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.
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).

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.


--
Pete Stickney
Java Man knew nothing about coffee.