Danny has to Choose.
The Course at Weston was more or less a re-run of the one I'd had five years before at Driffield, except that by now intentional spins had been prohibited (and a good thing, too). And the RAF's paranoia about Meteor engine failures had gone one step further. Besides doing the practices with the "dead" engine idling, now they would only do Flame-out landings dual. Each such FOL had to be recorded in your logbook, and my end-of-course Summary added, as a useful bit of extra information, that I had been guided through five of these.
With no engineering or background experience to call on, I can only recall one jet engine failure (a Viper) for any reason other than fuel starvation, or bird ingestion, in my entire service. All jet engines seem to be extremely reliable, and Rolls-Royces above all others. When I look back on the toll of accidents and fatalities in Meteors during the early '50s from FOL training alone, I cannot help thinking that it might have been better if we'd forgotten all about it, and let the rare unfortunate take his chance.
As I expected, flouting the 10,000 ft restriction caused me no problems at all. I put in 12 hrs on the 4 and the T7, and was duly assessed, on my 414, as a "proficient" Meteor pilot. My last flight from Weston was on the 16th November. On the 19th of the month, I went up to the CMB for what was to prove the very last time.
I thought I had a good fighting chance. By now I knew the "production line" of tests like the back of my hand, sailed through them all, blew up the mercury, sinuses were clear now, lung spot still the same (it's no worse today). Now for the Board. I rehearsed my arguments.
Across the desk sat a kindly, grey-haired old family doctor (thinly disguised as an Air Commodore). I went straight in with my story. He was taken aback and frowned a bit when I told him about how simple it had been to bounce my way onto and through the Course. So I pressed my advantage, concluding that I'd clearly demonstrated that the height restriction was quite unjusified, and pointing out that his ENT man was now quite happy with me. So what about a return to a full flying category and my LCPC as GD(Pilot) ?
He sighed. "It's not as straightforward as that. You may be fit now. But you hope to serve another 17 years on that Commission. How do we know that your condition may not become worse in a year, five, ten, fifteen years down the line ? We may then have to invalid you out with an enhanced pension on account of your disability (for it would not be hard to argue that it had been exacerbated by your flying). To put it bluntly, it's not on".
"The best we can offer is this: We will continue your limited flying category for the balance of your SSC (only two years now), and then you're out. Or we'll give you A4G1, which will enable you to take up the LCPC offer in ATC. Choose now".
It was Hobson's Choice. I would be getting married soon, I would have to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. "I'll take Air Traffic Control", I said, "Thank you, Sir".
The die was cast. I went back to Weston - for I'd been posted there, so there was no return to RAF Thornaby. Three days before I'd been a "proficient" Meteor pilot (or so the 414 said).
Now I was no pilot at all, but there were better things to come.
Goodnight, all,
Danny42
Sic transit gloria mundi.
Last edited by Danny42C; 14th Jun 2013 at 16:54.
Reason: Add subscript.