Hawker Hunter at ETPS Farnborough and sundry adventures with others of similar vintage.
If there was an F1 Hunter then that is the one that caught my attention at Farnborough in 1955. It was the second aircraft that I flew with powered flying controls. The first was an Avon Sabre which had spring feel and break out forces of about one pound. Cannot recall the feel system for the Hunter. Was it q feel or some other concoction?
As the two types were about the same vintage and performance I could not help but think of the F86 Sabre as the robust Male and the Hunter the more delicate Female.
Sabre had no manual reversion unlike the Hunter which had a wierd system for unlocking the power from the controls which then became massively heavy. To re-engage power one had to have the controls roughly in the position of dis-engagement - select engage and then feel for a detent into which the engagement paul would be trying to enter. It seemed to be a bit hit and miss and productive of a certain amount of adrenalin.
Not having a saw tooth wing the Hunter did terrible things at the top of a loop if the speed happened to be a bit on the low side. First there would be a distinct declining stick force followed by reversal until the stick was hard forward whilst trying to stop a runaway in pitch. Pilot became superfluous as the aircraft continued over the top out of control until coming down the other side it increased speed and control came back with a rush.
Nobody had warned me of the Hunter's pitch up so the initial reaction during my first ever pitch-up and then whilst wrong way up was that I had better be ready to leave it. Ended up staying.
Later flew a Swift with AB and a saw tooth leading edge wing which seemed to have corrected the Swift's pitch-ups. But then nobody told me either that it was normal to climb in after burner (AB) or was it called reheat. So I cancelled AB after take off and it became a lead sled in the climb.
Then I flew a Gnat, the first with a full slab tail, which was yet to have its terrifying JCs subdued and with which one ran out of back stick as the gear was lowered for landing.
It's a most uncomfortable feeling to have the nose going down with no more back stick, fuel on minimum of about 300 pnds and Rolly Beaumont being given priority to land the first Lightning for Boscombe Down. He graciously declined priority after hearing and understanding my high pitched 'strine' whilst I found the over-ride trim switch and slipped in ahead.
Never a dull moment!!
Incidently JF, Sammy Wroath was CO of ETPS in my time. How long was his tenure ?