Contact Me
Wonwinglo happy at work in his tiny workshop.
Please pay a visit to the following sites where you will find model makers happy to talk about all types of model building,no matter how experienced that you are you are assured of a warm welcome,every aspect of building models discussed-
http://www.scale-models.co.uk
Webmasters Photo Bin.
Just a nice piece of inspiration for the railway modellers.
And from his great tower in the skies,
sheer beauty of flight with mighty wings,
And no matter how man tries,
The mighty bird is better of all these things,
With tiny flexing wings so articulate,
Man took centuries to emulate,
Mr Wilbur and Mr Wright,
Had powered flight very much in sight,
And on the dunes of Kittyhawk,
They began to study tiny wings of birds that they had studied in flight,
From feeble beginnings and worlwide talk,
Aviators strived to fly as easily as they could walk,
The great day that changed the world forever,
Was but hanging by a tether,
With kites and models suspended in the wind to test,
The Wrights were way above the rest,
Another try said Wilbur,throwing coins to win the waiver,
Along the rail secured with gravel the frail Wright-Flyer did travel,
And into the air,with a bounce or two,
Full knowing that this first flight would bring a reporter or two.
The seeds were sown to mans delight,
For where would we be today without flight ?
And as the years did wander on,
Scale-modellers everywhere wanted models of a Wright,
In magnificent miniature and great detail,
Great models also began to take flight.
Props & jets were built so light,
But the mighty feathered bird of prey,
Will always show us all the way,
Mans machines are clumsy when we compare,
The way the bird has natural flare.
Wonwinglo March 2005
This is 'Shockwave' !! the jet truck powered by 3 jet engines with a combined horse power of 370 m.p.h,when this machine goes full throttle at the speed of sound,this monster reaches a staggering 36,000 h.p,as the flames lick at the runway scorch marks appear,the roar can be heard over several miles away and never fails to get a crowd around her.
Richthofen,Anthony Fokker,and Goering during world war 1.
LET Cmelak OK-VJT in a rather bizarre scheme !
Trenhchard.
Willis Jeep in its element.
Airbrush techniques.
Q1
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WORKBENCH COMPETITION ENTRIES.
In order to get this competition judged fairly, John has asked me to start this new thread for the competition judging and get all of the pictures together to make life easier,what we need you to do is to select what is in your opinion the best workbench area and just send in here to this thread your answer,it is up to you to decide whether you consider tidyness,ergonomic layout,a used look etc in other words it is a personal choice which workbench that you favour,all of the pictures were extracted from the ones sent in,we will give until 5 pm Saturday 19th November to get all of the results in and then tot them up,the forum owners decision is final,the winner gets an airbrush that has been donated by Nigel.
Wonwinglo.
Duncan.
New to trains.
Bunkerbarge.
Phoenix.
Stitts Baby Bird,N4453H.
Stits Sky Baby.
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The original 'Sirit of St Louis' in the Smithsonian Institute.
If there is one aeroplane that has made such a substantial contribution to aviation,it must be the Ryan N-Y-P ( New York to Paris ) airplane,stories abound of how Charles Lindbergh carefully planned his flight across the Atlantic single handed,without any doubt despite the obvios risks it was Lindberghs skill and past experience that stood him so well to complete this remarkable flight.
Ryan NYP "Spirit of St. Louis"
San Diego, CA, 1928
Early in 1927, 25-year old air mail pilot, Charles A.Lindbergh obtained the financial backing of businessmen from St.Louis in order to compete for the prize for the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris. He placed an order with Ryan for an aircraft with specifications necessary for the flight. The aircraft required a large fuel tank between engine and pilot which eliminated all forward visibility. On the rainy morning of May 20, 1927, Lindbergh took off, from Roosevelt Field, heading for Paris. After flying 3610 miles in 33 hours 30 minutes, he landed at LeBourget Airport, where he was greeted by a wildly enthusiastic crowd. Lindbergh and his heroic flight revolutionized and popularized aviation as nothing else before or since, and it clearly showed the future potential of the airplane.The aircraft built for the classic film 'Spirit of St Louis' were built by Paul Mantz from Ryan Brougham airframes suitably modified, these aircraft were built in 1928 by Ryan as a "Broughams", along identical lines as the "Spirit of St.Louis", in an attempt to sell the aircraft commercially. It is one of two surviving original "sister ships" of the "Spirit of St.Louis". This aircraft was also used in the 1955 movie "The Spirit of St.Louis" and was once flown by Lindbergh.
As a model subject this one knows no bounds,whether it is a simple flying model as shown here from my own collection,or a huge quarter scale subject,the challenge is all there,just to make a replica of the Ryan N-Y-P is a challenge in itself,with careful trimming and a decent looking Whirlwind engine you cannot go wrong.
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Paul Mantz
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January 22, 2006
The Pilot's Lounge #96: Bureaucrats Or Radium Dials -- Which Poses A Greater Danger?
This is a tale of the big bully versus the little guy. It's a true tale. And the little guy is losing really badly. What's more, the big bully may come after your aiplane or your museum next. AVweb's Rick Durden has the story in The Pilot's Lounge.
By Rick Durden
Columnist
One of the nice things about the Pilot's Lounge at the virtual airport is that I get to stay in touch with some very interesting pilots. One of my favorite people on the planet is a guy I've flown with off and on for over 20 years. Among other things, he is considered to be one of the gurus for those seeking knowledge regarding one of the classier of aviation's classic airplanes, the Cessna 195. His name is Jeff Pearson, and he flies out of the Chino, Calif., Airport, where I go as often as I can afford it to get my big-time, historic-airplane fix. Watching those machines snort and bellow does wonders for one's perspective on the world.
Unfortunately, Jeff is trapped in a situation that is so hideous and Kafkaesque that I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. (Actually, I would, because it's truly, truly nasty.) What is frightening beyond his personal tragedy is the potential ramification for the entire historic-aviation community. If some very powerful bureaucrats who have had their way in the actions they are taking against a legitimate seller of U.S. military-surplus aircraft instruments continue to expand their horizons, it can lead to the condemnation and destruction of every airplane and museum in the U.S. that has or ever had any radium-dial instruments in it.
Do I have your attention?
Historic Aircraft Business
A little background is in order. Jeff Pearson moved to southern California about 25 years ago to continue his career in the aircraft parts business. While working for a company that sold and overhauled instruments, he often dealt with owners of antique and classic aircraft who needed original instruments to make their pride and joy as accurate as possible. Jeff came to know a pretty unique guy, Alec Fulks, who had a very large warehouse stuffed full of instruments in North Hollywood, not far from Burbank Airport. Mr. Fulks had purchased most of these instruments from our U. S. government as it sold them off in the massive public surplus sales following the end of World War II. Those instruments had originally been manufactured for the Army a! nd Navy to specifications set out by the U.S. government. That's an important fact to remember. In fact it's vital to this entire sordid tale of persecution of a guy who happened to engage in the heinous practice of buying, selling and preserving original instruments and related equipment for historically significant airplanes.
Back in late 1910s -- a.k.a., the dim, dark past (no pun intended) -- aircraft electrical and related lighting systems were far less-than perfect or just plain non-existent. In order to help pilots see their instruments while flying at night, a very small amount of radium was added to phosphorescent paint on the faces of instruments. The radioactive decay of radium caused the phosphorescent paint to glow in the dark. Charles Lindbergh sat behind military-type, radium-illuminated instruments when he flew solo from New York to Paris. They are still installed in the Spirit of St. Louis in the National Air and Space Museum.
Radium is an unstable element, so it is in a constant state of radioactive decay. Eventually radium decays into lead, among other things. As it decays, radium emits Gamma energy (radiation) and also radon gas. Radon gives off what your neighborhood nuclear physicist refers to as Alpha and Beta "daughter" particles. With a sufficiently sensitive Geiger counter, Gamma radiation is detectable even through a metal or plastic instrument case and glass bezel. Alpha and Beta radiation is another thing. It requires ultra sensitive, highly specialized detectors that virtually no one outside of the immediate Nuclear Physics industry has even heard of.
Radiation has long been linked to cancer in humans; after all, Madame Marie Curie, for whom a measurement of radioactivity was named, died of cancer believed to be a result of her experiments with large quantities of radium. It has to be kept in mind that the amount of radium used in radium dial instruments is miniscule. The U.S. government has been sued by technicians who alleged they contracted cancers due to exposure to radium while working on U.S. military-origin radium-dial instrumentation. The United States has successfully defended itself in those cases by showing that the cancers suffered by the plaintiffs could not have been caused by radium dial instrumentation because there was ins! ufficient exposure to radium.
Double Standard
Despite our government's approach to defending claims of those who worked very closely with radium dial instrumentation, bureaucrats in other agencies have now decided that this instrumentation is a heinous risk to people with far less intimate contact. There is no doubt that an instrument with a radium-dial face may emit radon gas if the case is not hermetically sealed; that is, if the glass is cracked or the ports on the back are not sealed.
There is no hard-and-fast law in the U.S. for maximum levels of radon gas, merely guidelines. For your home, 4 pico-curies per liter of air is the EPA-recommended limit. If that level is reached, the solution is to ventilate the area. For industrial buildings, 100 pico-curies/liter of air is the OSHA limit. In the warehouse in North Hollywood, a site one would certainly consider "other than residential," the level never exceeded 100 pico-curies per liter of air, even without forced ventilation.
For your consideration, there are those who feel that radon exposure has some health benefits. I express no opinion, but I do note that our government allows the Merry Widow Health Mine to operate in Basin, Mont., where folks pay good money to enter the mine and be exposed to 1,300 pico-curies/liter of air.
It just seems to me that there ought to be some definitive standards, based on science, to keep bureaucrats from arbitrarily and capriciously deciding that aircraft instruments are now some sort-of hideous national menace. That is especially important when the government has asserted in court that painting radium-dial instruments does not provide enough exposure to cause cancer. One would think that there should be consistency on the part of the government, especially when it caused these instruments to be manufactured in the first place. Further, federal and state codes specifically exempt intact, radium-dialed instruments from regulation when in their intended use. By the same token, radium-dial watches, clocks and even granite counter tops are unregulated.
Government Production
In the process of trying to make a good-faith estimate as to just how long World War II and the Korean War would last, and the number of airplanes that would be needed -- as well as the number of spares required -- our government bought far more aircraft instruments than it turned out to need, especially during World War II. I'm glad, I'm very glad, that we over-estimated, rather than under-estimated. It helped us win.
At some point our government recognized that it had far more aircraft instruments than it could ever use, and began to sell them off to the general public at auction. It made sense: They were perfectly good aircraft instruments that could be used on civilian airplanes for the predicted general-aviation boom, as well as the surplus military airplanes being sold, and it helped the government recoup some of the cost of designing and making the instruments. This, too, is significant. The government not only specified how the instruments would be made, with radium dials for night operations, but then sold them to the public in conditions that ranged from new-unused to disassembled or repairable "core." They also sold tons upon tons of parts that, you guessed it, included brand-new radium dials and pointers.
Those surplus instruments were used in the manufacture of new general aviation airplanes well into the 1980s. I am told that a widely used, WWII-vintage, temperature indicator is still the basis of an instrument currently installed on some general aviation airplanes.
At no time did our government tell the pilots and mechanics involved with these instruments (as used by our armed forces) that there was anything dangerous about them. Further, it then sold the instruments on the open market as safe for use in aircraft that carried, and were maintained by, human beings.
Radium-dial instruments were built to government specs well into the 1970s and were sold as surplus into the '80s. My sources were not clear as to whether such surplus sales continue to this date, although it may be the case.
Next Generation
By the 1990s, Mr. Fulks had a huge inventory of instruments and was feeling his age. He sought out Jeff Pearson as a possible buyer. After negotiations, he sold them to the company Jeff had formed, Preservation Aviation. Preservation also took over Mr. Fulks' lease for the North Hollywood warehouse facilities.
Preservation Aviation became what is known as a "buyer in good faith." Jeff's company didn't manufacture the radium-dial instruments that made up about 5% of the inventory he bought, and our government hadn't put out any sort of word that these instruments were about to become persons-non-grata. The instruments were sold legally to Mr. Fulks and he sold them legally to Preservation Aviation.
Jeff bought some "rope." Legally. Legitimately. He had no idea that the government was going to decide that about 5% of the rope was illegal to own and then confiscate every foot of it and use it to hang him.
Shortly after Jeff acquired the instruments and the warehouse lease, I visited. I was utterly overwhelmed. It was an aviation treasure-trove. I spent hours and hours exploring. I was a kid in a candy store. I saw instruments from the 1920s that I'd only read about; my gawd, I held an earth-inductor compass in my hand. Lindbergh used one to navigate across the Atlantic. No one knows what they are today. It was as if I'd died and gone to aeronautical heaven. There were instruments from immediately after WWI in original boxes. I went back to visit the magic warehouse as often as I could, even though I lived 1,500 miles away. During one of my visits a customer came in needing period instruments for his 1943 Boeing Stearman. The customer had the manuals for his airplane, with pictures and part numbers of the instruments. He wanted originals. Jeff had them. In their original boxes! . Preservation Aviation was able to outfit both cockpits precisely as they were when the airplane rolled out of the factory in Wichita. (Once the instruments were selected, Jeff sent them out for overhaul and calibration because they'd been sitting in the boxes for decades.)
Preservation Aviation acquired a reputation for being able to supply original instruments for even the most rare airplanes. As its reputation grew and because Jeff had to commute from his home not far from Chino to North Hollywood, he moved a portion of his inventory to his hangar at Chino to keep from having to go to the warehouse every day. (I was there. Drive time for the commute was about 2.5 hours one way; if he flew the 195 to Burbank and then used the '68 Ford Country Squire Wagon -- which was also part of the warehouse inventory -- for the drive from Burbank airport to the warehouse, he could make it in about 30 minutes.)
The Going Gets Weird
In 1999 Jeff called me to say that the California Department of Health Services, Radiologic Health Branch, came to the warehouse expressing concern about radium-dial instruments on the premises. This set a process in motion that seems to have no end -- even almost eight years later -- and thus far has resulted in the destruction of over one million (yes, one million) irreplaceable historic aircraft instruments and related parts, only a tiny fraction of which had any radium. It has also resulted in the razing of one of two warehouses that housed the items since the 1950s. So far, the cost of the "cleanup" has exceeded $7 million and the bill is being presented to Jeff, personally, even though it was a lawfully incorporated company that owned the instruments. Under the law, he cannot even protect his house and family by declaring bankruptcy, so our government has inventoried his house and ! its contents for possible seizure and sale.
Now are you paying attention?
The indications are that the folks who did this have used Jeff Pearson as a warm-up to come after anyone who has a radium-dial instrument, including museums, because Jeff didn't have and couldn't obtain the political clout to stop them. They have already started the same despicable process against an 85-year old surplus dealer in Salisbury, Md., over surplus involving radium that he purchased from the very entity that caused the material to be created and then sold to the public.
When the California Department of Health Services first came to speak to Jeff in 1999, the individual assigned to the task seemed reasonable. Jeff was told that all non-intact radium devices had to be containerized and disposed of as hazardous waste. The DHS bureaucrat (his term for himself) also kindly advised Jeff that "programs" existed through which the Department of Defense (DoD) would take care of disposing the offending items.
That made sense. Of course, the bureaucrat's word turned out to be no good. In a subsequent visit, Jeff was informed that all radium instruments had to be disposed of, not just non-intact items. First Jeff would have to complete a special training course and he would be allowed to remove the non-radium inventory. Jeff took and passed the course.
Jeff also contacted DoD officials, who had no knowledge of any "programs" by which they would assume any responsibility for the materials. This revelation was duly passed along to the DHS agent. Jeff even suggested that DHS assist in having the DoD step up to its responsibility for the instruments it created.
Unfortunately, that approach to the matter of potential radioactive instruments must have made way too much sense, because that state inspector was immediately sent to some other assignment, to be replaced by a fellow whose behavior almost defied description.
This was occurring at a facility where only 5% of the inventory contained radium-dial instruments and only 5% of those instruments were non-intact. The radon level was below the guideline for an industrial setting; however, because that was a guideline, the new bureaucrat's interpretation was effectively law. There was no independent third-party to make rulings on the bureaucrat's interpretations; the bureaucrat was prosecutor, judge and jury and his interpretation of the guidelines changed constantly.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Once Jeff had jumped through the training course that was the prerequisite to him separating out the non-radium instruments, the bureaucrat announced he could not do so: Jeff could not take out any of the inventory.
Next the bureaucrat told Jeff he was going to have to get a license to handle radioactives. Jeff got an attorney and learned that no instrument shop, repair or seller or museum holding or working on radium-dial instruments in the State of California was required to get such a license. And no jeweler, who also handles radium, was ever required to get such a license. The bureaucrat who insisted on a license also said it was unlikely Jeff could get one, so Jeff, on advice of counsel, did not immediately apply.
The new DHS bureaucrat arranged for someone from the DoD to visit. The representative, from the Navy, took a look and said, "It's all ours." He also admitted that the DoD did dispatch technicians to retrieve hazardous material of military origin discovered in the public environment and that the Air Force was going around and quietly removing radium instruments from its on-loan display aircraft and the "gate guardians" outside military bases.
About then the DHS brought in the federal Environmental Protection Agency for a walk-through. The EPA reps said that if they got involved, things "would get ugly." It was one of the few truths uttered by a bureaucrat during the entire persecution.
Jeff continued to try to have the DHS work with him to have the DoD buy back the inventory, and he went to Congressman John Calvert asking for help. In a face-to-face meeting, Congressman Calvert told Jeff this was something for the DoD to handle and then wrote to the DoD. The Department of Defense responded to the Congressman by saying that since it didn't sell the instruments directly to Mr. Pearson, it wasn't responsible. Congressman Calvert then stepped away from the situation.
Bring In The Feds
The DHS response to Jeff's continued efforts to have the DoD step up to its responsibility was to inform Jeff he had to get a license or it would turn matters over to the EPA. At the same time the DHS hit him with a cease-and-desist order -- barring him access to the warehouse and its inventory, even non-radium-dial instruments -- and it raided his hangar at the Chino Airport. Jeff had to hire a health physicist to test the Chino inventory for contamination before it could be removed. The physicist told Jeff that in over 40 years he'd never seen the DHS go this far overboard.
Jeff decided to apply for the license. So the bureaucrat promptly told Jeff that he would have to obtain a multi-million-dollar bond for "cleanup" before getting the license. He then said he'd give Jeff time to get the license, but meantime the warehouse was completely sealed off and no one was allowed to enter, unless wearing hazmat suits -- for a radon exposure level less than is allowed in industry. (All previous entry had been in street clothes.)
Jeff made an appointment with the DHS head of licensure in Sacramento, who informed him that he certainly could get a license and that there was no bond requirement.
Before the scheduled appointment with the head of licensure, the DHS bureaucrat apparently realized that Jeff might be able to jump this last hurdle that the bureaucrat had erected and took action to keep Jeff from ever recovering any of his inventory: He brought in the EPA, which declared the warehouse completely contaminated. Then, without any testing of the instruments themselves, they hauled every single instrument to a hazardous waste site and destroyed them. No one, neither the EPA nor the State bureaucrat, ever tested the thousands of historic aircraft instruments that were destroyed. They simply said, "We believe they are contaminated," and destroyed unused antique artifacts. Despite being in a warehouse with a radon level below the guideline for an industrial area, the EPA -- without compensating Preservation Aviation -- trashed several million dollars worth of historic airplane instruments. Only 5! % had radium dials and only 5% of those were not "intact." (The EPA admitted the quantities in writing.)
The EPA then razed the warehouse. If you go to that block in North Hollywood, an historic aviation site, all you will see is flat ground. The EPA has said that the cost of their "cleanup" is over $7 million.
Overblown Hazard
In one of the few press reports about the EPA actions at the North Hollywood facility, the Associated Press quoted the EPA's On Scene Coordinator as suggesting that the radium in the instruments could be used to make a so-called "dirty bomb" by terrorists. To professionals in the field, the suggestion was ludicrous. The notion terrorists might buy or steal thousands of instruments, scrape the tiny amounts of radium paint off, and put it in a bomb is idiotic. One professional suggests it would be far more convenient -- and scientifically just about as hazardous -- to just buy talcum powder and put that in a bomb instead. Another said -- tongue in cheek -- that a pallet of instruments (with radium or not) falling from a plane would be a much more dangerous event.
It's interesting that the original estimate to identify, carry off and bury the contaminated instruments, and clean up residue on site, was well under $100,000. Jeff tried and tried to have the EPA and the California State folks carry out that plan -- that they themselves originally proposed -- but the bureaucrats kept changing their stories, changing their interpretation of the guidelines and lying to Jeff. The word on the street -- and I don't know if it's true or not -- is that Jeff wouldn't contribute anything to the Poor Bureaucrats' Beer Fund, so any time he agreed to a cleanup procedure, the DHS increased the amount of Jeff's inventory that would be affected until every single one of the thousands of historic artifacts were hauled off and destroyed.
Our constitution says that the government may not take private property without compensation. Jeff had figured that Preservation Aviation would take about 20 years to sell off the North Hollywood inventory and that in that time, the total value of those instruments, sold one by one, retail would run about $10 million. I don't know if that is true or not, but even if that estimate is off by three standard deviations (and I saw the staggering magnitude of that inventory) it was still about $200,000 to $500,000 a year in sales.
Neither the EPA or DHS paid Preservation Aviation for the inventory that it had purchased in good faith from a man who had bought it in good faith from our government. Nope, the EPA gave Jeff, as a private individual -- not a stockholder of a corporation in good standing -- a bill for $7 million.
The Thick Plottens
Because Preservation Aviation had some of its inventory in a T-hangar at Chino Airport (mostly new in boxes or in military storage cans), and Jeff had zero political clout, the same folks who had persecuted him in North Hollywood came out to Chino. Except this time it was a raid by more than 30 federal employees, EPA bureaucrats and -- believe it or not -- FBI agents. As AVweb reported, they sealed off a row of 10 T-hangars. Jeff had instruments in his hangar in that group of 10. The EPA also dragged the County of San Bernadino in because it owns the airport. T! hat eventually proved to be valuable to the hangar tenants because the County had the resources to tell the EPA that it was being stupidly paranoid. Nevertheless, at first -- after testing showed a mere 20 pico-curies per liter of air of radon in the T-hangar containing the instruments -- the EPA declared that everything in all of those 10 T-hangars was "contaminated." They wanted the six airplanes in those hangars, as well as everything else in them -- motorhomes, cars, motorcycles, tools and the hangar buildings themselves -- destroyed and hauled off to a hazardous-waste disposal area. The EPA had the effrontery to try and use the residential 4 pico-curies per liter guideline for that one hangar and then extrapolate the "contamination" (that was only a product of its fevered imagination) to all 10 hangars.
The County had the clout to compel the EPA to back down and -- to try and keep this recital to a reasonable length -- after a lot of arm waving, the EPA backed down and finally agreed that someone actually determine whether there was actually any contamination in the hangars, rather than just go with the EPA's previously used "we believe" standard for contamination.
The County was required by the EPA to hire a company that could evaluate the radioactive hazard in those hangars and clean it up. The County hired a company approved by the EPA. It came in and found no significant contamination. The EPA went ballistic and had the company fired. A second cleanup company was hired. It went through the T-hangars instrument by instrument at a horrendous cost and it, too, confirmed that the EPA's assertion of "widespread contamination" was absolutely bogus. In Jeff Pearson's inventory it found fewer than 2% of the instruments to have radium dials. It found only seven instruments to be "non-intact." On the floor of Jeff's hangar it found 13 spots of "elevated" radioactivity (by the EPA's standard, not any law). Of those, one -- count 'em, one -- had an origin tied to radium. A piece of tape was applied to that spot and the contaminat! e stuck to the tape when it was pulled away from the floor, removing that tiny bit of contamination. Five spots were found to be Potassium 40, a by-product of deicing fluid. The testing equipment then broke, so no one knows what the other spots were. To the EPA's chagrin, no radium or excess Alpha or Beta particles were found in any of the hangars.
Several other areas of Potassium 40 contamination were detected in the other hangars. The EPA required no remediation.
Double Standard
Three of the six impounded planes had radium-dial instruments installed. The EPA took no action beyond noting that they had such instruments. Several radium-dialed instruments were found in other hangars than Jeff's. The EPA's response to this was, "Unless the instruments in question belong to Mr. Pearson, they can be returned to their owners."
In the midst of all this, Jeff also contacted the office of his own Congressman, Gary Miller. Inasmuch as Miller's brother-in-law owns and operates Yanks Air Museum, also at Chino Airport, it was hoped that he might be more sensitive to the debacle in progress. Miller passed on Jeff's correspondence to the EPA and FBI, which further stirred up an already buzzing hornet's nest. As with Congressman Calvert, Congressman Miller's staff also declined any further effort in the matter, and Jeff never got to speak directly with the Congressman.
As a result, the EPA unsealed the hangars and freed the six airplanes that were tied up for six months. However, it impounded Preservation Aviation's entire inventory, despite the fact that less than 2% had radium dials and none were showing any radioactivity. Because the EPA "believed the inventory was contaminated," those instruments are in containers that block a taxiway to this day. Jeff Pearson cannot get his inventory back (worth several hundred thousand dollars) -- despite the fact it passed the EPA's tests -- simply because it belongs to him and not some other hangar tenant.
Who Is Next?
Interestingly, as a part of this entire effort, the EPA surveyed much of the hangar area at Chino and found measurable levels of various types of radioactivity. It has acted on none of them. Chino was an Army Air Force base in World War II and the storage site for thousands of surplus military airplanes for some time after the war. Many airplanes and their radium-dial instruments were broken up and buried on the airport and in surrounding fields that are used to grow feed for animals that humans eat. Further, there are two very fine air museums on the Chino Airport. Are they the next targets?
This is a nightmare that will probably be coming to an airport or air museum near you. It is partially a problem with a government that doesn't understand history: Had the EPA or DHS just wandered over to the museum at March Air Force base, they could see a radium-dial instrument on public display from a World War I-era DH-4.
What is needed is some sanity and involvement of the AOPA and EAA. The EAA, despite responding to Jeff's request for help by saying that it does not own any radium-dial instruments, has a museum containing such instruments and displayed some in a large photo in the August 2005 issue of Sport Aviation (EAA's Attic). It has a vested interest in this issue as does every museum, aircraft operator, instrument repair shop, collector and person who works on airplanes in any fashion. There is a crying need for reasonable and scientifically based standards for radium-dial instruments and methods for their repair. If an aircraft or an inventory has a radium-dial instrument, there cannot be a blanket assumption that the entire airplane or the entire inventory is contaminated and must be destroyed. (In one conversation, a DHS burea! ucrat said that he felt possession of a radium dial instrument should be illegal. That seems to be just how they are interpreting the guidelines when they apply them to aircraft components, and it is simply an interpretation without legal support.) There is no need to overreact to radium dial instruments; while they are a potential source of radioactive contamination, the degree of threat has to be rationally analyzed standards established that recognize that an intact instrument isn't a time bomb waiting to kill off our population.
Which Standard Applies?
Museums are more like industrial sites than homes. So are warehouses. Industrial radon exposure guidelines should be used for collections of radium dial instruments because people do not spend nearly as much time around inventory in warehouses or museums as they do in their homes. Millions of homes in this country have radon levels that exceed EPA recommendations. The standard mitigation is ventilation. If ventilating an area that has some excess concentration level is acceptable for industry and homes, it should be for warehouses, hangars and museums. If a radium-dial instrument is removed from an antique airplane, there has to be an acceptable level of contamination established, rather than junking the airplane. After all, those airplanes fly very few hours in a year and people are simply not exposed to the small level of contamination that may exist, especially if the instrument had b! een intact.
The Department of Defense said, in Jeff Pearson's case, that it did not have the budget to deal with an appropriate cleanup. In other "cleanups" it apparently did. Jeff will never be able to pay the millions that were incurred by overzealous, self-righteous bureaucrats, arbitrarily enforcing nonexistent standards so the money will be paid by some branch of the government. Therefore, it's a bookkeeping transaction and bureaucrats at one agency trying to protect their budgets should not be allowed to get in the way of doing the right thing. Here, it seems to me, is that the right thing is for the DoD to buy back radium-dial instruments that are actually a hazard and pay for such cleanups that are actually necessary and not the result of some bureaucrat's opinion that he "believes" there is contamination.
Unfortunately, and all politics aside, our government doesn't exactly have a history of doing the right thing, so we can expect more of the disaster that Jeff Pearson went through, with the loss of irreplaceable historic aviation artifacts simply because they were near or in a building that had radium-dial instruments. It's already happening to the gentleman in Salisbury, Md. How would you like it if an EPA bureaucrat met you at your hangar and informed you that because the Stearman next door has radium-dial instruments, your airplane is going to be scrapped and hauled to a hazardous-waste disposal site and that you won't be paid for your property -- on the contrary, you'll have to pay for the disposal?
The bureaucrats have already come for some of us. Unless we stand up against them, they will keep picking us off.
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To understand a little of my really early days we must go back to the year of 1938,war clouds were looming in Europe as Mr Hitler gathered together his arsenal,meanwhile the government were frantically trying to muster together personnel and crews for the Army,Navy and Air force,the carefree pre-war days with sports cars and lovely old biplanes gave a thrill to those with any interest in machinery,nobody really thought that the Germans would have another pot shot at our country,but how wrong they proved to be ? the hum drum of everyday life and need to feed the mouths of millions would mean that people would of necessity take jobs that they did not really like or want,well nothing has changed there ! my father was no exception,the frantic search for work had led him into an industry building gas meters,he absolutely hated it,the job lasted only a few days and he did a most extraordinary thing for the time,he simply walked out,however his dogged determination led him to get work in a factory building aero engines,the famous firm of Alvis,without doubt the company produced some of the finest pre-war cars in British motoring history,cars built to last,hand built with wooden and metal parts formed by true craftsmen,no such thing as production lines then,that would come much later when Henry Ford built his all black lookalikes in America and Mr Boeing built his B-17 Flying Fortresses,no these were limited run beauties.As he started his daily trips to work he could not but help looking skywards at the beautiful Hawker Hart biplanes painted all yellow with polished silver alloy cowlings gleaming in the morning sun,elite university air squadron students practised their daily formation flying,but my father was no elitist,far from it,he was born to a coal merchant who delivered his products by old fashioned horse and cart,who was a quack horse doctor much in demand by the local gypsy community,never missed a chance to make any spare cash,whether it be selling outdated tins of red paint clearly marked white ! or doing a deal in the local pub with a pint of beer thrown in,he really was a likeable rogue like many of his ilke.So my dear father who built aeroplane models made of bamboo with silk covered wings as a young lad,purchased the latest copy of the `Wizard' comic to get the special cardboard parts of aeroplanes within its weekly pages was now in the real hard real world earning a living,he must have really wanted to fly as even during his early factory life he applied to the RAFVR,Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve at nearby Ansty aerodrome for acceptance in the air force,his first application was met with `Go home lad,you are too young for one thing,swot up on your maths and come back next year' can you imagine the dis-appointment he must have felt ? and many would have given up at that point alone,but no he did go home,he did carry on working in the aero engine factory,and above all he did swot up on his maths ! the outcome was that the following spring he enrolled and took the required tough exams and passed,he went back home again and waited for his details,this eventually found him square bashing at R.A.F Cardington,then attending the famous Arcy-Dacy establishment in London ( having slept on a park bench overnight as he arrived too late ) soon he was posted after a crash course in aerodynamics,more maths,more square bashing and the usual things associated with military life in general.But it was the lure of learning to fly that kept him focussed and before long he was on the train to an EFTS ( Elementary Flying Training School ) in Lincolnshire to learn to fly on Tiger Moth aircraft.,during that year was to prove the worst winter for many a year which was so bad and hampered flying to such a degree that the Air Ministry had to think of a way around it,and before long my father was setting sail for the sunny climes of Florida where he would be pushed to the limit to get him to fly along with many many ordinary British citizens who had given up everything to join the armed forces…the story continues.
Part 2 Hard work and gritted determination.
Before we move on to my fathers trip to America lets look into detail how things worked before you ever got near an aeroplane and follow his movements from 1938 to 1941,25th February saw him at the Aviation Candidates Selection Board No.2 Recruit centre,Cardington in Bedfordshire,here as many thousands before and after him you stepped right off the train and into the old first world war airfield,the selection board kept their young recruits waiting deliberately in the waiting rooms,closely watched they needed to see how they reacted under stress and uncertainty,this seemingly cruel behaviour was essential in determining the moral fibre of these potential aircrew,questions,questions and yet more questions were bombarded at the candidates,they went into great depth about the candidates background,psychology played its part,if you could endure this then you were in,all of this was followed over a two day period entailing suitability for flying duties,aptitude tests,educational tests,and the dreaded selection board and air crew medical board,this was the first hurdle to becoming an airman with much intensity of training to follow,just to show that intensity I have where ever possible included actual dates,this will give a clear impression in how they moved from one task to the next in the effort to get them trained as quickly as possible.
The next move was on 14th July 1941 when my father saw himself at the aircrew receiving centre ACRC rudely nicknamed by the airman as `Darcy Arcy' this was at the famous Lords Cricket ground,Abbey Lodge,Regents Park,London N.W.8.
Within a few days saw him the other end of the country at No.4 Initial Training Wing,Paigntn,Devon where he received more intense training in preparation for another move,lots of drill and physical training,subjects to absorb were mathematics,navigation,morse signalling,gunnery,aircraft recognition and the all important air force law.
During 1941 in his uniform at the No.4 ITW,Paignton,Devon.
Then he was on his way to a real airfield at No.3 Elementary Flying Training School,R.A.F Watchfield,Swindon,Wiltshire,here he did his first solo in Tiger Moth R5201 on 7th November 1941.
Notable amongst the instructors at Watchfield was Captain Meager a first world war pilot who later was to be the navigational officer on the R.100 airship.
Another trip this time on 20th January 1941 to the ACDC at Heaton Park,in Manchester where he received his orders to get ready for embarkation to Canada,on 20th January 1942 together with hundreds of other potential aircrew he set sail on the troopship `Montcalm' from Greenock,Glasgow to Halifax,Nova Scotia,from here he travelled some 1500 miles down the east side of the United States by train to No.31 R.A.F depot Moncton,New Brunswick and then onto the U.S.Army Air Corps reception centre at Turner field,Albany,Georgia,U.S.A.
Montcalm 1920-1942 16,418 gt,she was built in 1920,in 1939 she was converted into the armed merchant cruiser HMS Wolfe,from 1941 she was used as a troopship,and in 1942 was sold to the Admiralty as a submarine depot ship.
A bleak looking Nova Scotia during January 1942.
Locomotive 1395 pulling the train some 1500 miles down the east side of the U.S.A.
From there he went during the same month of January to the Lakeland school of aeronautics,Lakeland,Orlando,Florida,U.S.A. where he was to carry on with his flying training on an entirely different type of machine to the Tiger Moth,this time the Boeing PT-17 Stearman Kaydet training biplane.
A piece of history,my fathers identification card issued to him at the Lakeland school of aeronautics.
And in the Sidcot flying suit outer,helmet with fitted inter-comm,chest type parachute harness,his ambition fulfilled to fly he looks a very happy man.
And with a nice looking young lady called Ruella 28th March 1942.
Continued...
Part 3-29th January 1942 to 4th February 1943 The pressure is on.
After the long and tiring journey from the UK,and the formalities at the reception centre at Turner Field,Albany,Georgia,U.S.A it was time to travel to Lakeland in Florida,as the future airmen travelled across America they observed the beauty of this new found country,the numerous orange groves,lakes and everglades,if you had the misfortune to have an engine failure over them then the allogators or snakes would have you for lunch,many of the barren satellite fields were far from home keeping airplanes from clogging up the intense circuit,the American instructors were tough and unforgiving,you could get a 'wash out' for the slightest misdemeanour,step out of line and you were washed out the next day,one student taxied into another Stearman scratching the paintwork,another wrote off five aircraft in a take off accident in one go,the scrap compound was an indication of the attrition rate,a pile of Stearmans that had been wrecked in a freak storm and used for spares,airplanes were valuable and they did not want to loose too many,as you can see from the U.S.Army Air Corps rules below issued to every student and drummed in constantly,flights were strictly VMC ( Visual flight rules )a term unheard of in those days,but meaning that the ground should be visible with no flying in clouds whatsoever,the inherent and real dangers of vertigo had claimed many a student loosing sight with the ground and spinning in-
The Boeing PT-17 Stearman was the airplane used for training,all fifty five of them neatly lined up gleaming with yellow wings and blue fuselages,the red dot of the American roundal standing out like a sore thumb,with the seven stars and stripes proudly displayed on the rudder,powered with a variety of engines usually 225 hp Continental or Lycoming motors,she was a rugged man sized machine.
Not far from the two huge steel and concrete hangars which were large enough to accomodate two regulation hockey rinks,were the barrack blocks,administration offices and mess hall,all laid out in much the same quadrangle formation as you would have found in any period university,the mess hall was high ceilinged and beamed in the Tudor manner.It seated 250 at refectory tables,all buildings were built to withstand hurricanes and painted in restful colours inside and out,and were erected acording to plans of the U.S.Army,for tropical posts.Each building was tightly screened and there was a ten foot high esplanade around each floor so there is a cooling breeze on the hottest day or night,there was a heating system available for winter use if needed.
While some of the schools chose a housing system of placing four students in a suite,the school at Lakeland was based on the community principle of thirty boys to each barrack.The owner of the school was Albert.I.Lodwick who was himself a leading figure in North American aviation,a big believer ingood fellowship.
The students day began at 5.30 in the morning with reveille,roll call and formation,followed by half an hour of calisthenics,breakfast followed and by 7.30 am,those that were assigned to morning flight,were on the line with their instructors,those assigned to morning ground school were in their classrooms absorbing the principles of aerodynamics,theory of combustion engines,meterorology or any of the book subjects of the day that airmen would need to know,the classroom groups would then fly in the afternoon.The morning and afternoon periods would have been alternated weekly and were for a reason,any Florida pilot would have told you then that there was as much difference in the lift of the morning air,and in the afternoon air in Florida as there is between the Sahara and the Arctic wastes.
The entire school knocked off for lunch at 11,30 am-not the conventional lunch hour but remember these guys had been up and at it since 5.30 in the morning ! Lunch was a bountiful meal,served under the vaulted ceiling of the mess hall by impeccably neat coloured waiters in white coats.
This gives the historian a great insight into the efficency and planning that went into the Arnold Scheme,if it had not been for this ability to train in such good conditions that Florida offered then the training back home in the bleak and awful weather that the UK was then experiencing would have severly delayed the production of suitable aircrew.
Picture of the recreation rest room taken by my father at Lakeland during 1942.
Lakeland looked like this from the air,the Lockheed Lodestar was a regular visitor carrying passengers across America,note the rows of tiny Piper Cub aircraft on the left operated by the resident civil flying school.
The beautiful Lakeland civic centre.
Well it could not have been all work,my fathers smile says it all !
To be continued...14 months of hard work and time for embarkation.
Part 4-14 months of hard work then embarkation.
At this point it is perhaps appropiate to outline the three basic training schems in operation at this crucial time in history,the CATP Commonwealth Air Traing Plan,using bases in Canada;the BFTS British Flying Training Schools in the USA which utilised American bases and equipment;Arnold Scheme,flying training of British cadets undertaken within the structure of the U.S.Army Air Corps,R.A.F cadets were allocated to one of the above schemes before leaving the UK.
There were in fact six BFTS's established initially as a result of an agreement between Roosevelt and Churchill in early 1941,they were-Love Field,Dallas,Terrell,Texas;Glendale,Lancaster,California;Tulsa,Miami,Oklahoma;Thunderbird,Mesa,Arizona;Arcadia,Clewiston,Florida;Albany,Ponca City,Oklahoma,only four of these were in existance at the cessation of hostilities in September 1945.
During mid 1942 my father made a few moves across Canada in order to learn the skills of his forthcoming trade,from Trenton Air Station in Ontario he went to No.5 Air Observer School,Stevenson field,Winnipeg,Manitoba,Canada-
Breathtaking view from the air of the Capital city of the Province of Manitoba,Canada in 1942,the restrictions of carrying cameras were obviously allowed as this was taken on a training flight in an Avro Canada built Anson trainer.
After a brief stay at Trenton Air Station,Ontario,Canada it was on to No.5 Air Observer School,Stevenson field,Winnipeg,Manitoba where he would see a wide variety of training aircraft including this Handley Page Hampden,and a Curtiss Kittyhawk practising circuits-
Handley Page Hampden ( nicknamed the 'Flying Suitcase' ) in the circuit at Stevenson Field.
A Curtiss Kittyhawk practising circuits and bumps at Stevensons field,these were the sights that greeted my father in 1942.
After a few weeks it was time to move on again,this time to No.31 Gunnery School at Picton,Ontario,once again he received intense specialised training on Avro Canada Anson Mk.II aircraft and Bristol Bolingbrokes.
Ansom Mk.II on approach to Picton,Ontario,and a gut wrenching steep bank in a Bristol Bolingbroke with my father in the turret-
From here he went to No.33 Air Navigation School,at Mount Hope,Ontario here he did a lot of flying in more Avro Ansons,take a look at this picture aircraft as far as the eye can see-
And the obligatory group line up picture,LJC is bottom second in from the right,once again he is in his element,he is flying and has comradship,what more could he have wanted ?-
The group lined up for the course photograph,I wonder how many are still around now ? every name is on the reverse of the picture.
Well on 4th February 1943 after a brief visit once again to the R.A.F depot at Moncton he was embarked back to the UK on the Troopship 'Andes'-
Andes-Displacement 25,689 tons,669 x 83 feet,Steam Turbines,twin screws,21 knots,607 passengers ( 403 first class and 204 second class ) Built by Harland & Wolf at Belfast in 1939,originally built for Royal Mail Lines ( British flag ) Southampton-East Coast of America service,she was completed as a troopship in 1939,entered in South American service 1948,converted to a cruise ship in 1959-60 and finally scrapped in Belgium in 1971.
Well try and put yourself in my fathers place back then,on the way back home what would he be thinking of ? probably looking forward to more flying soon,one thing is for sure these were to be the most happy and memorable times of his life,despite the evils of war he was acheiving what he really wanted.
Part 5 will cover and follow his further advanced training in the UK,and he would meet his bride to be,my mother who was serving as a WAAF at Stranraer as an aircraft fitter.
Part 5- Back to the UK for more training.
Following the warm weather of Florida the trainee pilots were faced with a bleak cold landing on the shores of the UK,without fuss or time to reflect they were ordered to report to No.7 PRC in Harrogate,Yorkshire where they would be kitted out with the required equipment for their next tasks,this was during the month of February 1943,with war rationing,uncertainty and stress the recruits just wanted to get things done and go to an operational station.
3rd March 1943 saw my father at No.4 (O ) Advanced Flying unit ,West Freugh,Stranraer,quickly followed by a move to Manby,Lincolnshire at No.1 Armament School for a special training course for instructors,here is a photograph,the note on the back says 'Back row good pals,Bill Wilkinson,Bill Fielder,favourite pubs the 'Jolly Sailer' in Louth,and the 'Ship Hotel' Grimsby at weekends' aircraft were Bristol Blenheim IV and the Handley Page Hampden-
He returned back to No.4 (O) A.F.U West Freugh as a bombing instructor but before long was updating his skills at No.1 Air Armament School Manby learning about the intricate specialist knowledge of the Mk XIV bomb sight,another move this time to No.1 (O) Advanced Flying Unit ,Wigtown ,Scotland as a Navigational Instructor,it was here that he met his bride to be who was an aircraft fitter working on Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah engines,here is a small photograph taken of her at that period-
I actually know very little about my mothers R.A.F career,not even her service number has surfaced,a Northern lass born in Newcastle upon Tyne,but what a lovely period photograph of her,she did tell me about the Sunderland flying boats landing at Stranraer.
Next placement for my father was to be to an Operational Training Unit ( OTU ) at Lossiemouth,Morayshire,Scotland,here he would have been groomed for crew allocation to bombers which took place at R.A.F Sturgate,Gainsborough,Lincolnshire,after a spell with No.1661 Heavy Conversion Unit at Winthorpe in Nottinghamshire.
No.227 Squadron No.5 Group Bomber Command,R.A.F Strubby was to be his next important move,here he would get to grips with the Avro Lancaster,his aircraft was PB731 coded 9J-L,an aircraft that has been much modelled and painted over the years by myself,here are some typical group photographs of this aircraft and the crews-
Top row,extreme right is my father.
4 th in from the left middle row,an awesome looking bomb,the small white bomb is for practise purposes,imagine going to war in that Lanc ? this picture was taken on the squadrons move to R.A.F Graveley in Cambridgeshire,227 Squadron was finally disbanded on 5 th September 1945.
3 rd from the right,also taken at Graveley,a good view of the crew and aircraft,codes were red with a yellow outline.
Thankfully he never did any missions in anger otherwise he would probably not have survived as the attrition rates and loss of crews were very heavy,he did many flights over war torn Germany checking and photographing the damage,also here is a little momento of his trips to Barie in Italy ( yes I was named after the island )-
On 29th January 1944 he was married at Low Westwood church,near Consett,County Durham,here he proudly shows his uniform and links arms with his lovely bride Olive Wilkinson -
The war was nearly over and everyone just wanted to settle down into civvie street,some pilots went to work for the post war B.O.A.C (British Overseas Airways Corporation ) father would eventually return to his reserved occupation at the Alvis,the day he went back to his milling machine the company treated him as if he had not been away to serve his country,he was to remain with the Alvis until his retirement his final position being a works study engineer.
A few more moves to Bruntingthorpe,then R.A.F Catterick,R.A.F West Kirby,Wirral,Cheshire;R.A.F Poddington,Wellingborough,Northants,although he was offered the chance to go abroad to fly Dakotas he declined and instead finished up at a driver M.T Course at R.A.F Weeton,Blackpool where he learned to drive,despite this he never owned a single car in his whole life preferring to cycle everywhere.
Finally he was demobbed at No.108 PDC Uxbridge and Wembley stadium,and took 68 days leave until 28th July 1946,he attained the rank of Warrant officer.
A lot of money in those distant days,here is his war gratuity slip,the grand total of £99.1/- ( one old shilling )
Thats it for my fathers history,now I am going to have a break,meanwhile my own story is in preparation and will carry on from this one,please be patient !
After a while he received a letter from the R.A.F Records department at Innsworth,Gloucestershire,here is that letter and it speaks for itself-
