John Farley - thanks for that superb shot of Cody's Tree and the Brabazon.
Farnborough ETPS Memories Continued.
We soon settled into a daily routine. Each day started with a batman waking me up with a cup of tea. After breakfast in the mess, we would all go to an hour-long lecture on some aspect of test flying. Following the lecture, we would walk or drive down to the TPS hangars to check in with our assigned tutor. My first tutor was Sqn Ldr Bill Sheehan. The tutors would brief us on handling and performance techniques, the finer points of report writing and would launch us on flights to make meticulous measurements and observations.
The students without former jet experience and from countries using a different language than English had assimilation difficulties which the rest of us rapidly came to recognise. We did our best to help compensate by many fascinating discussions on flying, English social customs and behaviour.
Major Franki Frankini from Italy had an unusual background in that he had been a wartime fighter pilot with combat experience. Discussions revealed that he had actually flown a mission in which one of our tutors had been one of his adversaries in a dogfight. He also graphically described an occasion when he manoeuvred on to the tail of a Mustang and "I shoot and I shoot all my bullets into the Mustang and it just fly away." Later, following Italy's capitulation, Franki volunteered to fly Mustangs with the Allies against the Germans. So here was a fighter pilot who flew on both sides during World War II.
Confusion often occurred with air traffic control instructions despite the care taken by the controllers to use standard words and phrases with clear English diction.
It was not uncommon for pilots to mistake Blackbush, the civil airfield 10 miles from Farnborough, for home base. I found myself doing an initial approach on Blackbush one misty afternoon. I soon recognised my error as the layout of the airfield became clear. Not so with the Egyptian, Vickery Zarr, He followed through to land and when he went to turn off the runway on to a taxiway with which he was familiar at Farnborough, the resultant radio chatter became really hilarious.
It was normal practice under these circumstances for Farnborough to retain control over the offending pilot whilst liaising with Blackbush over a telephone tie-line. So those of us on the same frequency became party to a fascinating sequence of instructions and responses.
Blackbush was base to a fleet of civil Ambassador type aircraft and it became obvious that one of these was preparing for take off at the holding point when Farnborough said to Vickery " Take the next runway exit left and then the taxiway back to the holding point." Vickery said " I do not understand where I am and what I should do. I have some fuel left and can fly again for 20 minutes." Farnborough came back with "Roger, taxi straight ahead to the Ambassador." Vickery did not respond so Farnborough repeated the instruction. Vickery then came back in a faltering voice with "Please, please, I do not er er I do not wish to see the Ambassador today."
One of the tutors on the radio broke in with " Vickery you idiot, he means the Ambassador aircraft waiting for take off at the holding point." Meanwhile the rest of us had convulsions of laughter at the expense of the hapless and confused Egyptian.
We Australians were sometimes confused by different meanings given to words. The RAE were experimenting with a rapidly configurable inflatable aircraft capable of being carried around on a light road vehicle. The wings were inflatable and normally folded into a container. The engine was fitted with a small air compressor which inflated the wings and fuselage to maintain form and strength of its delta shape. Some intrepid test pilot would occasionally take it for a flight. The craft was always referred to by the British as the Durex Delta. This to us conceptualised a delta aircraft held together by Durex brand transparent sticky tape as marketed in Australia at the time. But the British did not have Durex sticky tape. Their Durex was a brand of condom.
I soon learned about this when my comments in mixed company one evening about having seen the Durex delta flying that day were followed by someone repeatedly kicking me in the shins beneath the table.
Flying in the northern hemisphere often puzzled me as I found I was less able to instinctively know where north should be. I had to take extra care to refresh my orientation with the compass. To this day I am unable to specify the basis for having some in-built directional capacity whilst in the southern hemisphere.
Week ends would mostly start on Saturday mornings at breakfast with an assessment of the weather as it would suit gliding activities. If suitable, those of us left in the mess would organise ourselves to get out the gliders and Chipmunks and get into the air. Two Landrovers were available to tow the glider trailers for the Sky and the Olympia.
On a good day with thermals, the pilot whose turn it might be to fly would be towed to 3/4000 ft and cast off. He would then disappear down wind to an undefined destination. Those left behind would amuse themselves with local flights in the Sedburg. The arrangement then was that each pilot, on landing somewhere, would call back to the mess by telephone, give their position and if an aero tow was possible they would be towed back by Chipmunk. If down in a field from which an aero tow was not possible then two of us would set off in a Landrover towing the appropriate glider trailer. I saw a lot of the English countryside during those Landrover retrieval trips. Also met a lot of interesting people.
All of this gliding activity didn't cost us a penny. There were fuel credit cards for the Landrovers and we were reimbursed expenses for meals, refreshments and any incidentals.
There were lots of visits to aircraft and engine manufacturing plants during the year. These were always of great interest, permitting us to see the latest in technology. Solid state electronics were just starting to have an impact on designs and rapid advances were also taking place with the jet engine. The capability for an aircraft to sustain level flight at supersonic speed was not far off.
To be continued.