Henley Probus Club – RAF Talk

Henley Probus Club welcomed Tim Woods; an elder statesman within the Club to talk at this month’s meeting.

Tim started his talk by recalling how he remembered his childhood as part of the WW2 blitz and how, after the war ended, he took a job, without any educational qualifications, with the Kodak Company. He quickly became disillusioned with his first position in industry, sought advice and in 1951 joined the Royal Air Force at RAF Finningley in Yorkshire (Tim described it as ‘old ‘RAF’); he was attached to the Air Crew Wing where he started learning and developing basic flying and navigational skills. Tim then described, with a significant amount of humour, his experiences flying a range of aircraft and missions around the world. His initial flying and navigational training took place in a de Haviland Chipmunk aircraft after which he had varied roles in the Meteor 4 (reconnaissance), Meteor 10 and F4 Phantom. After Tim left the RAF he became a commercial aircraft pilot.

Henley Probus meets at Badgemore Park on the second Tuesday of each month; it starts with an informal gathering of its members (plus Visitors) for a discussion and coffee, with the formal meeting commencing at 1130 followed by a lunch. If anyone is interested in joining the Club, please make themselves known to Roger Griffiths our Membership Secretary (01491575137/email regriffiths@waitrose.com) or to any Club member that you may know.