Page 18 - Demo
P. 18
16Anyway, it was, I think, Dick Bealer, whilst 'crowing' new arrivals, who decided that, as a senior cadet, he would get one or possibly two huts%u2019-worth of rookies to create a moving piston engine (Each new boy playing the part of a piston or a valve etc). Failure to comply brought immediate belittlement.Also, said Bealer and mates climbed on the outside of the College clock-tower and strapped a bicycle to the outside. %u201cSo, who can get it down again??%u201d said Bealer of that parish.A wonderful welcome to the RAF (not)!Merv PotterCulture Shock on ArrivalAfter an apprenticeship at RAF Halton, I was selected for a navigator cadetship at Cranwell. Imagine my shock at having been treated as an %u2018oik%u2019 by many officers and NCOs for 3-years to suddenly, on reporting to Cranwell, being called %u2018Sir%u2019 by the NCOs. Woweee !Greg WhitearA Rude AwakeningEarly summer 1966, in Hut 146, Al Holman and I were having that unheard of thing %u2013 a long lie on a Saturday %u2013 in separate %u201cScratchers%u201d, I hasten to add. There was a Graduation Parade practice on the Junior Cadets%u2019 Parade Square and as the Junior Entry, we were not required. The other Hut dwellers, Dim Jones and Ibrahim Shogran, had gone off for breakfast but Al and I had decided to forego breakfast to luxuriate in an extra hour abed.I should explain to those who have not known them that these rectangular Huts had 3 distinct areas. One entered through a wooden, 2-part door straight into the tiled Ablutions/Toilet area then through

