Air Publication 2764 Flight Engineer Notes General

Hi all,

I would like to ask if anybody has a copy Air Publication 2764 Flight Engineer Notes General or can advice me where it can be found?

TIA

Pavel

It might be worth checking eBay in various countries as I have many Air Publications for sale, most of no interest to me and usually at reasonable "But it now" prices of at low starting prices for bidding. I have usually paid around £25 or less for any I have bought. I tend to ignore those that are quoted as "Rare" or stuffed with inaccurate keywords like "Dambuster", "Battle of Britain", "Spitfire" etc as these are usually grossly inflated prices over £200.

Thx for an advice - I have tried but no luck at the moment.

Pavel

Pavel have you tried the RAFM? I know you might have a long wait for an answer at the moment.

In AIR 10 at Kew they have got Flight Engineer Notes for various Marks of specific types: Catalina, Halifax, Lancaster, Liberator, Lincoln, Stirling, Sunderland, York. But as you may have found they do not have Flight Engineer Notes "General". For some reason which I have never had explained you can't search in AIR 10 using the AP number.

Steve

Thanks Steve, not yet but I will try for sure.
Pavel

Not sure what the 2764 is but, is it the 'Flight Engineers notes for Lancaster aircraft by AV Roe - Manchester 1943' ? If it is, there a copy at the British Library.

Andrew according to my knowledge Air Publication 2764 Flight Engineer Notes General should be general notes for F/Es without dependency on any particular aircraft type...

In the Lanc pilot's notes is stated: "Flight Angineers should also have a copy of AP 2764 when issued."

Pavel

I suggest that rather than eBay it might be more useful to keep an eye on www.bookfinder.com, which is very good at pulling together results from "every major catalogue on line" which in my experience is pretty right.

At present search on either Air Publication 2764 or AP 2764 produces nil result, while Flight Engineer Notes as expected finds hosts of the usual aircraft-specific Pilot & Flight Engineers Notes
The search engine is good enough, using the Title field, to find spelling/punctuation variants without dross, so search on Flight Engineers Notes General may eventually find a hit: none at present.

In TNA Discovery, results are very dependent on search style, so to avoid dross, exact phrase is required.
"Flight Engineer Notes" found 10 examples of the aircraft-specific Notes, while, quite oddly I thought, "Flight Engineers Notes" found one additional set.
No amount of variant search on AP No. 2764 or Air Publication 2764 got a hit.

The two hits at the British Library were again the aircraft type issues.
Just two hits (again, the aircraft notes) in RAF Museum Discovery cat (which seems to search only selective records)
Nil result in Australian resources.
Nil result in the Hathi Trust Digital Library, nil result University of Texas Texas Scholar Works repository.

Seems the best hope is either enquiry to DoRIS RAF Museum, or keep an eye on Bookfinder for a copy.
Interesting there seems to be no mention of this AP Title & ref no in the National Archive or anywhere else: does "when issued" imply that, in the event, it was not needed/not issued in the end?

Don thank you very much for your effort and advice.

pavel

I have a good quality PDF of Air Publication 2062A, Lancaster I, III and X Pilot's and Flight Engineer's Notes, if desired. This publication states: "These notes are complimentary to A.P. 2095 Pilot's Notes General and assume a thorough knowledge of its contents. All Pilots should be in possession of a copy of A.P. 2095 (See A.M.O. 93/43). Flight Engineers should also have a copy of A.P. 2764 when issued."

Abebooks has "PILOT'S AND FLIGHT ENGINEER'S NOTES YORK C.I (CI) FOUR MERLIN 24 ENGINES" for sale: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Boo...%26sortby%3D17

Jim

Unfortunately, it was specifically AP 2764 Flight Engineer's Notes General that was sought by CZ_RAF (his post #7), of which nil copies are currently on offer in print or digitally anywhere as far as I or indeed CZ_RAF, as OP, can see.

Hence the various suggestions to ask DoRIS/RAF Museum London, despite the likely delay there in the pandemic.

As a parallel, the publication ofAP 2095 Pilot's Notes General in 1941 and 1943, issued as a companion to those for individual aircraft types, "made it possible to shorten the latter considerably" by covering in detail the whys and wherefores: of general flying; on the reasoning & purpose of limitations on engines and propellers; on the general handling of engine and prop emergencies; as well as specific accessories/instruments. I'm fortunate to have an original 1943 copy.

The numerous individual Pilot's & Flight Engineer's Notes thus came to give type-specific procedures and limits, in quite summary form.
Of these I have had a number, facsimile and/or digital, the later issues being very different from earlier issues even as late as the April 1939 AP 1530A Pilot's Notes Blenheim I Aeroplane...


I've not come across AP 2764 Flight Engineer's Notes General over the years in print or digitally (though with interest firmly focussed on one Squadron's all twin-engine, 3-man or 2-man crew air war, perhaps that's not surprising even over 20+ years). If it was issued (my #8 above) it would be most interesting to see just how much it differed from the type-specific P&FE Notes, which are after all readily available, just not the topic at hand/issue wanted.

I would suggest there is critical sentence in Jim's post #10 "Flight Engineers should also have a copy of A.P. 2764 when issued." It might be the case that at one time there was a plan to issue Flight Engineers Notes General but priority was given to type specific notes and in the end the plan for AP2764 was overtaken by events... it often happens in bureaucratic systems...

Steve

Well, yes..as CZ_RAF mentioned at his #7 , when indicating his preference for AP2764, and in my #8 raising just that query as to "when issued" vs if ever issued.
Are we (in all good humour) starting to go round in circles here?

Don and Steve thank you for your comments.
To be honest I have incorrectly translated "when issued" at first so it may be the cause of little misunderstanding so thank you for pointing out once more.

So far I have got a reply from the AHB (RAF) that they have not a copy of this in their collection and I am still waiting fro reply from the RAFM.

Pavel

Hi all,

finally the reply from the RAFM arrived:

We do not have a copy of AP2764 in our collection, nor have I been able to find a copy in the National Archives’ catalogue. I have also checked in the June 1945 edition of ‘AP113 Manual and index of air publications, Air Ministry pamphlets, air diagrams and RAF forms’ but can’t trace it there either, I’m afraid.

So I would close my "hunt" with the conclusion that Air Publication 2764 Flight Engineer Notes General has been never published.

Thanks to all for their effort and comments.

Pavel