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Old 30th Aug 2009, 00:02
  #69 (permalink)  
Milt
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Canberra Australia
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B8 Wt364

What happened to B8 WT364 when it left Boscombe Down?

Here is extract from memoirs.

The RAF carried out its hot weather trials from Idris airfield south of Tripoli, in Libya. Fighter aircraft ferried to Idris from Boscombe Down were always accompanied by another aircraft, usually a Canberra. I set off with Jock Cowan as my navigator in B8 Canberra WT364 on 13 October, my 30th birthday. We escorted a Swift, via Malta, for an overnight and then on to Idris the next day. We left the Swift at Idris and next day set off on a direct flight back to Boscombe Down via Tangmere.

I climbed out of Idris to about 42,000 ft and pushed the aircraft along just under buffet at 0.84 Indicated Mach Number (IMN). We were over flat cirro-stratus cloud. The sun seemed very bright and filled the cockpit with brilliant light. My eyes were squinting, even under the dark visor of the helmet. I began to lose focus with my eyes, particularly around the centre of my vision. Slowly a blank spot of vision grew in size and it became intriguing to look directly at an instrument and not be able to see it. Peripheral vision also grew a little fuzzy and I became concerned with the extent of the deterioration of vision. The Navigator was quick to share my concern.

We both knew that I would have to do an instrument descent into Tangmere. How could I do this if I couldn't read the instruments? I was forced to slow the aircraft away from compressibility buffet and tried the effects of 100 per cent oxygen. We called for actual weather conditions over France, in case I would need to make a visual let-down and landing. Our point of no return became important as we did not want to get into a position where we would have to eject, being unable to see adequately to do an instrument descent.

Thinking the glare from the sun, reflecting from the cloud beneath, may be affecting my eyes, I closed my eyes for periods and then only opened my right eye to quickly check aircraft attitude. Twenty minutes of this treatment resulted in some improvement to both eyes, but particularly the left. Soon after we crossed the coast of France near Marseille and the cirro-stratus gave way to a darker layer of alto-stratus. Slowly my vision recovered enough for me to have confidence in doing the let down into Tangmere.

I didn't really want to go via Tangmere. This was for purposes of customs clearance and I knew that, for special purposes, there was a resident customs officer in Salisbury. Consequently, I declared a Pan emergency, describing deteriorated vision from high altitude glare. This information was quickly advised to the Institute of Aviation Medicine at Farnborough. By the time I had landed at Boscombe, there were three Aviation medicine doctors en route. The subsequent eye examination and debreif was very thorough.

There had been previous reports/complaints by pilots subjected to glare but none quite as serious as mine. A darker visor was already under consideration and my experience caused its production and issue to be fast tracked. My eyes took about two weeks to return to normal.
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