, we had, I think, 33 Argus for over 20 years and
only lost 2.

The damned Lanc had a terrifically high lift wing (for those
humongous bombloads) and a very far forward mounted MLG plus very
soft oleos and large soft tires. This added up to a ticklish a/c
to land. Put it 'on' the slightest bit firmly and it'd BOUNCE.

The soft tires and oleos, placed so far forward would ram the
nose UP and that tremendously powerful wing would snap you up a
hundred feet almost instantly, then you'd gingerly but quickly
try to add a bit of power to ease the 'second coming'...I've seen
many three or more bounce attempts, each worse than the preceding
till you're outta runway so you pork on full power at the top of
the last bounce and 'go around'... I've got a bunch of those hair
raisers...quite scary indeed.


Oh, yeah - the John Wayne estate's just released one of his better
movies, after sitting on it for a couple of decades- "Island in the
Sky". It's the story of a C-47 (Captained by John Wayne) on the
North Atlantic Run (Preque Isle, Gander/Goose, Bluie West 1,
Reykavik, Prestwick) forced down somewhere in Labrador or
Newfoundland during Winter, and the search for the missing plane. It
was adapted by Ernie Gann from his novel of the same name, which is
based on events that actually happened while Gann was a Civil
Contract pilot on the North Atlantic Run. The film was directed by
Lafayette Escadrille veteran William Wyler - so it's got Authentic
Aviation through the roof. It's damned good, and not your typical
John Wayne movie. (And Wyler's presence shows that while Bomber
Pilots make History, Fighter Pilots _do_ make movies.)
I caught it on cable, but I understand it's also being released on
DVD.

Thanks Peter...I'll pick em up!...BTW, remember that awful film
about the Gimli Glider?. I have the book and the true story as
well.

I really admire the Capt, I think that he did one hell of a job
in getting that thing down with no fatalities (even though the
whole incident was his fault). Anyway, Capt Pearson has a sail
boat here at the Silver Fox Yacht club in Summerside and I was
lucky enough to meet him and shake his hand and congratulate him
on the fine job.

He was an honest gentleman and said "Well, I pretty damned well
HAD to get them outta trouble, after all it was all my fault in
the first place" . I had to agree with him, and did. Nice
chap.
--

-Gord.
(use gordon in email)