Aircraft Carriers
of the Royal Canadian Navy
 | Here we proceed slowly by the
Stromboli near Sicily, and when we encounterd something unusual, the Commanding
Officer told us and if possible we came out to enjoy the view!, This is the way
we discovered the whales, the flying fishes hitting the ship or falling on
the weather decks
etc. |
 | Here what a pilot sees when approaching the landing deck of the ship. He must kake sure to catch a cable to stop the aircraft and if not. he crashes into the barriers. He has a space of 800 feet long and 90 feet wide to land. |
Before leaving for the air all aircraft were mounted in the flight
deck, and they were placed, and it deployed the wings. Taking turns
aircraft advancing to prepare to leave. Two plane pushers
were holding chucks under the aricraft waiting, for the batman to give the
order to the pilot to turn up the gaz and leave the flight deck, at this
very moment the chucks were removed, and another plane tooks it's
turn!
If the wind was too weak people used the catapult, and I can tell you it's not off roughly, over a length of 200 feet only the aircraft was in flight!
On the front of the aircraft carrier, there was steam coming out just before graduation degrees to tell us that we were in line with the wind, (level 0) that gave the commander the right direction for a better take-off. That still exists today.
There were about 300 men taking care of the equipment, engineers, specialists in "oleo legs' (the wheels). Those who worked on the flight deck were called the" plane pushers "but they did not like this title were in fact "aircraft handlers!
We could take off 40 planes in 20 minutes or less!
The night flights were conducted in the same way.
If the wind was too weak people used the catapult, and I can tell you it's not off roughly, over a length of 200 feet only the aircraft was in flight!
On the front of the aircraft carrier, there was steam coming out just before graduation degrees to tell us that we were in line with the wind, (level 0) that gave the commander the right direction for a better take-off. That still exists today.
There were about 300 men taking care of the equipment, engineers, specialists in "oleo legs' (the wheels). Those who worked on the flight deck were called the" plane pushers "but they did not like this title were in fact "aircraft handlers!
We could take off 40 planes in 20 minutes or less!
The night flights were conducted in the same way.
The Batman is the eyes of the pilot and has the duty to take the aircraft
safely on
board!
With his two flags and his arms streched, he
sends a series of messages like the aircraft is too low, too high, or to much to
the left etc., and only when the plane is in good position the pilot is told to
land. At night, the flags are replaced by special lights and the batman does the
same job! There are two lines of lights on the the sides of flight
deck and the pilot must land in
between!
Here an airplane "Avenger" which has failed to cling to the cables! It
is therefore entered a 3 of security barriers that have the effect of
the crash nose. The pilot was not injured in this operation except for
his pride! Sometimes
because of the ship's instability, due to the sea, the aircrafts had to make
what I used to call
a
"catastrophy landing". (enlever "if you dont like these photos let me
know")
This photo was taken in March 1948 ...
Our maiden voyage was to go to Portsmouth, England, and say good bye to the Warrior!
Our maiden voyage was to go to Portsmouth, England, and say good bye to the Warrior!
A little story in 4 photos :
1
1
A seafire arrives to
low and the batman orders a wave-off, and repeat his
approach. The Batman is standing on a small platform and protected
by vertical canvases, and we can see it right at the center of the
photo, there he stands, you might also notice that all around the ship
ago nets up to the flight deck in case someone falls ...!
2
The pilot puts the gas, but was unable to raise his plane and headed
for a Crash, for sure! We can see an escort ship away coming fast to rescue our pilot
as we do not stop ..... But the story does not end here .....!
3
A Seafire
(Spitfire for carriers crashes into the sea! What will happen then? See the results on the
next picture!
4
Thus, we see that our pilot was rescued and is back on board in a box that our carpenters had designed for this purpose. A bit of rest and then he should leave tomorrow ... No injuries shall we say! And so it was that a pilot would crash into the Caribbean Sea and is recovered with the help of our "jumbo crane! HMCS Haida Thank you for your help!
It does not looks like big waves, but this one was at least 80 feet! We were hammered during 10 days and instead of crossing the Atlantic in 4 days, as usual. We were coming back from Glasgow, Scotland, and down the Clyde River. We then departed from Greenock for Halifax. We were like a nutshell on the Northern Atlantic, leaning from port to starboard.
After reaching the Canadian coast, the Maggie entered the bay at Port Mouton N.S. and this is where we ran aground!
A very nice picture
taken at sea with one of our escorts!
(It should be noted that certain photos were posted on the Internet by members of the crew time, and I also j'an few. Sadly no mention of their origin.)
At the time our flag used the Union Jack, but to day the navy uses the same
flag but change it for the canadian ensign!
It is easy to notice that ships sailed very fast! You will
notice a barrel Oerlinken manufactured in Switzerland and sold to
Germans and the allies during the 2nd World War! Our escort on this
side was "HMCS Nootka" a destroyer of the class "Tribe". (All ships of
the class Tribe wore American names: Iroquois, Sioux, Haîda, Nootka,
Asiniboine, and many others.) (It should be noted that certain photos were posted on the Internet by members of the crew time, and I also j'an few. Sadly no mention of their origin.)
Here is the Magnificent in the dry-dock when the repairs were completed, which means the entire bow of the ship and the keel torn over a length of 220 feet! Worth mentioning is to compare the height of a man of normal size with the ship! This gives us an idea of the height. The damage of this adventure have cost $ 2,000,000.00 at the time (1949) when the vessel had cost $44,000,000.00 We remained in St-John NB from April to October in repairs.
A plane arrives and we distinguish the barriers, in case it would not be hooked.
This photo shows the "Magnificent" arriving in Havana Cuba the first
time before returning to Guantanamo Bay in 1950. Because they are old
photos they are sometimes a bit like me "shrunken ".....
A perfect landing !
Haida approaching to get re-fuelled, enters into our waves
And so the oil transfer was done.
But one day while a destroyer was in the process of completing the operations the hose, broke, and oil sprayed all over. Many men were sprayed! We could also transfer a person from one vessel to another in a chair that we called "bosen's chair" installed on a stretched cable.
But one day while a destroyer was in the process of completing the operations the hose, broke, and oil sprayed all over. Many men were sprayed! We could also transfer a person from one vessel to another in a chair that we called "bosen's chair" installed on a stretched cable.
Here we arrive at Colon, Panama Canal: The temperature rose to 120F, and we had to water the flight deck often to refresh.
It's going much better on two wheels! But sometimes these things came a wheel does not work, and this is the result!
A Sea Fury has failed cables and finally came to rest in a fence. But
the engineers could do the repairs in a very short time, because we had
the spare parts needed, and very good mechanics!
A beautiful piece of ice, (Iceberg) in the northern Atlantic during our journey towards Wakeham Bay, where we met very sympathetic Eskimos.
One evening in the spring of 1949 we slowly navigating in the Atlantic not far from England. A small plane appeared and asked permission to land! Not equipped for this manoeuvre, and after discussion with the Air Commander it was agreed to accept, and the small aircraft stopped just before the barriers. To our surprise it was journalists from the BBC for a story about us. We had to put the Cessna at the hangar, and that’s how we proceeded on the photo that we have succeeded! Inimaginable!
In this picture we see plane pushers waiting for the moment to remove the "chucks" to allow the aircraft to take off. Sometimes in the Caribbean and other warm places the flight deck was very warm and the men were lying down on the deck and roasting! This is a take-off in preparation, but only lasts a few moments, I would say a few seconds!
In closing a beautiful picture ........
A big thank you to Ben Garneau Tabata for the help!
With the hope that you like to see work
We did in the 1940's!
Au revoir and another great thanks to all visitors!
A big thank you to Ben Garneau Tabata for the help!
With the hope that you like to see work
We did in the 1940's!
Au revoir and another great thanks to all visitors!