The Boeing Chinook.

Or, "Sitting in a dark room with the hoover on."

Back in the mists of history I was an Air Cadet. I suppose that my enduring fascination with aircraft comes from this association and despite being a relatively recent returner to the world of scale modelling I have maintained my interest in military aircraft and the history of aviation.

The Air Training Corps, (which was formed from the Air Defence Cadet Corps) has been a part of the fabric of society in most of this country since the Second World War. It was started to give young men an opportunity to experience the Royal Air Force with a view to pursuing a career in that most worthy organisation. Originally for boys (and young men) only, the ATC allowed girls to become a part of it in the early 1980s and that change was, without question, to its direct benefit. If your children are interested in aircraft or flying, I can’t think of a better thing to recommend to them as they embark upon the adventure of their lives. They will meet friends that they will know for life, they will develop a sense of teamwork and responsibility to themselves as well as duty to others together with broadening their perspectives. I was a part of it for 5 years and reached the rank of cadet Flight Sergeant.

One of the key parts of “cadets” was air experience flying. Our local AE squadron was “number 4 air experience flight,” based at Exeter Airport and they were equipped with Chipmunk T10 aircraft. I went a number of times and enjoyed the flying there on each occasion. It is most unfortunate that No 4 AEF was disbanded in 1997. I was also able to fly whilst on cadet camps during the summertime and was most fortunate to make my maiden Chipmunk flight at RAF Conningsby in Lincolnshire, then the home of 228 OCU who operated Phantoms at the time. So, in addition to seeing these and other aircraft take off and land at almost all hours of the day and night, we were able to skull around in “Chippys” with a fast jet pilot at the controls. I will recount the full story of my first flight on another occasion as today I wanted to talk about another summer camp experience- this time at RAF Upavon.

RAF Upavon was the RAF administrative headquarters of what was called “air support command.” This command was absorbed into Strike Command in September 1972, but the administrative support role remained at Upavon. Owing to the presence of No. 622 cadet gliding school, the station remained a favourite for air cadets until Upavon was handed over the Army in the 90s, when it became “Trenchard Lines,” garrison.

My story concerns the delivery of new Chinook helicopters to the RAF in 1980. My cadet squadron was billeted at Upavon for their summer camp week and the “gen buzz” was that something interesting was going to happen during our stay. A total lack of any sort of real information only strengthened the curiosity of the gathered cadets of course and we all set to work trying to find out what might be on the cards…

Our detective efforts were ineffectual, but the wait was not lengthy as one afternoon, the sound of helicopters drew us from our tea and we were regaled with the sight of a Chinook floating overhead with an underslung load. Cadets were mustered to parade at that point and the briefing was given that we were to be the first in the country to fly in the new Chinook helicopters that were undertaking load testing at Upavon that night. Rotas for the night flights were quickly handed out and I discovered that I was to be on a flight from 02.00 until 03.30. We were briefed on the embarkation procedures and duly loaded on board at the appointed hour.

I can only say that travelling in a Chinook in the dark is not the most interesting way of spending one’s time and perhaps you may now understand the subtitle to this piece, it being an expression I have used from time to time when relating this story.

Notwithstanding that, I pulled rank to sit towards the centre of the aircraft where the internal load boom is fitted as I fancied that something might be visible when the ALM, (air load master) was attaching lines and so on. So it turned out to be and I was able to see slightly more of what was going on when the loads were being taken up and released under the “daylight” lamps shining down from the fuselage. It was still bloody noisy however.

I will turn now to the modelling part of this piece. Icequeen7, (her channel may be found here: http://www.youtube.com/@icequeen7) is running a group build the focus of which is helicopters. I have decided to take part and so I have acquired an Italeri Chinook in 1/48 scale. My review may be found here:

This will be the second Italeri model I have put together since my return to the plastic some three or so years ago. I hope it goes a little better that the first which was a North American XB70A. There were some issues there- one of the vertical stabilisers had a short shot and the fuselage was (to say the least of it) problematic. I was able to solve the first issue with the judicious application of some grey putty and sanding such that it is not possible to see where the problem was. I cannot now remember on which stabiliser the problem occurred- perhaps this is a good thing.

The fuselage was a bit more of a problem. The delta wing sections come in halves (left and right together with top and bottom) and mount onto the fuselage proper (which contains the six engines and the bomb bay), which is in one section. It is important to get the joint between the port and starboard wing sections correct as getting this even slightly wrong causes mating issues with the fuselage. I thought that I had arranged the wings correctly, but my attempt to join them left large gaps. Cavernous gaps in fact. Perseverance is the key at times like this and eventually I was able to remove the gaps and steps leaving a model that looks reasonable. This Italeri kit is in 1/72 scale and is rather large and so I suspect the moulding is at the limit of what can be properly achieved with polystyrene, hence the issues with fitting. Hey ho!!

Now we come to the Chinook. The fuselage has an interesting assembly method- a variant that I haven’t seen before so I will certainly film this part of the process. I don’t propose however to get into a lot of detailing with this project, instead keeping to the design plan from Italeri and hoping to make a reasonable fist of it. This is because I am both slow, sometimes diverted to other (non modelling) activities and some way behind the other participants as they all started a little while ago. Never mind- I have until June I believe! I have promised myself that I would build a Chinook at some stage and IceQueen seems to have provided the relevant motivation which pleases me- I will make briefings on the project as I go and may very well concentrate my films on the painting of this one as it will be a larger 1/48 model and painting it in the RAF livery may be harder than it sounds. Large expanses of surface are harder to treat if one hopes to produce a finished kit that doesn’t look like a toy. I will deploy my best efforts and use a black primer.

So, in building a Chinook, I reach back into my past to seek inspiration for another project. I hope it goes well and that you all have a look in from time to time- I’ll be glad of the company and won’t be sitting under the stairs at any point soon…