PLANE TALK
IT WAS NOT ALL WORK! BY ROGER BEEBE
UP UNTIL NOW MY WRITING CONCENTRATED ON THE SERIOUS SIDE OF THE AVIATION INDUSTRY IN AN EFFORT TO PASS ON A FEW LESSONS LEARNED FROM MY CAREER. WITH THIS ARTICLE I WILL TALK ABOUT THE LIGHTER SIDE OF THE AVIATION INDUSTRY BY PASSING ON SOME OF THE MORE AMUSING AND ODDER OCCURRENCES. PERHAPS YOU WILL TAKE AWAY A LESSON OR TWO FROM THESE INCIDENTS OR, AT THE VERY LEAST, A SMILE.
THE AIR FORCE After failing to get a decent job in the civilian world, I enrolled in the army’s officer candidate program and reported for work on a Tuesday in Regina, Saskatchewan. The officer in charge vented his anger with me for being late. He said the MPs and RCMP were out looking for me as I was to report on the Monday. I showed him my travel orders which reflected Tuesday and the Tuesday date. He said it was my fault even though the army made a mistake on the order. I said “shove” the army and left the office. This led to tough farm work for about two months at which point I decided to sign up with the RCAF. It was off to Manning Depot in Toronto for aptitude tests. Due to an eye issue I could not become a pilot so I was offered a choice between military police, electronics, fitter or rigger. Thanks to reading Popular Science Magazine, I knew electronics was an up and coming field. With the testing over, I was told under no circumstances should I be in administration. That is amusing to me now, as the second half of my career years were spent in management and administration The electronics training took place in Clinton, Ontario for a year, after which I was off to Borden,
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Ontario, for tools and aircraft training. Being young and thinking I knew everything, I wondered why the RCAF would send me, a kid who grew up in the bush country and worked on farms, to study hand tools. It surprised me to learn a lot of things my dad and uncles never taught me – especially about the safety aspects of using tools. Growing up we used to cut firewood using a big circular saw mounted on front of a tractor with no guards at all. It gives me the shudders to think of that now. Next it was off to Cold Lake,
Alberta, for the CF-104 Starfighter course. This was serious business as next we were to go to Europe and fortunately, I was one of those selected to go. I recall one guy on the basic electricity course who stuck a heavy gage wire into a socket and sprayed molten copper all over the shop. He was immediately sent off to cook’s school. I too received my first 550-volt electric shock during that course which taught me to be more cautious. A friend and I flew a remote
control aircraft into a barracks window and received punishment detail; cutting grass around all the base fire hydrants with hand scissors. Not fun. I recall the 104 course as being hard work and not
too many shenanigans went on as we didn’t have the time and were 200 miles from any city. I passed the course with very good marks and the next stop was Europe. We arrived between Christmas and New Year’s Day in Marville, France. It is quite an interesting place as it was a German airfield in both of the big wars. During WW l it was obviously behind German lines, which ran though nearby Verdun. A buddy and I found a big German artillery shell, picked it up, and for a time used it for a door stop in our barracks room. At one point I began to worry about it and asked an armaments system tech to check it out. It was high explosive and poison gas, diameter about 150 mm – a big shell. We quickly returned it to the battlefield and hid it. If we had been caught it would have meant more extra duty. As my retired marine friend likes to say, “There is no vaccine for dumb ass!” When I reported for duty I was assigned a flight line job out at the line hangar servicing 441 and 439 Squadron aircraft. I think we had about sixty 104 aircraft. There were also a few Bristol 170 Freighters and a few DC-3s for transportation uses. So I reported to the Corporal in charge and he says, “Beebe, you’re going on a refuelling crew.” I said,
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