Beeayeate- sorry mate, pinched your site(badly it seems). Probably got it from your profile in the first place.However, it's a great place to start for anyone interested in the Canberra.
Assuming this thread holds up, and that's down to you lot out there,my first (of maybe a few)story concerns the B15 of 45 Sqn RAF Tengah 1st Feb 1968.My log book entry says "Low Level night battle cross country,Dusk simulated Co-ord strike,Med level return (no wheels landing)" 55 mins day, 1:45 night.
Four ship sets off for the Sqn FSO's nightmare, a dusk strike- lots of birds at that time of night in Malaya- which we carry out without the smell of a swallowed duck. However the air brakes will not retract and the oil pressure doesn't look too good.Inspection confirms a hydraulic leak and so we go home, airbrakes and all.Tengah has an outside film show in the Mess, which overlooks the runway and as the news spreads the crowd thickens.Meanwhile the team of experts assemble in the tower and we have successfully pumped all the hydraulics out of the
a/c with that super lever by the pilots bang seat.
So committed to a flapless, wheels up night landing with airbrakes and having spent 60 mins burning off fuel the experts decide to send us to Changi to land on a foam strip."It'll take 30 mins to lay" they say-"what's your endurance?" "20 mins!" " Oh, best you land here then" Good decision we think. "Don't forget the hatch" they advise. We had already tossed for that and I won which meant that my co-nav had the honour.These things had a habit of sending the explosive bolts all over the place and I wanted to protect the delicate parts of my body and not stretch to fire the switch.Anyway, to cut a long story short, we got rid or the roof at the back and flew the GT Open top B15 on to the smoothest and best of landings Geordie had done in months.We were told that it was spectacular with the flame ball 2 aircraft lengths behind us as we slid along the runway.The aircraft was cat 3, there were no injuries, and nobody got even a snap shot of the incident.My co-nav was charged with willful damage and loss or HM property - one verey pistol attached to the frangible hatch- now in the China Sea- and my wife wouldn't believe that it happened-"you just got piss*d again and came home late.
Happy days .... I think.