While on the subject of spinning. During my 'Wings" test at RAAF Point Cook 25 November 1952, the CFI Squadron Leader Vernon Sullivan (known as "Slam" Sullivan) was the instructor. We were flying Wirraway A20-214.
"Slam" told me to demonstrate a spin from 8000 ft. I did that and was about to recover from the 8 turn spin when he said something like "That's interesting - keep spinning, Trainee"
Eventually he said "you can recover now" so I did. The recovery was normal and I had not felt anything unusual during the spin. In any case, my attention had been on the rapidly approaching ground below us rather than watching the wings.
On the way back to Point Cook I asked him over the intercom what was "interesting". 'Slam' said he had noticed that during the spin one of the wings seemed to be flapping and that he had never seen this before. He seemed unconcerned and that was the last I heard of it.
About four years later a Point Cook based Wirraway crashed during a practice dive bombing exercise at a bombing range near Werribee, Victoria. The pilot was Flight Sergeant Ted Dillon who was a QFI at No 1 Advanced Flying Training School, Point Cook. Previously Ted had flown Meteors and Vampires fighters.
During the pull up from dropping a bomb on the bombing range, Ted rolled the aircraft into a steep climbing left hand turn. Suddenly one wing broke off and Ted was killed in the ensuing crash.
The Court of Inquiry found that the cause of the wing failing was likely a combination of metal fatigue exacerbated by the rolling "G' forces pulled by the pilot during the recovery from a steep dive. We had been briefed to always make a straight pull up after the dive and never to roll the aircraft while pulling up as the asymmetric lift forces involved could significantly lower the G force limit at which structural failure could occur.
In later years I wondered if by chance this was the same Wirraway I had been flying a few years earlier when my instructor, Squadron Leader Sullivan, saw one wing 'flapping' as he had described it.
Last edited by Centaurus; 27th Nov 2019 at 08:28.