My last trip on my last day at work for Her Majesty; engine air test at 40k. Finished the data points and rolled on my back to descend back to sanity. Passing 250, stabilised c 70 degrees nose down, Mach 0.9ish and then discovered that the pitch controls had seized - absolutely solid! Cue expletive!
Luckily the Jumping Bean had a secondary pitch control in the form of the nozzle lever and I was able to arrest my descent by 100. Spent quite a while experimenting with nozzle/power combinations and managed to get configured and RTB from veeerry long straight-in for an "interesting" touch-down. Many hours being bored on CAP, trying to fly racetracks without touching the stick paid off eventually!
Green Endorsement? Na, traditional hose-down by the crash crew instead.
Swing the lamp.
Mog