Originally Posted by
chevvron
Yes I remember the rule about 'B' cats and above.
We had both '650 and '651 at Halton at different times; they were both dayglo and silver not yellow and silver.
I await the 'Canopy T21' thread with great interest; we hated them and tried to avoid usng them.
I must say after the T31 the Swallow was like going from a Morris Minor to a Lotus, however what really looked smart back then was a Dart, It was over 40 years before I got a chance to fly one of those and by then it was a classic, with superb handling but not the performance of the German machines of that era.
The T21 would go 'up' very well, but not very good for penetration if one was downwind of the field in sink !!!,although Piggott made an epic trip in one with a 'cold' cadet on board. As alluded in some threads before, Pobjoy actually did a few trips in the T53 at Swanton when it was there for trials. By then the ATC was heavily into AE flying in addition to the A&B training role and I was looking forward to doing some 'mini x country' triangles when the weather allowed,
plus not having to worry about the Barge getting blown over in a squall. Getting closer to the 'canopy' T21 bit, but not yet.
Of course the 53 never happened as Slingsby were better with chisels than rivets, so we lost the chance to move with the times but of course we still had the
'fretwork fighters' (mk3) the best basic training machine ever, and tens of thousands of Cadets were well served. I still remember my first ever flight in one (first ever flight), rocket like launch to 800 ft and it was like sitting in an large beer crate (elbows over the side) and nothing else.