Low flying!!
Wing Commander F W Hillock, Officer Commanding No. 410 Squadron RCAF (left), and Flight Lieutenant P O'Neill-Dunne (right), standing in front of their De Havilland Mosquito NF Mark II at Coleby Grange, Lincolnshire, with 300 feet of copper wireless cable which they brought back wrapped around the aircraft from an intruder operation over Holland. On the night of 15 April 1943, Hillock (pilot) and O'Neill-Dunne (observer) mounted a Night Ranger operation to the Ruhr valley. While flying at low level in poor weather they were suddenly confronted with the radio masts of Apeldoorn station. Hillock threw the Mosquito into a vertical bank and flew straight through the antenna, tearing several away in the process. He then continued with the mission before returning to Coleby Grange, whereupon it was discovered that, not only were they encumbered with the cable, but one wing tip had been sliced off by the breaking antenna and the other wing cut through to the main spar (damage visible on the left).
Not sure how they fit their balls in this cabins.
So talking of fitting their balls in the cabin...
When I was living in Gisborne in the late 90's I was involved with the
Gisborne Aviation Preservation Society who where just completing their museum building to house the gate guardian Lockheed Lodestar ZK-BUV, that had been used as a top dressing aircraft in the area from 1958 to 1972.
One of the older members was an ex-top dressing pilot called Bruce. Bruce started his top dressing career flying a Tiger Moth, then progressed to a de Havilland Beaver. His boss must have though he was OK because he was then selected to fly the heavy metal, the Lockheed Lodestar and finally the Douglas DC3. Bruce retired from flying in 1987 after flying over 23,000 hours.
A few days before we lifted the Lodestar it's pylons, Bruce and I were waking aroud under it, as I was learning to fly at the time I asked him to explain the slots in the leading edge of the wing tips (fixed leading edge slats). He did then quite calmly mentioned that he had knocked "one of those off on a tree one day". Evidently he had banked into a turn too soon after a spreading run and had dropped the wing tip into the only tall tree in the paddock. Luckly the wing tip is a seperate piece and it departed quite easily, that being the only damage. He finished spreading the load, a little bit more cautiously, and flew back to the airport where the maintainence guys installed a new wing tip. Image throwing a 21,000lb/9,500kg plus aircraft around that close to the ground, remembering of course they always flew at "Ag MTOW" that was a max take off weight, CAA approved, higher than a passenger or freighter MTOW.
The Lodestar carried 7,700lb/3,500kg in the hopper and a DC3 carried 11,00lb/5,000kg.
