Masters Of The Air - Apple TV

[Smollet]

Siko said:

Smollet said:

My concern is most of the young these days has a sense of entitlement rather than duty.
My dad was a Catalina pilot and for a while was copilot to John Cruickshank VC

Amazing….lovely pic of your dad too. I hope you still have his logbook (s). I think Cruikshank is still alive amazingly. Just out of interest did your dad ever fly out of Scatsta in the shetlands?

Thanks. Ive still got the logbook. He did most of his time flying out of Poole Harbour prior to secondment to Ceylon and then India
John is still alive and iirc is 103 and is vice chairman of The Victoria Cross and George Cross Association.

Edited by Smollet on Thursday 7th March 11:07

[Siko]

Smollet said:

Thanks. Ive still got the logbook. He did most of his time flying out of Poole Harbour prior to secondment to Ceylon and then India
John is still alive and iirc is 103 and is vice chairman of The Victoria Cross and George Cross Association.

Edited by Smollet on Thursday 7th March 11:07

Glad to hear it Treasure them - they are a true family heirloom.

[Smollet]

Siko said:

Glad to hear it Treasure them - they are a true family heirloom.

I will probably donate them to the Catalina Society in the fullness of time.

[Skii]

Eric Mc said:

The range of an aeroplane is not an absolute. How far a plane can fly depends on lots of factors. One of the key ones is how lean you can run the fuel mixture. Another is flying at low throttle settings. Fuel consumption rockets when you ram the throttle forward, as you would in combat.

Charles Lindberg did a lot of work in World War 2 trying to extend the range of fighters and bombers by working out optimal fuel consumption settings, especially in the Pacific theatre where there were vast tracts of ocean to cover.

At the expense of pilot armour or self sealing fuel tanks , the range of the Japanese A6M Zero had a ridiculous range - 1600 miles !

[Castrol for a knave]

Smollet said:

Siko said:

Smollet said:

My concern is most of the young these days has a sense of entitlement rather than duty.
My dad was a Catalina pilot and for a while was copilot to John Cruickshank VC

Amazing….lovely pic of your dad too. I hope you still have his logbook (s). I think Cruikshank is still alive amazingly. Just out of interest did your dad ever fly out of Scatsta in the shetlands?

Thanks. Ive still got the logbook. He did most of his time flying out of Poole Harbour prior to secondment to Ceylon and then India
John is still alive and iirc is 103 and is vice chairman of The Victoria Cross and George Cross Association.

Edited by Smollet on Thursday 7th March 11:07

That's a photo you can't help but smile along with - your dad looks a proper chap.

[Smollet]

Castrol for a knave said:

That's a photo you can't help but smile along with - your dad looks a proper chap.

Thank you. No longer with us. He took the now King Charles on his driving test. He was Chief Driving Examiner before he retired.

[Ladders]

I've been enjoying it so far.

I haven't been distracted by the CGI so far to be honest, don't know any other way you could portray the scale and number of the planes involved, so good for me. Although I've not spent much time around aircraft beyond a 737, so may be distracting to anyone who has!

Have also took the 'Anti British' bits with a pinch of salt, seem to have got on with the British Woman ok so far!

Has brought home the reality of what the guys actually went through during that time. Unbelievable! How could you go through that, and then know you had to get back in the aircraft and do the same the next day! Certainly made me re-think that if I had to live through that time I'd want to be a pilot. Some of the scenes have been brutal.

Had also always thought that if you did have to bail, you'd be fairly ok if you were put away in a POW camp, totally wrong there.

Did stumble across this channel after I'd watched the first few episodes, and found they did add an extra dimension to what was going on (starts from episode 1):

[BobToc]

Some WW2 for Dummies moments this week. Did you know that Germany started a two front war and it was Hitler’s worst nightmare?

I guess as it fades in the memory younger generations need to be reminded, but it does feel like very clunky storytelling.

[FiF]

Following on from that post a question. Is WW2 covered in the school history syllabus these days. Certainly wasn't in my time, it was too recent and to be honest most of my grammar school masters would have served. I'm sure some suffered from PTSD, certainly the violent ex Scots Guards maths guy.

[Smollet]

FiF said:

Following on from that post a question. Is WW2 covered in the school history syllabus these days. Certainly wasn't in my time, it was too recent and to be honest most of my grammar school masters would have served. I'm sure some suffered from PTSD, certainly the violent ex Scots Guards maths guy.

My maths teacher was an ex Japanese PoW. He was hard and took no st but scrupulously fair. I only found out about his past when I asked him how he got a dent in his skull. Japanese rifle butt was answer.

[Adam.]

FiF said:

Following on from that post a question. Is WW2 covered in the school history syllabus these days.

I did history in the last year of proper O levels, before they brought in the easy peasy GCSEs
The whole thing was pretty much 20th century wars plus a bit of Russia (revolution, Stalin, Lenin etc) and China (Mao etc), so we covered ToV, rise of Nazis and WW2 in some detail plus Korea.

My daughter did GCSE in 2023 and did WW1 but no WW2

[coppice]

God wish mine had been like that - I'd have stayed awake. We stopped at Cromwell or thereabouts. My dreadful headmaster had been in Stalag Luft something or other but I wished they'd have kept him there , the tt.

[page3]

FiF said:

Following on from that post a question. Is WW2 covered in the school history syllabus these days. Certainly wasn't in my time, it was too recent and to be honest most of my grammar school masters would have served. I'm sure some suffered from PTSD, certainly the violent ex Scots Guards maths guy.

My son in doing GCSE History and is studying Weimar and Nazi Germany 1918 to 1939. He says it’s his most interesting topic.

Btw this BBC documentary (done like a diary entry for each day) is well worth a watch. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0gjkj43/be...

[NelsonM3]

Episode 8 one of the stronger episodes. The CGI speed of the fighter planes was more real to life as well.

Can’t help think it’s all a little too late though.

[and31]

NelsonM3 said:

Episode 8 one of the stronger episodes. The CGI speed of the fighter planes was more real to life as well.

Can’t help think it’s all a little too late though.

Agreed

[XCP]

Adam. said:

FiF said:

Following on from that post a question. Is WW2 covered in the school history syllabus these days.

I did history in the last year of proper O levels, before they brought in the easy peasy GCSEs
The whole thing was pretty much 20th century wars plus a bit of Russia (revolution, Stalin, Lenin etc) and China (Mao etc), so we covered ToV, rise of Nazis and WW2 in some detail plus Korea.

My daughter did GCSE in 2023 and did WW1 but no WW2

I did British and European history 1815 to 1945 at A level. Bit that was a while ago!

[Jimbo.]

NelsonM3 said:

Episode 8 one of the stronger episodes. The CGI speed of the fighter planes was more real to life as well.

Can’t help think it’s all a little too late though.

As I understand it, it’s common for different episodes within any series to have different directors/producers/writers. Speed of production, no leaking of the full story, no “eggs in one basket” scenarios…I’ve no idea. Either way, would different CGI companies/directors/producers also be appointed for different episodes?

[Yertis]

Having declared I’d given up, I watch another last night, the one where the P51s arrive. Whoever animated them had clearly never watched an actual Mustang in flight, they l

[croyde]

Yertis said:

Having declared I’d given up, I watch another last night, the one where the P51s arrive. Whoever animated them had clearly never watched an actual Mustang in flight, they l

No, but they had seen X-Wings over the Death Star

[Squadrone Rosso]

Episode 9 was brilliant. First one to hit me emotionally.