Rod was on his way back to Cranfield, where he had permission to land out of hours, after leaving the RIAT show. On arrival he couldn’t get the left main gear down. Deciding it was preferably to crash somewhere that had fire cover, he opted to divert to Luton and his first call to Luton Approach was ‘can’t get the left main gear down, 20 mins fuel remaining’ which concentrated the mind of the Luton Approach controller on a busy Sunday evening!
He landed with the nose and right gear extended. The aircraft had wing tanks and the left one detached and caught fire. The aeroplane ended up on the grass, Rod hopped out and made the seat safe. It was moved after a couple of hours and then after temporary repairs flew out a week later with the gear down.
I was Manager ATS at the time but on leave, working as a volunteer at RIAT! I was leading a convoy of balloonists out of Fairford when my mobile rang. It was the Airport Duty Manager who didn’t need to call me. All I heard was ‘wreckage all over the runway’. With 80,000 people streaming out of Fairford all ringing their mums to say when they would be home it was a while before I could call back and find out what had really happened.
Rod tells a good story about it and it is mentioned in his book.
Pics by Chiltern Air Support.