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Old 28th Sep 2022, 10:18
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Cornish Jack
 
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: UK
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I am curious about this now....

PVR'd to a Tech Instructor job with BA at Cranebank, late 80s. We had a 'Crew Room/coffee bar' and the usual daily 'gatherings'. A number of Instructors were ex-RAF and the 'Perf' guys were ex Navs. One such - Harry B... and I chatted regularly and in one conversation, one of us mentioned Jack B......... . I said that I remembered him 'cos we had crashed together in a 'Pig' ... to which Harry replied "So did I !" ... Harry had been the Nav on that 'crash day' ! An unlikely reunion after all that time.
The crash itself was down to a persistent rigging fault which gave that particular airframe an intermittent stall 3 to 5 kts higher than normal. The Beihan approach (over the 'town') was invariably bumpy but needed close speed control. We stalled just clear of the buildings and at about 20'-30', arrived tail wheel first and ended up minus tail wheel, blocking the only runway. The engines were still running so Jack 'blasted' us through the dust to get us clear. I went back to check the passenger and when I opened the door, the Rock-Ape fire crew were outside holding our tail wheel ... " Does this belong to you ?" , or something similar. !
An afterthought ... Harry and i having crashed with Jack B, didn't necessarily mean that we had to have been together - Jack had at least two 'destructive arrivals' (both well handled) and one of our Valetta Squadron crew had been involved in no less than six such incidents in a two year tour ... his Emergency Drills were impressive !
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