HP Hermes air test after engine change
I am in the throes of writing my Father's aviation career. His last flight (ending in in the crash of Hermes G-ALDV 1/4/58) was for the purposes of an air test. The aircraft was due to fly passengers that afternoon. The take off was normal and there was no hint of trouble until the co-pilot contacted Stanstead ATC informing them that they had jammed controls, 30 seconds later the co-pilot told the ATC that they were about to crash. They did.
From the Inquest witness statements (sometimes grisly, sometimes inaccurate and occasionaly innapropriate) there is 14 minutes during which life after T/O seemed to be normal. My questions are: What would the air test entail? If you were a pilot with jammed elevators (or progressively stiffening elevators) would you turn to Stanstead with its long tempting runway (and Bishops Stortford) or would you head for the farm land in the opposite direction?
Google ICAO circular 59-AN/54
David Rayment