aviation - the past, present and future of flight

until the end of his military flying career in

late 1979. He performed at 112 airshows,

including UK appearances at Finningley,

Biggin Hill, Leuchars, Mildenhall, Coventry,

Waddington and Greenham Common

International Air Tattoo in 1977 and 1978.

Hans explained: “It was a good aircraft

to display but performing well meant taking

it to the very edge of the envelope.” Each

year he had a different aircraft. “First, I

wanted one that was not approaching

major maintenance, so I could keep it all

season. Second, in the handbook it says

‘any inverted or negative flight may result

in flameout’. In reality, some F-104s would

fly for up to one minute inverted and others

flameout immediately, so I always selected

one that we knew could fly inverted for at

least 30 seconds.”

He described the display as a series

of high-speed passes, barrel rolls,

loops, inverted flight and a slow, full flap,

undercarriage down, speed brakes out

at 172kts and a 360° circle whilst in full

burner. “Spectators often told me the

latter was the most spectacular part,”

he commented. “At Volkel I could even

do this within the airfield boundaries

and incorporate a roll,

which was quite an

achievement for an

F-104. The handbook

said it took 10,000ft to

perform a loop, but I did

them within about 6,000ft.

“Mostly the aircraft

took that sort of

treatment, but I did have

one occasion when an

aileron bent a little and

would not slip back

into the wing properly

because the usual very

narrow gap was now too

small. We had to remove

a minor part from the

wing to allow the aileron to fit properly until

we got home to repair it.”

Hans recalled an unfortunate incident

at the Greenham Common International

Air Tattoo in June 1977: “On the Thursday

before the show, as I arrived the tower

asked me to make a low pass, which I did.

The US base commander was extremely

unhappy about the flyby. But that may have

had more to do with what happened on the

ground as I made the pass. A tractor was

towing an F-15 across the runway at the

same time. I had seen it, so there was no

danger of collision, but as the driver saw

me getting closer he jumped from the cab

and dived for cover!

“When I landed I was banned from the

display because I had flown too low. I had

mistakenly thought, on the arrival day the

special display rules did not apply, after all

the tower had asked me to do it.”

FLAMEOUT

He remembers another notable occasion:

“On September 2, 1977, I was to fly a display

for a 315 Sqn anniversary at Twenthe. When

starting up at Volkel my own aircraft went

unserviceable. My spare was not available

either, so we took the next aircraft that

returned from a routine flight. We stripped

off the tanks and pylons, as I flew the aircraft

completely clean for the routine, but I had

no chance to do anything other than the

standard checks.

“I flew to Twenthe at Mach 0.9 to meet

my slot time and entered my display routine.

The moment I went upside down I had a

flameout. That was something memorable!

During displays whenever I flew inverted,

or applied negative ‘g’, I primed the J-79

engine ignition and had my finger ready

over it, just in case, ready to fire. You just

pulled the trigger and the engine restarted.

It must have looked spectacular from the

ground with about 20ft of flame behind me

and I completed my display. Fortunately,

I was going fast enough to stay in the

http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 39

The Orpheus recce pod fitted to a 306 Sqn F-104G. Ronald de Roij

No.323 Sqn F-104G streaming a brake ’chute moments after landing at Soesterberg in April 1978. Note the AIM-9 training round. Cor Vermolen

36-40_starfighter_dutchDC.mfDC.mf.indd 39 04/07/2018 17:29