Commonwealth CA-25 Winjeel

In 1959 I was taught on this a /c at 1BFTS PCK (35 Course). It was the first aeroplane I flew (but not the last)and I recall it having two spins, stable and unstable - which was really a spiral dive, building up 3 /4g /turn and fell out as soon as the controls were centralised. Definitely had to work a little to recover from a well developed stable spin, though.

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As an RAF pom fitter served at Woomera 59 /62. Enjoyed being a 'flying spanner' on a survey trip in a Winjeel staying over at Tarcoola - what an introduction to life in a bush community.
Almost as good as the settings in the Aboriginal detective Boney books!

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I flew around 600 hours on Winjeels as a QFI at No 1 BFTS Uranquinty. In fact we were the first instructors to introduce the Winjeel at Uranquinty, having done only one hour on the aircraft during the instructors course at CFS RAAF East Sale. Initially we thought students would have serious problems using this aircraft as their ab-initio trainer after the simple cockpit of the Tiger Moth.

We were wrong as it turned out. Time to first solo was about the same as the Tiger Moth - in other words between 8 and 11 hours of dual instruction. The Winjeel was a fine trainer as was the Wirraway. Certainly more comfortable to fly than the Tiger Moth which like any open-cockpit type was damnably cold in winter. Navigation flying was easier too, with no chance of losing maps and navigation logs over the side as often happened in Tiger Moths.

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As an apprentice at De Havilland aircraft company at Bankstown airfield I worked on the wings and other components for the winjeel

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Note correction to my email address. While I am commenting I would also describe ejection test of the large canopy. A lincoln bomber was placed in front of the Winjeel with engines at max power and winjeel canopy released very successfully clearing the fin but missing the catching net so test was really too successful

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I worked on the Winjeel on my graduation from the Melbourne Technical College now RMIT in 1951.Most of my work was the design of the Petal Cowlings which was a different idea for cowling a radial engine at that time and took quite a lot of time.

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I heard a story of a decorated RAAF AVM who ground looped a RAAF museum Winjeel at Philip Island aerodrome thereby taking out the runway lighting system. Can anyone add substance to this story?

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