NW1
Ahhh the Tech refresher days.
Not being an EO it would not have been me, no. But the 'trainers' often used to come seek me out in the hangar and (over coffee, not beer I'm afraid) confer about various system quirks and nasties to use on you guys during the tech' refreshers. (So I guess can be blamed for a few of the 'stinkers', sorry
). And I definately know who you mean by describing him as a 'chatty' EO.... a truly great guy though.
Mech' signalling during decel'??, OUCH!! I would have thought that the 'supersonic dustbin lid' description would have been quite an accurate description of what must have been a very uncomfortable experience indeed. It was quite a vivid and scary description, I can just imagine trying to move the 3 switches up to BLUE from MECH and stabbing the reset buttons while your seat and the selector panel are seemingly going backwards and forwards, up and down in different directions!!
. On the C of A renewal test flights I seem to remember that MECH was only tried fairly briefly at a very subsonic 300 KTS during the early stages of the flights, but even then it felt like the aeroplane was riding a sea of different sized golf balls and the outer wing sections seemed to flap about quite enegetically in a world of their own; it was pure bliss when we reset into BLUE. It really shows us all just how good the FBW and autostab really was, the fact that the aeroplane handled so beautifully throughout such an enormous envelope. Well done CliveL and ChristiaanJ and all you designer chaps.
.
Now NW1, I bet you can still really do the flying control check in your sleep (
), but 'Great times, great aircraft, great people' is certainly a marvelous way to sum up such an amazing time of our lives. I still feel honoured and very lucky to have been a small part of it all for so many years.
And as for March... Yes I will be there; see you on the 4th.
Best regards
Dude
