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Old 11th June 2007 | 08:38
  #7 (permalink)  
Double Zero
 
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,771
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From: West Sussex
Thumbs up Ron Clear

Yes,

Ron Clear was at Airspeed, as far as I remember from my friend ( her Dad was fellow TP to Ron, Robin Milne ) they worked on the Ambassador, Oxford, Horsa etc, Fleet Shadower ( ! ) then with DH the Dove and the Comet. George Errington was also there, though his interest with stalling ( and trying it in a Trident ) eventually proved unfortunate for him & more importantly his crew - see 'Test Pilots' by Don Middleton.

There's an interesting account mentioning Ron Clear in a book on the Mosquito - both Robin Milne & Ron had to pick up Mosquito's from somewhere & bring them back to Airspeed, Portsmouth, for work.

Robin found his merlins overheating on the ground, so cut short his checks & took off - the upper escape hatch promptly blew away, unsecured.

He thought he'd better check the handling, & found the only effect was at the approach of stall a suction would develop, tugging his helmet at it's chinstraps.

He thought 'fair enough' & not much of it, but on attempting to get into Portsmouth, a short strip with a low wall on the approach, he found conventional methods weren't doing it - after a go-round he used the 'helmet suction technique' to come in just above the stall.

Ron Clear took several goes & still landed a lot further on than Robin - when Ron asked " how the **** did you do that ?" Robin just replied, " Oh, sorts the men from the boys !"

It was years before Robin came clean...

I got the feeling from those who knew him that Ron Clear was a much admired guy in every way ( Robin Milne too ).
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