If they were wearing them for communications only, surely they had a different comm's set up for trainers. Not only was it cumbersome it is a safety issue. I would not want to take my hands off the control column, to filp a switch on the mask everytime I wanted to talk. A yoke mounted PTT would be a definite improvement.
shareNo. You need to go on oxygen at 11,000 feet. As a pilot, I'm required to be on O2 if I'm at 11,000 for more than 30 minutes, and must be on O2 full-time at 12,000. (In unpressurized aircraft, as these were.)
But in the day, the mic was in the mask, and the British mask had the switch on the outside. It was actually quite cutting-edge: the US still had a hand-held for below 11,000, or a throat mic, (which worked terribly) when on O2. Both those required a hand to operate at the time as well.
Technology had not yet blossomed. For instance: did you know the Avro Lancaster's control surfaces were cloth-covered? (As were the DC-3, Grumman Hellcat, and most aircraft of the day.)
I was being sarcastic. The altitudes you mention are daytime altitudes if I remember correctly (been a while since I looked at the FAR'S) the FAA recomended smokers go on O2 @ 5,000 - 7,000ft MSL. Imagine all the Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitos being flown by people, all of them smoked, probably waiting till 12,000 to go on O2. Ominus when you think that Gibson was killed by friendly fire when a Lancaster gunner mistook his Mosquito for a JU 88.
On a lighter note I am attaching a page below about the different types of car ashtrays used in WII aircraft. There are also some amazing pictures of the plywood deck and fuse panel inside the Enola Gay.
http://aafradio.org/flightdeck/Peripherals-misc.html
I would still rather have a throat mic, which I have found RAF examples of, because wearing oxygen mask flying less than 100' off the deck for god knows how many hours would be horrible. I had a friend who flew a Hornet over the Atlantic sucked up behind a KC-10 the entire way (having to wear survival suit, oxygen, on an ejection seat and god knows how many tanks). Don't think he would have cared to do it again.
I'm sorry to correct you joegerardi-1 ..but the control surfaces of the Avro Lancaster were most definitely NOT fabric covered! Not in initial design drawings, prototypes, or any of the various marks assembled during its production life. That goes for the Avro Manchester as well, which morphed into the Lancaster after its Rolls
Royce Vulture engines proved to be unreliable in every respect. The designer, Roy Chadwick, would never have sanctioned such a lash up on a heavy bomber, had he not stipulated aluminium, the brass at AVRO would have done it for him! No aircraft of this type could have flown with fabric ailerons, rudder etc. The controls at that time had no hydraulic assistance, Guy Gibson himself wrote that; "you have to be quite strong to fly a Lancaster." Altering the angle of alloy ailerons at 240mph was hard enough, the drag on fabric would have made it impossible!
Even the plywood and fabric De Havilland Mosquito had aluminium rudder and ailerons.
Not only did it lighten the controls, it didn't 'balloon' in flight as fabric could (and did!) thus lessening the chance of structural failure in the air. (which in a bomber usually meant "goodnight nurse..blow out the candles!")