Sqn Ldr R A Harvey was the RAE test pilot who flew most of the early RAE flights. This is what he wrote about his first two sorties:
Climbing up to the Bedstead's cockpit (for want of a better name) I felt a long way off the ground on a machine that appeared to be top heavy. After switching on the autostabiliser I moved the stick and heard the valves go "zeet" as the motors moved them, showing that they responded to the stick. I pushed the autostabiliser, which was spring mounted, to simulate pitch and roll and again heard the motors move the valves. Everything was working fine.
With both engines idling I raised the throttle levers until the Bedstead began to dither on its undercarriage, indicating that the thrust equaled the weight. The noise from the engines was dreadful. A little extra throttle was applied, and we came off the ground. I landed some seconds later, having climbed to about two feet at the most.
The next few minutes were spent getting it off the ground and learning to control the rate of ascent, reaching about 20 feet and descending again. I used the stick a little to maintain position roughly in the centre of the area. When the fuel warning light came on, to notify that we had only 60 seconds of fuel remaining, I concentrated on descending, slowly, as there was not enough thrust to stop suddenly when near the ground.
On the second flight we were airborne for the whole time. The Bedstead was remarkably stable, in that it remained firmly horizontal except when the stick was moved. It was difficult to believe that this top heavy machine weighing over 3 tons, poised on the jet thrust, was being balanced by the four air nozzles. I had expected that it would wallow about somewhat, in the sense that it would have to move appreciably before the autostabiliser could sense the movement and take corrective action. In fact, no movement could be detected in pitch or roll. It was rock steady. The autostabiliser was a wonderful achievement.