Subject: #1 Piston Fighter was British
From: (The Revolution Will Not Be Televised)
Date: 7/1/03 8:52 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

On 30 Jun 2003 17:53:46 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

There were two constants on every mission. One was the 180mph cruise.

How would you know? Did you handle the throttles and observe the ASI
all the time? Did you calibrate the ASI youself? Did you experience
cleaning and replacing the pitot head personally or did you pick that
up third-hand?

The
second was the 4,000 pound bomb load.

Did you measure the weight yourself to confirm this, or were you
relying on other people to weigh & load the bombload?

I can still feel that 100 octane eating into my skin.

How did you know it was 100 octane and not 100/115 or 130/150 or 87
octane with the wrong dye? Does 100 octane provide a specific and
unique dermatological irritation which you recognised? In which case,
were you a qualified dermatologist to make that diagnosis in the first
place?

Gavin Bailey


I was the navigator as well as the Bombardier.. I calculated all ETA's on
180mph indicated converted to groundspeed to get ETA's. We calibrated our
airspeed indicators based on measured speed runs during shakedowns and
calibrated errors accordingly. I had a full set of instruments in front of me
at all times and watched them carefully. We had to hold airspeed to zero
tolerence to get bombing accuracy. We carried 8 500 pound bombs which I was
responsible for inspecting the loading, checking the arming wires for security
and making sure all the A=2 bomb shackles were properly installed.God, I never
dreamt you knew so little.

Arthur Kramer
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer