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    Pigtail Pilot
    Pigtail Pilot
    Pigtail Pilot
    Ebook68 pages28 minutes

    Pigtail Pilot

    By Bill Todd

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The 17-minute flight ended in tragedy when the training aircraft spun into the ground, killing a World War Two veteran and a young pupil who might have become the first woman to gain her RAF pilot’s wings.
    Barbara Gubbins made her first solo flight at the age of 17 after 51⁄2 hours flying and gained her private pilot’s licence soon after. Dubbed the “Pigtail Pilot” in a newspaper photo caption, Barbara paid for her flying by picking fruit and giving horse riding lessons.
    A talented scientist with a passion for chemistry and applied mathematics, she went to Nottingham University and joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as a cadet pilot.
    Barbara, an only child, had logged some 150 hours of day and night flying at the time of the crash. She was 20 years old. Her attempt to fly through glass ceilings had put her on track to become the RAF’s first woman pilot, a distinction that went just six months later to Pilot Officer Jean Lennox Bird.
    This is Barbara’s story.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBill Todd
    Release dateApr 11, 2018
    ISBN9781370829828
    Pigtail Pilot
    Author

    Bill Todd

    Journalist - Travel Writer - Novelist. Collector of maps. Lover of good ale and cheese.

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      Book preview

      Pigtail Pilot - Bill Todd

      cover.jpgimg1.png

      First published as an ebook and paperback in 2015 by

      DLE-History - www.billtodd.co.uk

      Copyright ©BillTodd 2015

      The moral right of Bill Todd to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

      This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

      ***

      BILL TODD is the author of the DANNY LANCASTER series of crime thriller novels. PIGTAIL PILOT is the second in his history series, following publication of GUNNER, the story is his father’s service in World War Two. For more details, visit:

      WEBSITE: www.billtodd.co.uk

      FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/DannyLancasterInvestigates

      TWITTER: https://twitter.com/williamjtodd

      THE LAST DAY

      A 17-minute flight

      The training flight took off at 11.40am. The instructor, Flight Lieutenant Eric Church, was a 31-year-old veteran of Coastal Command in World War Two, mentioned in despatches for valuable services in the air.

      His pupil was 20-year-old Barbara Gubbins, a Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve trainee pilot who had already logged 150 flying hours.

      The aircraft, a single-engine, two-seater Percival Prentice Mk1 of 16 Reserve Flying School, took off from RAF Burnaston near Derby and headed westward over the open farming country of south Derbyshire.

      The aim of the day was the practice the recognition and recovery from a spin, a vital element of training to enable a pilot to recover when their aircraft loses lift and control and spirals earthwards like a leaf.

      Seventeen minutes after takeoff the aircraft spun into the ground just north of the River Dove near the village of Scropton.

      The crew might have attempted to bail out but both were killed when the Prentice

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