THUMbs Up!
Posted: July 19th, 2012, 1:48 am
First, some background on the Met Flight Gladiators. If you follow Met Flights (aka THUM Temperature and Humidity) through history, fighters were the preferred aircraft, at least locally. They could climb high and fast, get their readings, and get back down. Over an aerodrome, they might make 3 flights a day.
Since we wanted Coastal Command Met aircraft, I looked around and came up with 401 Met Flight which became 1401, and ultimately merged into 521 Sqn. Then I went looking for an aircraft. I had done some of this research before but not kept track of it very well. One thing I did find was that the Mushroom Gladiator books seem fixated on a mysterious circular thing to the left front of the windscreen.
Here's an interesting photo. All sorts of flying clothing hanging around but more importantly, the Met instruments sitting on the tail plane. The circular device is the barometer which will sit between the pilot's feet; the longer device is the psychrometer (and hence called the psy-thingy) for wet & dry bulb temps; and somewhere in all that is the recording board to be strapped to the pilot's knee.
Here's a staged shot of the psy-thingy being handed to a pilot by a ground crewman -- it's only good for detail of the device….
…. because in reality it was strapped to the starboard outer rear interplane strut as shown here. The pilot had a 3-cell torch to help him read it at various intervals ! Some accounts suggest that some Gladiators may have had a spotlight attached to the right rear cabane strut, focused on the psy...thingy.
OK, that's the THUM Gladiator in a nutshell, so here's my target aircraft. N2309/'B' of 1401 Met Flight in 1942. This aircraft became part of 521 Sqn when the various Met Flights were merged in. It crashed and was SOC in Nov '43.
There are 3 things to notice on N2309/'B'. First, there is no sign of the supposed circular device Mushroom claims were on THUM Gladiators - nor will you see it in any of the other pictures above. Second, it has a non-standard antenna on the fuselage rear deck, and third, it has a linear antenna under the fuselage. You can see variations of these two antennas on a couple other Gladiator pix, so N2309 wasn't unique but I don't know the exact function of either.
Now, I want to do some more poking around because I want to double check the color scheme -- it could be DE/DG/Sky.
OK, with the history out of the way, here's my selected victim. I have the Airfix, FROG, Matchbox, Heller, and Pavla kits. After a quick study, I put aside the CBK's, because they are Mk.I's (OK, just a prop) but more because they just aren't as nice as the other two.
Both look nice, the Heller has delicate raised panel lines, the Pavla recessed. In the end, I went with Heller because as nice as every Pavla kit looks in the box, it turns into a street brawl to get it together right. Plus, I've never built a Heller kit and thought it would be OK for a CFK in our display.
Note the Heller has parts for both the Mk.I and Mk.II and wheels or skis.
Simple instructions, from the good old days of named parts and modelers who could read and understand instructions, there's text translation of the French on the reverse. Also has a rigging diagram, but I'm not sure it makes sense yet -- I'll probably roll my own.
Well, there, it's out and ready to start -- that's enough progress for today.
Since we wanted Coastal Command Met aircraft, I looked around and came up with 401 Met Flight which became 1401, and ultimately merged into 521 Sqn. Then I went looking for an aircraft. I had done some of this research before but not kept track of it very well. One thing I did find was that the Mushroom Gladiator books seem fixated on a mysterious circular thing to the left front of the windscreen.
Here's an interesting photo. All sorts of flying clothing hanging around but more importantly, the Met instruments sitting on the tail plane. The circular device is the barometer which will sit between the pilot's feet; the longer device is the psychrometer (and hence called the psy-thingy) for wet & dry bulb temps; and somewhere in all that is the recording board to be strapped to the pilot's knee.
Here's a staged shot of the psy-thingy being handed to a pilot by a ground crewman -- it's only good for detail of the device….
…. because in reality it was strapped to the starboard outer rear interplane strut as shown here. The pilot had a 3-cell torch to help him read it at various intervals ! Some accounts suggest that some Gladiators may have had a spotlight attached to the right rear cabane strut, focused on the psy...thingy.
OK, that's the THUM Gladiator in a nutshell, so here's my target aircraft. N2309/'B' of 1401 Met Flight in 1942. This aircraft became part of 521 Sqn when the various Met Flights were merged in. It crashed and was SOC in Nov '43.
There are 3 things to notice on N2309/'B'. First, there is no sign of the supposed circular device Mushroom claims were on THUM Gladiators - nor will you see it in any of the other pictures above. Second, it has a non-standard antenna on the fuselage rear deck, and third, it has a linear antenna under the fuselage. You can see variations of these two antennas on a couple other Gladiator pix, so N2309 wasn't unique but I don't know the exact function of either.
Now, I want to do some more poking around because I want to double check the color scheme -- it could be DE/DG/Sky.
OK, with the history out of the way, here's my selected victim. I have the Airfix, FROG, Matchbox, Heller, and Pavla kits. After a quick study, I put aside the CBK's, because they are Mk.I's (OK, just a prop) but more because they just aren't as nice as the other two.
Both look nice, the Heller has delicate raised panel lines, the Pavla recessed. In the end, I went with Heller because as nice as every Pavla kit looks in the box, it turns into a street brawl to get it together right. Plus, I've never built a Heller kit and thought it would be OK for a CFK in our display.
Note the Heller has parts for both the Mk.I and Mk.II and wheels or skis.
Simple instructions, from the good old days of named parts and modelers who could read and understand instructions, there's text translation of the French on the reverse. Also has a rigging diagram, but I'm not sure it makes sense yet -- I'll probably roll my own.
Well, there, it's out and ready to start -- that's enough progress for today.