Wing Commander Spry
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: East Sussex UK
Age: 66
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MB ...
Most current ... Issue 13 Spring 2014
You can download here
RAF - Air CluesAir Clues
Still awaiting the Summer 2014 issue ...
PS. The Wing Co hasn't been here for a while ...
Most current ... Issue 13 Spring 2014
You can download here
RAF - Air CluesAir Clues
Still awaiting the Summer 2014 issue ...
PS. The Wing Co hasn't been here for a while ...
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Bristol
Age: 82
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I wrote to him in 1963 and got a reply from some other WingCo banging on about "people at the sharp end". You'd have thought they'd give him a fourth ring after all this time.
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: 75' from the runway edge and 150' from the threshold
Age: 74
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Wg Cdr Spry#5 Air Clues Article, RHAG engagements
I read Sqn. Ldr. Taits excellent and honest article in Air Clues, on his RHAG engagement gone wrong. One of the things he relates to is that the hook shoe sits about 3' below the main wheels on approach. That then introduces another complication, as indicated by the adviceto touch down a little further down the runway than normal. The complication, if fitted, is, of course, the approach end BARRIER.
One day in the late eighties I was the duty runway controller (RWC} at Bruggen, when a Tornado declared (If I remember rightly) a no nose wheel low light, necessitating an approach end RHAG engagement
Once the approach end RHAG was readied and the fire crews vacated the runway, the crew started their approach. I confirmed to the tower when the a/c called downwind that the hook was down. All looked good until, on late finals, I realised that the a/c was perfectly positioned for a landing on the numbers, which it did.
And took the top cable of the lowered approach end barrier.
Pretty spectacular stuff then ensued, with the barrier stanchions and various heavy mechanical bits ripped apart and dragged out of the ground, flying everywhere, including a large chunk of the braking system fom my side of the runway, which had been accelerated to a speed rivalling that of the landing Tonka and arrived in a fashion somewhat similar to that of a mortar round, coming to a rapid stop less than 5' away from where I was sitting in the runway caravan. Had circumstances been even the slightest bit different, I would have been the first RWC fatality for many a decade.
The pilot did comment on the R/T that he had felt a slight retardation immediately on touchdown but that it had disappeared quite quickly. The a/c engaged the RHAG normally and stopped as advertised. The airfield, unsurprisingly, was declared Black and Laarbruch got a few unexpected visitors for a night stop.
After answering the towers question on the Hadley box as to the state of my health, I sat and ruminated, with the aid of a packet of No. 6 (cigarettes to the youngsters) as to my good fortune. The Staish checked on me in the caravan and, as is required, the pilot later,not only bought me the usual crate of beer, but also included a freshly purchased triple pack of underpants.
One day in the late eighties I was the duty runway controller (RWC} at Bruggen, when a Tornado declared (If I remember rightly) a no nose wheel low light, necessitating an approach end RHAG engagement
Once the approach end RHAG was readied and the fire crews vacated the runway, the crew started their approach. I confirmed to the tower when the a/c called downwind that the hook was down. All looked good until, on late finals, I realised that the a/c was perfectly positioned for a landing on the numbers, which it did.
And took the top cable of the lowered approach end barrier.
Pretty spectacular stuff then ensued, with the barrier stanchions and various heavy mechanical bits ripped apart and dragged out of the ground, flying everywhere, including a large chunk of the braking system fom my side of the runway, which had been accelerated to a speed rivalling that of the landing Tonka and arrived in a fashion somewhat similar to that of a mortar round, coming to a rapid stop less than 5' away from where I was sitting in the runway caravan. Had circumstances been even the slightest bit different, I would have been the first RWC fatality for many a decade.
The pilot did comment on the R/T that he had felt a slight retardation immediately on touchdown but that it had disappeared quite quickly. The a/c engaged the RHAG normally and stopped as advertised. The airfield, unsurprisingly, was declared Black and Laarbruch got a few unexpected visitors for a night stop.
After answering the towers question on the Hadley box as to the state of my health, I sat and ruminated, with the aid of a packet of No. 6 (cigarettes to the youngsters) as to my good fortune. The Staish checked on me in the caravan and, as is required, the pilot later,not only bought me the usual crate of beer, but also included a freshly purchased triple pack of underpants.
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Bury St. Edmunds
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Dear Wg Cdr Spry.
Are you able to say when the long-awaited issue of Air Clues is likely to be available? I am hoping to see a special/bumper issue in time for Christmas, though recently the publication dates have become increasingly erratic.....
Keep up the good work.
Yours in anticipation etc.
MB
Are you able to say when the long-awaited issue of Air Clues is likely to be available? I am hoping to see a special/bumper issue in time for Christmas, though recently the publication dates have become increasingly erratic.....
Keep up the good work.
Yours in anticipation etc.
MB
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: East Sussex UK
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Madbob ...
Here you go
http://www.pprune.org/military-aviat...any-clues.html
Use URL given at Post #4
Coff.
PS. W/C Spry doesn't visit us anymore ...
Here you go
http://www.pprune.org/military-aviat...any-clues.html
Use URL given at Post #4
Coff.
PS. W/C Spry doesn't visit us anymore ...
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: East Sussex UK
Age: 66
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MG ...
Follow the link I have given ... then Post #4 on that thread will take you to the current Air Clues Download for Issue 14
Or simply click below ...
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafi...CB498E9285.pdf
Follow the link I have given ... then Post #4 on that thread will take you to the current Air Clues Download for Issue 14
Or simply click below ...
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafi...CB498E9285.pdf
PS. W/C Spry doesn't visit us anymore ...
https://sites.google.com/site/militaryairworthiness/
Join Date: May 2005
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Chugalug2
https://sites.google.com/site/militaryairworthiness/
You seem keen on promoting that site. Am I the only one who finds the site author's anonymity curious, or is that meant to be part of the intrigue?
https://sites.google.com/site/militaryairworthiness/
You seem keen on promoting that site. Am I the only one who finds the site author's anonymity curious, or is that meant to be part of the intrigue?
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: East Sussex UK
Age: 66
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Join Date: Nov 2014
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Hi, better late than never.
Try contacting the flight safety boys at Directorate of Flying Training, Abbey Wood, a few years back they had an almost complete set of all air clues ever published. Don't know if they passed them on somewhere, if they did it might have been to the MAA safety cell.
Good luck
Try contacting the flight safety boys at Directorate of Flying Training, Abbey Wood, a few years back they had an almost complete set of all air clues ever published. Don't know if they passed them on somewhere, if they did it might have been to the MAA safety cell.
Good luck
SPRY
I was briefly Wg Cdr Spry in 1983, I remember being admonished for putting the Spry cartoon figure in Burmuda shorts in a summer editorial! The powers that be did not find it funny.
At least he would have found them far less encumbering than his later straightjacket, M2N, powers that be notwithstanding.
