Meteor memories
I've only just joined and feel compelled to correct some errors in previous entries and (I hope) put the Meteor record straight as far as I can. Apologies to people who have already posted corrections.
Firstly, the u/c and airbrake controls were completely different. The first was vetically mounted in front of one's left knee and moved up and down. The second was by one's left forearm and slid horizontally.
Secondly, the double fatality night at Westonzoyland, where I was flying myself. A student landed wheels-up forcing two other aircraft to divert to Merryfield where there was a sudden weather deterioration with fog and low cloud. Two pilots (P/O's Tilley and Fry, both Halton "brats") were misled by lights and flew into the ground. No-one else was involved.
Finally, the Meteor was very easy to fly on one engine (2,000 more RPM on the live engine and exactly the same circuit pattern. Unfortunately the service had an obsession with asymmetric overshoots which were really hard work due to the footloads involved, especially if the u/c and flaps were down because the starboard engine, which powered the hydraulics, were shut down. What many people didn't realise (sadly at the cost of their lives) was that it was absolutely fatal to use aileron when you ran out of rudder control. The very first fatal accident at Westonzoyland saw a Meteor 7 spin into the ground while on Exercise 3, the medium level asymmetric lesson on the syllabus, obviously because of aileron use when rudder authority had run out. Unfortunately Pilots Notes actually suggested use of a small amount of aileron which was the fist step on a disastrous path. Life would have been much safer if people simply resigned themselves to landing alongside a blocked runway or (if too fast) running slowly off the far end.
I hope that this info. will be of help to others. I'ts surprising to see how these events all those years ago still capture the imagination !