From take-off to his successful forced landing took Ed just 6 minutes! He chose a big drilled field to put her down and had it not have been so wet, he probably wouldn't have nosed it over but the wheels caught in the sprayer tramlines and she came to rest on her nose.
That's only £25,000/hr!
It is rather sobering recalling some of the things that were said prior to his first flight. I told his mum that the worst that could happen is that if he lost an engine, he'd just glide down! On Friday night Ed and I talked about the flight and I said that the VeePee being such a low energy machine was VERY unlikely to kill him or do him serious damage.
After some vigorous taxy runs up and down the strip....THE FIRST FLIGHT
I stood halfway down the strip as a distance marker - if Ed was not airborne or very close to it by the time that he reached me, he was to abort.
Ed's departure was spirited in a way that only a first flight on type can be - he climbed straight out (in a crazy-flying act
manner) to the giddy altitude of about 500' - he then executed a left turn, he climbed a further hundred feet or so and orbited to the right. At this stage the engine sounded fine but I could see that he was struggling to climb. I spoke to him on the radio and urged him to get a bit higher (Norfolk is thankfully very flat!). He responded that he was having problems climbing. He continued to fly around and I began to realise that a) he might be having BIG problems and b) that he although was just over a mile away - that he might be disoriented. He then dissapeared behind a large plantation and then the engine died.
Feeling utterly sick I ran to the car and heard a very weak call on the radio, "Stik, help me!" I tried to raise him on the handheld but to no avail.
Not knowing exactly where he was - and not knowing how he was, I dialled 999 and asked for the amby service.
(I've lost friends in aircraft crashes and saw two fatal crashes at very close range - one a chum, so I'm really expecting the worst but hoping for the best)
I live in the middle of nowhere and I would expect it to take about 30 mins for them to arrive. I explained my predicament to the operator and drove around for 10 minutes before I found Ed standing by the side of the road. In a straight line Ed was just 2 1/4 miles away from the strip. As he appeared to be fine and rather proudly showed me the very short landing run, I deduced that he'd not suffered any injuries and cx-ed the amby.
What I didn't realise is that as soon as I'd uttered, "light aircraft, forced landing", to the operator that she turned out all the services! So about 20 minutes later, when we'd made a plan to recover the aircraft, enlisted the help of a neighbour with a truck, plod-u-like and the fire service both arrived with blues and twos!
The firemen were great and really ripped the piss from Noddy, errr Ed. The policemen decided to cordon of the crime scene and initially wouldn't believe that baby-face is old enough to fly. They then decided that the aircraft could not be moved until the CAA Air Accident Investigation branch had been out and, "They are probably busy people, Sir, so it might not be until the middle of next week".
I slowly explained that as no-one was injured, that there were no unusual circumstances, that the PIC has 7 days to report the incident. They must have paid heed to this for they radioed "Control" to check the authenticity of this. At this stage there were probably half a dozen cars being held up on this very quiet country lane and the police helicopter was hovering above!
Of the 6 cars - I knew 3 of the drivers including a lady who on seeing the tail T2 behind the fire appliance, said, Oh my Gawd Stik, is Ed alright! I pointed to Ed who was posing with the firecrew as they had their picture taken next to the front of the VeePee! He certainly seems alright, she said!
After about an hour plod got bored and decided that we could remove the offending article from my neighbour's winter wheat field!
The firemen, having nicknamed Ed, the brave teenage flyer, later assessed that he was up for fun, amended it to the "the brave teenage crasher". Ten burly firemen soon had the Veep on board the truck and off we all (recovery truck, firecrew, Ed and I, plod-u-like, the old bill helicopter!) trundled to mine, where the sad little Veep now rests in the hay barn.
After a cuppa, Ed decided that he'd best let his folks know, just in case they'd be interested. He told them he'd be at Manston at 14H00 and could they meet him.
I prepped the bipe and off we went to Manston. I levelled out at 1900', 24 square and turned the controls over to tbtc. "I have control, can I do an aileron roll?" So we basically rolled and looped and flew inverted down to Kent in the warm winter sunshine! Can you show me an avalanche, can I follow you through on a down 45 flick?
The resilience of a seventeen year old is remarkable.
He did a very fine job of choosing a big field and putting her down safely. It is unfortunate that the Veep nosed over at the end of his abbreviated landing roll and suffered a bit of damage but Ed walked away from it. Good instruction, 'cos the trg kicked in, just when he needed it to.
Well done, Edward. Now, no crashing tomorrow during your driving test!
Stik