Unit History: 8 Squadron

288 squadron R.A.F.Middle Wallop. in 1956

Written by Denis Allen

Does anyon remember the mid air collision of a Balliol aircraft from Wallop and a Chipmunk from Hurn. It was during night flying,when a Chipmunk from Hurn flew through the Wallop circuit,showing no lights and apparently without radio.It flew into one of our Balliols being flown by our squadron commander with a Polish W.O.pilot in the right hand seat.It seems that one wing folded up trapping the W.O.His name was,and here I must apologise to his memory and spell it the way it was pronounced.Wodjakovsky. The Asian student appears to hav returnrd to Hurn safely. Is there anyone out there who may remember this incident and may know any more about it.
During a two and a half year posting to Changi in Singapore,I was helping to see off an Avro York of Scottish Aviation,returning to U.K.on a trooping run.Can anyone help me here? It was about 3a.m. and obviously dark.If I remember correctly the York had a tendency for the landing gear to fold up on the groud if locks were not put onto the oleos.The marshaller signaled with the wands and one of us climbed into each undercarriage bay.The lock on my side,(port)would not release,after a while,and to my horror the aircraft bagan to taxi.luckily I was able to jump out when it stopped at the end of the taxi way,run to the passenger door and hammer on it.The look on the Hostess`s face was almost funny,but I was too busy trying to keep control of my bowels to appreciate it.Has anyone else ever had problems with this equipment(landing gear-not bowels)