Pilot September 2017

36 | Pilot September 2017 http://www.pilotweb.aero

Reference Dave Unwin’s June PTT column, I was at

Driffield at that time and we were despatched daily to

fly at Carnaby while the runways at Driffield were

repaired. I remember the crashes into the cliffs near

Flamborough Head, but only two of the formation

actually went in. The leader (a Flight Sergeant

Instructor) managed to pull up at the last moment. The

other two did not have time to react.

Another crash I remember was over Driffield itself

when a formation of three came back and, in the break

over the airfield, one of the trainees turned too quickly

and ran into the leader who was in a Meteor Mk4. No

ejection seat. I watched the pilot climb out of the

cockpit and bail out and land safely on the airfield. This

was done at about 1,000ft. The one that hit him lost his

pitot tube off the port wing. He tried to land but was too

fast and cartwheeled down the runway. A bit of a mess.

Mike Wood, York

I’ve just finished reading the magnificent
article in Pilot magazine by our very own
Stephen Walker (CB-IR Part two) — quite
superb. In this, Stephen describes the
flight training for the IR, and I must say I
found myself agreeing with every word!
Our experiences seem to have been quite
similar and Stephen describes it with
great good humour and in much detail.
Well done Stephen! Looking back, it’s
astonishing that we managed such a feat.
I roared with laughter at the section
where he describes a YouTube video
where a student becomes so overloaded

during training that when asked to

supply his own name he can only answer

“standby”. I look forward very much to

reading part three — the test.

David Horobin by email

Stephen Slater’s article ‘Remembering

the Maestro’ (May) reminded me of my

earliest experiences of watching Ray

Hanna fly a Spitfire at low level.

Having left Biggin Hill’s Air Touring

Services to work for LAE at Elstree, I

longed to see the famous ex-RAF

station again so cajoled my colleague

Martin to attend the Air Fair with me.

It was 1979, the Red Arrows’ final

season on Gnats and they gave a

spectacular show. Also on that day’s

programme was ex-Red 1 Ray Hanna in

Spitfire MH434 (which wore Adrian

Swire’s code AC-S). The flying had

already started as we crawled bumper

to bumper along the A233. As we

neared the runway we got a close up

view of Ray performing his routine,

including a fast, low pass down the

valley and ‘over the hedge’, where we

saw the leaves being whipped from

the trees by the Spit’s descending

tip vortices.

Sometimes a display looks a bit iffy

and spectators start to worry on the

pilot’s behalf. That wasn’t so watching

Ray Hanna; he flew an aircraft as if it

was on rails, with perfect control and

exchange of speed, height and power.

Always exciting, but never looking

dangerous or about to lose control.

Able to display absolute precision

consistently for so many years,

especially at low level, he must have

had perfect spatial awareness.

A couple of years later we witnessed

an even lower pass by Mr Hanna,

similar to the one that put the wind up

Alain de Cadenet and TV crew. In March

1981 we watched the engineer who’d

performed the engine rebuild on G-FIRE

start its Griffon for the first time. It

took a few cranks and tweaks but

eventually it fired up (subsequent

starts in the months to come would

illustrate that it really did spit fire until

the big five-bladed ‘fan’ blew out the

flames). Soon G-FIRE was ready to slip

the bonds of Elstree’s patchwork

runway. Staff from facilities at the

aerodrome were out in force to watch a

little bit of aviation history being made.

After a glorious takeoff (I think he

rocked the wings) G-FIRE flew out of

sight for some minutes. Satisfied that

all was well, it reappeared descending

from the west, aiming to pass in front

of the Tower. By now a ‘crowd-line’ had

formed alongside the café, Tower and

hangar parking, but Martin and I were

somewhere on the opposite side of

the taxiway. We all watched in

amazement as G-FIRE descended

below the treeline and established a

grass-cutting ‘cruise altitude’ that

could be measured in inches agl,

heading straight for the gap between

us and the crowd in front of the Tower.

This will have been the closest most of

us got to a ‘displaying’ aircraft.

Closing fast, that big prop disc looked

to be about to give us a haircut. We

stood mesmerised as it raced towards

us, the left wing tip whizzing past our

heads with inches to spare.

Heads turned to follow G-FIRE as it

pulled up and rolled right, overhead

Spencer Flack’s plant yard, throttling

back to begin his curved Spitfire

approach to land. But in the

excitement I’d left my ears exposed. A

split second after his wing tip had

sliced the air above us that port wing

vortex descended like a mighty

whirlwind. Somehow it missed Martin

but hit me bang on the right lug’ole.

Now I know how the trees at Biggin

Hill felt. In a knee-jerk reaction I

crouched and covered my ears, but

way too late. A ghoulish howling noise

and a sharp pain ensued as the

turbulent air tried to suck my eardrum

out, to great guffaws from some in the

crowd and a loud “kin’ ‘ell” from me.

Kicking myself for not having a

camera that day, I didn’t realise just

how rare and historical the observance

of this flight was going to be. The

awesome sight and sound of a Spitfire

being flown by the master of low level

flying was an experience I and my right

ear drum will never forget.

Joe Cleland by email

I wish to make an apology to Captain Cook for suggesting that he could

mistake the middle of the Pacific for the Northwest Passage! That was

not my intention of course and, as Alan Brown pointed out, I should

have written, ‘on a different mission but on the same long voyage

where he was also attempting to find the Northwest Passage’. I am also

a great fan of another of his great discoveries, that being Australia.

Brian Clarke (Captain Cook admirer) Meteor memories

CB-IR experiences

Remembering Ray

Cook corrections

The late Ray Hanna

i tbased instrument rating To

With all the Competency-Based Instrument Rating written exams under Stephen’s belt, it was time to start the practical instrument

flying side and find out if he could make the grade

Words Stephen Walker Photos Gabrielle Levene

Beyond the PPL | CB Instrument Rating

EASA CB-IR Part Two

do you great credit. It was, and it can probably best be compared to testing the

depth of the water with both feet. level is that it’s very easy to create a The thing about asymmetric flight at low

situation that’s irretrievable. Once the rudder pedals hit their stops, that’s your lot;

you either reduce power, increase speed, or crash. Unfortunately, if you’re already close to the ground, reducing power or gaining

speed (by lowering the nose) may also result in a crash, just slightly further from the runway. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the 890

Meteor accidents were attributed to ‘loss of control’, as the CFS instructors probably felt

that if it can be done it should be taught. Flawed thinking particularly as the Meteor’s

the instructors were WWII veterans and had seen real carnage, such as losing an entire squadron on one mission. After that, losing

one student per course probably didn’t seem so bad.

short endurance, unpressurised cockpit And as for the ‘How?’ Well, the Meteor’s minimal navaids, and

poor instrumentation caused many accidents (three-pointer altimeters

are lethal in jets, while the artificial horizons

were suction-driven and prone to toppling). The notorious ‘phantom

ltkittll

“

I

very much enjoyed your column on risk perception and acceptance in

the May issue of aged aviator, “but you must Pilot,” observed the

and very much depends — as Einstein pointed out — on the observer’s viewpoint. For remember that everything is relative

example, how many Typhoons does the

RAF have — about 140?” I nodded. “And it entered service

what, about ten years ago, and has even

been in combat. How many have they

Regulars |^ Push to Talk

There are legitimate training needs

and there’s reckless expendability...

Pilot’sfrom a farm strip and has logged stick-time Flight Test Editor operates a Jodel D.9 DAVE UNWIN

on everything from ultralights to fast jets

In 1952 the RAF crashed

150 Meteors in training accidents

The Hawtheir na

I’m painfully aware that, having mixed

up my Aztecs/Nazcas, I shouldn’t throw

stones, but saying that ‘Captain Cook...

landed on the Hawaiian Islands on

18 January 1778 while attempting to

discover the Northwest Passage

between Alaska and Asia’ (Flying

Adventure, Hawaii) casts sad aspersions

on one of our greatest navigators.

These were two entirely separate

missions on the same long voyage.Alan Brown (New Regs)

Cook corrections

Spitfire MkIX MH434

PHOTO: OFMC

PHOTO: JOHN DIBBS/OFMC