
I joined the Junior Training Corps (
JTC) at an early age and later transferred to
the RAF Section of the newly formed Combined Cadet Force (
CCF) at school, and it
was when, as part of our training, pictures were shown to me of radar 'heads' that I
began to understand what I had seen at Salcombe.
4 My interest in aircraft was
undiminished and, on family visits to the annual
SBAC Farnborough Air Show, I
watched many impressive flying displays by the Senior Test Pilots of the day and
wondered, too, at the very different radar equipment rotating out on the airfield.
5
The aircraft fascinated me much more. Apart from using radios in the
CCF and
building a one-valve medium-wave wireless set from Government Surplus items, an
interest I had had in electrical matters began to fade.

As a
CCF Cadet I was to gain 'Air Experience' as a passenger, flying three times in RAF Ansons, from RAF Hooton Park, RAF Sealand, and RAF Hawarden.
During one of those flights I was asked by the pilot to wind the handle behind his
seat so as to lower the undercarriage for landing. That was exciting stuff; I actually
helped operate the aircraft! As a result of practice at the school rifle range, and later
on the Sealand Open Range on Burton Marshes, I earned my Marksman badge and
became a good shot.
6

That was the limit of my knowledge of the RAF until the 1950s when National Service came along.


This picture was taken by a school pal

and is dated 3rd March 1949 when I was in

the Junior Training Corps, before I

transferred to the
CCF, RAF Section.
___________________________________
4
CCF: Sometimes mockingly referred to as 'Compound Cooking Fat', a product made available to housewives
during the strict rationing regime then in force.
5
SBAC = Society of British Aircraft Constructors of which there were many members at the time.
6 The school rifles were .22" calibre, whereas those we used at Sealand ranges were .303".
2