Memories & Recollections - a letter from Kester Roberts
Kester Roberts flew from Daedalus many times and remembers his experiences with a number of aircraft based there. Below is an extract of a letter dated May this year detailing some of his memories
'In my first year at Prices School in Fareham (1953 to 1959) I, like everyone else, was conscripted into the Combined Cadet Force (CCF), Army section. I must have been keen, because I also joined the local 14th Hampshire Battalion, Army Cadet Force (ACF), rising to the dizzy heights of Bombardier, Royal Artillery (= corporal, 2 stripes, in other regiments). I must have been the only boy with 2 uniforms!
At 14, boys at Prices were allowed the choice of leaving the army cadets and joining the RAF section of the CCF. I took the option, based on the appeal of flying and being able to keep my army interest going through the ACF.
Later, during frequent cycle rides to Lee on Solent I had been impressed by the sight of Meteor jets landing from across the Solent into HMS Daedalus. Particular thrills were to be had by standing just outside the boundary hedge and runway undershoot area. Pick-up on those early jet engines was particularly slow, and one approaching Meteor could not stop his sink rate, missing us by about 10 feet – enough incentive for us to move a bit further from the runway centre line.
At my first annual week’s camp at RAF Watton, Norfolk, I had my first ever flight in a Vickers Varsity, and felt what it was like to be amongst the flying professionals. Standing behind the pilots, looking through the side windows and seeing two huge props driven by the thundering Hercules radial engines gave a euphoric lift to a young impressionable cadet.
On return from camp, my great pal Nobby Crosby-Clark had the idea of scrounging some more flying from HM Government by ringing RAF Thorney Island and asking if they would let us visit and perhaps pick up some flights of opportunity. We knew they flew Varsities, and they agreed to let us come. It was an early rise (06:30) for us to thumb a lift from Fareham to West Sussex, but we made it by about 08:30, probably assisted by the RAF cadet uniforms. Thorney made us very welcome. We were issued with blue cloth helmets, oxygen masks, parachutes and harnesses, and walked (hobbled) out to the aircraft. A nearly 4 hour navigation training exercise took us west to the Scilly Isles, north to Anglesey and back to Thorney. Some of the time was spent at 14000ft, and lying in the bomb bay with a downward facing window was particularly memorable, especially when we came in to land!
After a couple more visits to Thorney, and having a hard time getting home, we decided that thumbing lifts was losing its appeal. We therefore looked for somewhere nearer home for our flying, and decided that Daedalus was worth a try. Again, we were lucky, and since Prices had a ‘Wednesday afternoon free, come in Saturday morning’ policy, we cycled down to Lee on the afternoon of 11 June 1958. We were rewarded with a flight in one of their de-Havilland Devon aircraft (military version of the Dove). They used these for pilot conversion to twin engine aircraft. I believe this was the flight where we saw SRN-1, the first experimental hovercraft, in the (then) Saunders Roe works near Cowes. The press didn’t get their first pictures of this until some time later, so we felt very privileged, and a bit like spies really.
We visited regularly from then on, being treated to helicopter (Westland Whirlwind S55) Air/Sea rescue training in the Solent where a cardboard box would be thrown into the drink, followed by a circuit with the ‘D’ shaped net deployed to fish it out again. On one occasion, I was winched up via a strop into an S55 from the airfield. The view of the S55 as it approached and hovered overhead strains the confidence in technology, and shows dirty streaks and oily marks invisible when it’s parked. Another trip had me in the co-pilot’s seat on a hop to nearby HMS Sultan, where we did a short touch and go.
On one of the visits, we were invited to accompany a slightly deranged pilot (we didn’t realise until later) on a replacement engine check in a DH Dominie (aka Dragon Rapide in civilian life). This was a twin engine biplane, with single pilot’s position in the point of the nose. When he opened up for take-off, we thought we were on one engine: we were used to the firm thrust from the variable pitch props on the Devon, which also had more power. Gradually we gathered speed and then the tail, taking us with it, lifted majestically off the ground. This was also our first experience of a tail dragger; all the other aircraft had had tricycle undercarriages. We sailed gently away along the Solent towards Beaulieu, where aforementioned pilot carried out some (probably illegal) low flying and steep banking turns over the mudflats.
We got to know a few of the pilots there, one in particular Lt Cdr Maddocks, was always helpful. I seem to remember a chap we liaised with in the office had one blue eye and one brown, but his name escapes me.
A bit of bad luck for me, but good for Nobby, was when we had to toss a coin for a flight in the old ‘stringbag’ i.e. the Supermarine Swordfish. This aircraft type won fame for its attack on the Bismarck in WW2, but there was only room for one cadet, and it wasn’t me.
A second deranged pilot let me sit in the co-pilot’s seat of a Devon during take-off. He insisted that he would coach me as to the airspeed to fly it off the ground, as he operated the rudder pedals. Unfortunately, his pre-flight checks omitted the bit about centring the aileron trim, and as we gathered speed, I could feel a distinct bias trying to force us into a ground loop. He eventually took over as we cleared the boundary fence, and rapidly re-trimmed the ailerons. I’m sure he remembered next time, I know I won’t forget!'
© Kester Roberts
