de Havilland memories of Dave Sparrow

De Havilland at home and abroad

After my first year, starting on 8th Sept 1952, at Astwick, followed by a year and a half in the Hatfield factory, I moved to Leavesden for 3 months with the Engine Co and the rest of the time with the Service Dept Civil Repair. During that time, I had experiences that I was able to repeat in later working life by being sent on working parties to Crosland Moor, Jersey and, after the end of my time, to Milan. At the end of our apprenticeship those of us finishing were advised to “leave; go and get a job elsewhere. If, in 5 years time you think enough of this Company, we will welcome you back, with all the extra experience you will have gained”.

Australia

It took me 23 years and to the only company trading under the de Havilland name, Hawker de Havilland Ltd, at Bankstown, Australia. I did leave SDCR about 6 months after the end of my time to join Morton Engineering Services, via Marshalls of Cambridge. While at Croydon with Morton I had another overseas job, changing a Heron rudder overnight at Le Bourget. When we returned, early in the next morning, the rest of the crew didn’t know we had been away! When Croydon was about to close, I volunteered (I had never been in the Services!) to go to Blackbushe with the Shell fleet. Becoming rather disillusioned with the state of the aircraft industry, I left Mortons and had a variety of jobs for the next 13 years. These included being a driving instructor, which I found extremely satisfying and frustrating in turns, depending on the ability of my pupils to pass the test! On the whole, with a pass rate of 80+% I was a better instructor than a business man when I tried working for my self. That job was ended when I caught TB and spent 8 weeks in hospital with another 6 months recovering and trying to find a job less stressful than driving instruction.

Leavesden Air Servicing

Eventually, I found my way back into the aircraft industry, joining Leavesden Air Servicing in half of the SDCR hangar. My interview was the most unusual that I have ever had. Jock Russell, the Chief Engineer, spent 15 mins talking about some of the characters who had been a SDCR, plus the former Morton’s CE, Joe McPhee. At the end, Jock decided that he ought to ask me something technical, to which I gave the wrong answer, but I was still taken on! I had been there about a year when I was able to volunteer (again!) to go with a Hunting Survey’s Dove to Khartoum, which was the start of regular trips over the next 5 years. Apart from having to learn to ground run the engines and taxi the aircraft, I was also taught on my second trip how to operate the camera, when the Hunting operator had to return to the UK. When the Hunting trips were about to dry up, I answered an advert for an aircraft inspector with Hawker de Havilland at Bankstown. By the time I arrived ‘Down Under’ in May 1980, the inspection job had been filled so I started in the Metal Workshop, during which time I volunteered yet again to become half of a working party at RAAF Amberley in Queensland. We were there for 3 months, working on Canberras, by which time we were regarded as members of N02 Sqdn and so we HAD to have a flight in a Canberra.

A badly set rivet

At the end of a year, I was told to apply for an advertised inspection job on the Life Of Type Extension (LOTEX) to the wings of the RAAF Macchi 326. Part of my responsibility was to do a survey on the upper skin and inspect the repairs after they were carried out. On one occasion, after a wing had been re-assembled with a new spar and lower skin, I was told by my German Leading Hand to come with him to the other hangar. There, I found a group of inspectors, plus the Chief Inspector and the Servicing Director looking into an access hole. My LH asked me if I had seen a badly set rivet. I said “Yes”, but if I had asked for it to be replaced it would have been even worse, and the crowd turned and walked away! When the LOTEX project finished, I was put in the Hydraulic Shop, which also covered rotor heads and blades, but my Chief Inspector knew that I enjoyed variety and he often lent me to the Engine Co. to help with assembly of T-53 and PT-6 turbines. This was followed by some time as a Production Planner on the Pilatus PC-9 / A and Sikorsky Blackhawk.

Helicopters

As the PC-9/A came close to the end, I was ‘head-hunted’ to join the MDX helicopter team in Configuration Management. This involved learning to use the EDS CAD system so that I could sign off the drawings for the McDonnell Douglas MD-900 fuselage, which was being designed and manufactured by HdH. In 1995, it was decided that the Explorer design should be transferred to Melbourne and I spent my last 4 years there, expanding my Configuration Management to cover other projects, including the manufacture of wings and other components for BAe as offset for an order for the Hawk by the RAAF. When I retired in 1999, amongst other gifts, I was presented with a framed photo of the Hawk 100, a standard BAE promotion photo except that it was signed by all the Hawk production team at Brough.