A Friend in NZ...

[petermcleland]

Sent me this Warbirds video today...He put it on my Facebook Wall and I thought I would share it here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAFoKu_v ... ata_player

Regards,  Peter McLeland.

Sent from my iPad

[Filonian]

Thanks for that Peter, most enjoyable.

I also watched the |Tiger moth which brought back happy memories from more years ago than I care to remember.


Graham

[Garry Russell]

Cheers Peter ...nice quality too

Have you ever flown Texan/Harvards??

[petermcleland]

Cheers Peter ...nice quality too

Have you ever flown Texan/Harvards??

Hi Garry,

Yes, I trained on Harvards at No.3 FTS RAF Feltwell in 1951/2...Many years later I did a couple of flights in Harvards at Ardmore in NZ. The two aircraft that I flew are probably in that video...In one of them I did a thirteen turn spin!

[Garry Russell]

Thanks for that Peter

I somehow doubted a career such as yours would not have involved the type somewhere along the line

A thirteen turn spin!!!...were you a little dizzy for a short time after that???

[petermcleland]

Thanks for that Peter

I somehow doubted a career such as yours would not have involved the type somewhere along the line

A thirteen turn spin!!!...were you a little dizzy for a short time after that???

No not really...I was flying with the owner sitting in the back and he was coaching me through a session of stall turns...My stall turns are not very good as we never did them in jet fighters so I was somewhat out of practice...Anyway, some of my efforts resulted in brief incipient spins and Trevor Bland, the owner, got me to climb up to a reasonable height for practicing a full spin. I was briefed to hold it in the spin till he told me to recover.

I didn't count the turns but he did and he told me afterwards that it was thirteen.

Here is one from my website:-

[Garry Russell]

Thanks again Peter

Must've been fun

[petermcleland]

Yes it was fun Garry...BTW My friend in NZ, Barry Gillingwater has just confirmed that both the Harvards that I flew were in that video...I always remember that when we got out of the Harvard after the spinning etc, there was a lot of oil spillage on the paint...Guess who was working hard for the next half an hour with rags etc.!!

[Garry Russell]

By and large you've had a career in a fortunate time when there were lots of changes types and opportunities before much of the current regulations and H&S were in place

One can imagine nowadays leaving college and after flying a few lights get into the RH seat of a Boeing 737-800 and retiring at 55 as the captain of a Boeing 737-800

You certainly made the best of it

Thanks for sharing so much of it

[FlyTexas]

Well said Garry. Yes, thank you Peter for sharing your aviation career with us.

Brian