I just came across this thread whilst searching for something else. I thoroughly enjoyed reading peoples experiences of the Meteor. I had heard that it had killed a lot of aircrew but the figures mentioned at the beginning of the thread are depressing to say the least.
I had the pleasure of meeting an old chap who had flown Vampires Venoms and the Meatbox. He had know pilots who had been caught out by the phantom dive before it was really know exactly what caused it. I also have a friend who is well into his 80’s now who flew Meteors in the early days and was responsible for converting pilots onto them. His memories seem to be not only of lots of deaths, (I never really appreciated just how many), but of constantly being short of fuel and many of the ex wartime piston pilots struggling to come to terms with the massive fuel burns low down.
Years after talking to these gents I had the great fortune to fly in the Meteor in 2003; maybe if I had read this thread first I might have declined! I doubt it though. As it turned out it was the last time I ever flew with Paul Morris, a very close friend of over 25 years.
He managed to convince me it was safe to fly on one engine and (if I recall correctly) GLOSM has a light to remind the pilot the brakes were out so he wouldn’t be using them and then dropping the gear. Shortly after take off he was busy effing and blinding as he wrestled with the HP cock to shut one down until shortly before landing. The relight was also accompanied with lots of swearing due to the position if the HP cock. As we approached Waddo everything was going great, until the controller asked us to hold over Bardney. “Where the f*$$s that?” asked Paul, I pointed him towards it. After going round in circles a couple of times: “sod this, tell them we are landing” so I did, and we did. We weren’t on fumes (honest) but the gauges looked Mickey Mouse to me and it makes me realise how spoilt I am to fly modern aircraft with more sensible fuel burns, with lots of fuel and gauges that read accurately.
I cant imagine what it must have been like to fly one for 'real'. Then I guess people didnt know any better?