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I have just returned from London, having had the great privilege of attending a reception in aid of the RAF Association at the wonderful RAF Club. This was a launch of the book ‘Six Weeks of a Blenheim Summer’ by Alastair Panton Bacon, edited and compiled by his granddaughter, Victoria Panton Bacon: a highly recommended read. The book gives a detailed and atmospheric account of that turbulent period when the tide of war was rolling in the German’s favour over the Low Countries and France, and the Dunkirk Evacuation snatched British troops out of its seemingly relentless path. The book is a very personal account, showing the bravery and resourcefulness of Panton and his colleagues; there is humour, insight and sadness.  The reception on Thursday evening did full justice to the book and Victoria’s work in bringing it to print.

Until I did this on Friday, I thought the ‘D’ in ‘double-dee clutching’ (as I heard it – I had never seen it written down) was just the letter D, standing for some arcane bit of the clutch mechanism. Because of my new-found knowledge, I now come to realise that pressing the clutch pedal is actually de-clutching, ie, making the two discs of the clutch mechanism pull away from each other to allow the free spin of the gearbox. Tell me if I’m wrong. However, if this is the case, whoever called the clutch pedal the clutch, when they meant the de-clutcher, was sewing the seeds of confusion, if you ask me.

Yesterday Crispin Thetford showed me two gearboxes laid out on the bench: one a modern synchromesh and the other a crash gearbox. You have to remember that I’m someone whose idea of what goes on under the bonnet of the car is similar to mankind’s knowledge about the deepest depths of the ocean – murky, to say the least. So it was a revelation to me to see what is actually happening in a crash gearbox when I crunch – I mean change smoothly through – the gears.

Now here’s my explanation. This is ‘Gearboxes, Key Stage 1’.

The gear machinery is essentially linear (not what I imagined, for some reason), with two ‘axles’ side by side with rings of cogs, which engage with each other. One of these ‘axles’ slides along its length, moving its row of cogs along to engage differently with the adjacent ones. (OK – this is a lay person’s version!)  At the input end is the spin produced by the engine, at the other is the output to the moving parts, ie wheels, ultimately. The gears in between engage the spin with the required effort (is this the same as torque? Stop laughing, you experts, I’m doing my best!). In the one I was looking at (a vintage Riley), as in the Singer, there are three cogs to engage for 1st, 2nd and third gear (going up in size accordingly). For the fourth gear – and here’s the real punchline – cogs slides right up to engage directly with the input from the engine, so that in fourth gear, the speed of the engine and the speed of the output to the wheels are the same. This last ring of cogs aren’t fixed like a collar with the ‘teeth’ outwards, but upwards, where they engage with others facing them. You have to have the two pieces moving at the same speed in order for them to click together.

So, to go down from fourth to third (my bete noir at the moment) you put the car into neutral with the first push on the clutch pedal, then rev the engine to make the input bit go faster (have I lost you here) to match what the car engine would sound like to go at the speed you are aiming at in third gear. Then clutch pedal in again, slide smoothly into third. You hope.

Right then, you car buffs; after you’ve stopped laughing, perhaps you can mark me out of 10.

For a proper explanation, you’ll have to wait until Crispin has time on his hands to include it in his own excellent blog at Thetford Motor Engineering

Chattie will be on display at Brightwells Classic Vehicles auction in Leominster this week, Tuesday 3rd (viewing day) and Wednesday 4th March (auction day). I will be with Chattie on Tuesday – do please come and say hello. I will also have copies of my father’s wartime memoirs for sale: Flying Blind: The Story of a Second World War Night-Fighter Pilot’. 

The Where They Served tour of my father’s 60 wartime UK airfields starts in April so come and find out what’s happening. The tour is in aid of the RAF Benevolent Fund, who helped my father when he Parkinsons disease, before he died aged 90 in 2012.

As well as viewing Chattie there will be around 200 classic vehicle lots of many different types. I would have my eye on a beautiful blue 1936 Riley, or a very sweet 1937 Morris, if my heart wasn’t already given to Chattie!

Chattie’s test drive before appearing at Brightwell’s classic car auction next week has been very satisfactory. You can join Crispin Thetford in the car for a quick virtual spin down the country lane on his latest blog. Listen to that engine start up!

I am a musician by training and temperament (no need to comment here, if you know me!).  I have had something of an initiation into classic and vintage cars through my husband, AKA Ground Control, but now of course with acquiring ‘Chattie’ the 1935 Singer and knowing I am going to be spending most of the summer driving her, my initiation is having to be much more practical and hands-on.  A revelation in this process is seeing the engineering work being carried out on ‘Chattie’ by Pin Thetford of Thetford engineering, which is something on the level of an art form. There is an elegance in the way in which the structure and design of the car, the materials, the variables, the minuscule measurements and the almost intuitive understanding of how the whole works in harmony with its parts come together, that is a pleasure to witness. I would urge you to have a look at Pin’s latest blog about king pins and bushes, titled ‘Strange Measurements’: http://www.thetfords.com/blog/ You won’t be disappointed, I promise!  

Have a look at this website dedicated to the brave men who sat in the back of an aircraft in a turret or other exposed capsule, watching out for and firing at the enemy:  http://www.air-gunners.co.uk

Fighter pilots often owed their lives to their gunners, and vice versa.  With the changing technology and needs of warfare, gunners often changed jobs, learning to be wireless operators or radar operators. When 256 Squadron converted from Boulton Paul Defiants, which required a gunner to operate the armed dorsal turret, to Beaufighters, which had radar operators instead, the Squadron’s gunners were given the opportunity to retrain as ROs if they desired. Many of them declined and were transferred to Bomber Command in early 1942.  By Christmas that year, my father had learned that all of those who transferred were lost in action, apart from one who was a POW.

Flt Sgt Ralph Gibbons 1943

On occasion, Dad’s RO, Ralph Gibbons, even had to act as gunner in a Beaufighter when they were converted to daytime coastal command duties, operating a Vickers gas-operated machine gun. Under fire from ME109s, he did his best to defend their Beaufighter while my father put the plane into full throttle and took emergency evasive action. One plane was shot down beside them, another never returned to base. Ralph was trained initially as a ‘navigator’, and his skills and expertise were continually being developed throughout his wartime career. He spent some time on returning from North Africa as an instructor within Bomber Command, and finished his service on Mosquitos, flying not with my father but with a Flt Lt McAlpine on 23 Squadron at Little Snoring in Norfolk.  If anyone has any information on Flt Lt McAlpine, I am sure Ralph’s family would be delighted to learn more about him.

Chattie has been in the workshop of Crispin Thetford, who has done some good work in stripping the engine down and giving it a thorough overhall.  This is a work in progress.  For the petrol-heads among you, the engine before stripping looked like this:

Obviously, with some modifications since 1935 but basically still the same old machine. Crispin’s report on the work so far is wonderfully detailed, but in summary:

• New head gasket fitted nicely on the block and tightened down with a good ‘feel’.
• carburettors stripped and cleaned – previous attention to throttle spines and butterflies means these are still in good order. Engine running nicely now.
• Distributor contact sets replaced. Ignition timing didn’t need altering
• Cooling fan (a post-war modified fan blade assembly) mounting studs were very poor – in danger of failing and the bearings were breaking up the fan pulley – fan blades were pressing on the outer bearing.  So Pin has machined the centre of the blade assembly and fitted new bearings and mounting studs. Need for further mods will now be assessed.
• Sump taken off – a very wise decision as water seems to have been getting into the oil for a long time – the inside of the sump and oil baffle plate were very rusty and flaking. All cleaned up, treated and coated.  One big end cap inspected – good standard originally, some deterioration because of running with water in the oil, but probably good for another 10,000 miles. This is good news as my tour means I’ll do between 2,000 and 5,000, depending how much mileage I do directly in Chattie, and how much in the Sprinter with Chattie on the back.
• New brake master cylinder fitted.  However, there are leaks on brake pipes due to previous use of  incorrect flaring tool having weakened the copper pipe.

In Pin’s words, ‘The end result is a car which drives again – and it goes very well indeed’.  That’s the story so far.  There is a ‘But’ – but this post has been long enough, so that appears in the next update! There is also much more to assess and decisions to be made as to what other modifications we wish to make.