FlyPast 03.2018

54 FLYPAST March 2018

IT ALL WENT

1918 2018

Below

Journey’s end: Gnat

T.1 XP540 just off the

runway at Llanbedr

after the author’s

forced landing.

VIA AUTHOR

QUIETQUIET

S

eptember 19, 1977 began much

the same as any other day. Based

on the Welsh island of Anglesey,

at Valley, was 4 Flying Training

School. The busy training station was

in the process of changing over from

the Folland Gnat and the Hawker

Hunter to the new advanced trainer,

the Hawker Siddeley Hawk.

I was lucky to have the job of

Officer Commanding the Standards

Squadron. My responsibilities

called for me to fly all three types

concurrently, a fantastic privilege,

albeit an extremely demanding one.

My first trip of the day had been a

practice instrument rating test in a

shiny new Hawk T.1 for one of the

qualified flying instructors (QFIs)

who was in the process of converting

to the aircraft. The second trip was in

a Gnat as a routine standards check on

another QFI, Mike. It was to be flown

as a close formation exercise with a

second Gnat flown solo by Bill.

I was to fly as captain in the front

seat of XP540, while Mike in the rear

seat practised his instructional ‘patter’

on me. I had spent four years as a QFI

on the Gnat, as well as training on it

in the early 1960s. It was an absolute

pleasure to fly, especially in close

formation. I felt very comfortable in

it – particularly in the front seat with

its superb view.

With two very reliable QFIs as my

companions, the trip promised

to be straightforward,

easy and fun.

Aircraft Establishment airfield near

Harlech, with blue sky above and

8/8ths cloud cover way below us. I

was relaxed, enjoying the view of the

lead Gnat only a few feet ahead and

above us as I waited for Mike to restart

his ‘patter’.

Suddenly, I felt a marked

deceleration and decreasing engine

noise. We dropped rapidly back out

of formation. My first thought was

that Mike had throttled right back

for some reason. A second before,

Mike had noticed an alternator failure

caption. As he had control of the

throttle lever, he was the first to realise

the Bristol Siddeley Orpheus 100

turbojet had quit, and he called that

we had flamed out.

Simultaneously, he closed the

throttle and I instinctively hit the

engine ‘hot relight’ button. Mike

said that he was trying a hot relight,

so I left him to it and made a brief

‘Mayday’ declaring our condition and

that we were heading for Valley.

The call was picked up by Bill,

who was monitoring the emergency

frequency as standard procedure

in formation flight, as were various

others. One of these, my deputy Pete,

was sitting quietly in the ‘local’ control

room in the Valley air traffic control

(ATC) tower as the duty instructor.

He immediately began his

own procedures on the

ground in response.

Back in XP540, I had

taken control as the

unsuccessful hot relight

attempt ended after the

allotted ten seconds. I

However, unbeknown to any of us,

XP540 was going to have a very bad

day.

FLAME OUT

As formation leader, Bill briefed the

exercise and I just needed to add a

few points to meet my requirements

for the check. We were soon airborne

from Runway 14 and climbing swiftly

to the southeast.

The trip proceeded normally over

the northern half of Wales for the first

25 to 30 minutes. Mike’s patter was

just fine, and I had the pleasure as ‘the

student’ of doing most of the flying

after his initial demonstrations.

We had completed our required

manoeuvres in close ‘echelon’,

including aerobatics, and had changed

to close line astern on

the lead aircraft.

Mike was flying

as we climbed

close behind Bill

to regain some

altitude before

starting the

next phase.

Conditions

were clear

at around

18,000ft

(5,486m)

and we

were east of

Llanbedr,

the coastal

Royal