Flight sequence for which aircraft?

[R5868]

These sheets were in my uncle's logbook. They appear to be for a twin engine aircraft. Could they be for an Anson or an Oxford?





Kerry

[kookabat]

Looks to me like a fairly generic set of checklists for a twin of the era Kerry - did the Oxford have power-operated undercarriage retraction or was it also a case of "get the bloke in the other seat to wind the handle 1,528 times" like the Anson?

I guess the answer may lie in which twin-engined aircraft Eric flew first. This is pure guesswork, but... if he flew (say) the Anson first, presumably it was at SFTS and it would have been the second aircraft type (after Max's favourite the Tiger Moth) he had ever encountered. So at that stage in his career flying in general is still quite a new thing. I can imagine a conscientious student writing out a checklist like this one, but a more seasoned heavy bomber pilot might not be so careful. Flown one twin (of the era), flown 'em all, right?

You might like to contact a mob like the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre - they're restoring an Anson (very slowly) and might have documentation that could confirm, perhaps, the engine pressure and fuel capacities etc.

[ME453]

I'd go for an Oxford Kerry, definitely can't be an Anson because, as Adam said, the u/c had to be hand-wound up and down. Very interesting to read the sequences though - again I agree with Adam that it's the kind of thing a conscientious pilot new to a type would do to try to ingrain the procedure (heavens, it's even what I've done recently with my flying!).

Knowing the correct sequences by heart is of course vital. I remember reading in Geoffrey Wellum's excellent book "First Light" how one of his trainee colleagues was killed in a Harvard just after take-off because he forgot to uncage his compass, he flew into a hill on a night exercise.
Max