Bartom
I haven't read the full B o I.
"Hipper" (who started this thread) is sending it to me. I do know that Co was doing the take off and that the Captain knew about the problem with the nose wheel . What you say is very plausible and theoretically could have been exactly what happened on that day.
I have a couple of questions though....
If as Captain your Co was entirely new to you and known to be inexperienced 100 and something hours on Valiants, would you be confident enough in his abilities to handle the plane in a situation like that?
Is it the Captains job to sort out the wheels or would he delegate to the engineer?
Given that the Valiant was brittle and could break if you pushed the stick too far forward too quickly or in a 20º bank in some turbulence with maximum TOW. Do you think main spar failure could be at least as plausible an explanation of the events of that day as the theory you've set out above? i.e. human failure.
I'm waiting for the full B o I to arrive as there are some things that aren't clear in the stuff I've seen so far, like who exactly was flying the plane Captain or Co.
So until I have read everything Hipper is sending me I'll not comment on here. I'd like to thank everyone who's commented on this thread so far all this input has been very helpful to me in uderstanding what happened on that day.
Hi Carol
I've sent you a message via this board did you get it?. Michael has my e-mail and phone number if you want to get in touch. in 2010 it'll be the 50ths anniversary maybe we all could visit Spanhoe and Wittering in August that year. I'm also looking at getting Brian Wikhams' name cleared as I really don't think he was to blame. These planes weren't put together right as is clear from the input to this thread.
ATB
Richard Howard