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Target Towing Flight
Target Towing Flight
The Target
Towing Flight operated from the Drogue Section located
in an upstairs room over the main hanger. We were
responsible for operating a drogue, a windsock shaped
target towed by the Mosquito flying over the Todendorf
gunnery range for the army and RAF regiment. We would
operate on a shift pattern and would go something like
this: Early call at 5am, an early breakfast and arrive
at the drogue section at 6am. Check the roster to see
which pilot we would fly with and type of detail; heavy
ack-ack or light ack-ack.
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Mosquito & Ground
Crew |
View of hanger from
the Drogue Section |
Take off would
6.30am with a climb out and then circle round to arrive
back over the airfield at 1500 feet. As we approached
the field the skipper would give the order ’Stand by to
stream,’ being the phrase used to deploy the drogue. We
would then unfasten our harness, turn to face the rear
of the aircraft and stick our head into the astro
bubble. This was a blister on top of the cockpit cabin.
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Just
below and on the rear cockpit bulkhead were 4
toggles. By operating one of these this would
release a drogue from under the belly of the
Mosquito. The skipper would then throttle the
engines back so we were flying just above the
stalling speed. He would then give the order
’steam’ this was to pull number one toggle to
stream the first drogue. We would then watch for
the drogue to deploy and open up much like a
wind sock and if all was ok would say, ’
streaming ok’, turn around and look down to our
control panel and operate the winch stored on
the belly of the aircraft. |
Winch Operating Panel in Mosquito |
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Drogues Under Belly of Mosquito |
The winch was a device to
reel out and reel in the drogue, this was
operated with a switch and buttons. We would
then reel out the drogue to our maximum
permitted distance of 300 feet over land, and
the continue to fly out to the Todendorf firing
range via Echonforde Bay that joined the Baltic
Sea. We would then let out the drogue to our
operational distance, 1500ft. Light ack-ack,
3000ft. Heavy ack-ack. and then would fly up
and down the range just out to sea for up to 2
hours. If the drogue took a hit we were informed
by radio and would release it over the range,
climb and stream another until all 4 drogues had
been used then return to
base. |
Target Towing Flight Air &
Ground Crew. 2nd TTF RAF Schleswigland 1956-1958
Click on image for larger view
Frank Brooks, Target Towing Operator, second row from top, 6th
from left and Tony Blackburn to his left next row down.
Bottom row are some of the pilots. Flying Officer
Frank
Jones
the pilot that crashed in the Mosquito with
Roly
Pickering is bottom row 6th from right.
Mosquitos Outside Main
Hanger
Mosquito TA722 landing at
Schleswig |
