Old(ish) Hunter pilot checks in.
1955, Tangmere, and the two day fighter squadrons, Nos 1 & 34, eagerly awaited the arrival of our new aircraft. Of course the first of the Hunter F5s with the Saphire engine went to 1 while we of 34 had to wait until after the Fighter Command Autumn Exercise before ours arrived. Having enjoyed the usual mushroom fry-ups of the season (why did the order to go to cockpit readiness always occur at the wrong time, leaving the full frying pan to be scoffed by the idle undeserving?) the fun eventually ended and we of 34 got down to the business of converting to the new equipment. We had a short period of technical lectures, perhaps five hours in total, then get strapped in and off you go. You could always tell a Hunter pilot on his first trip because no matter how well briefed he'd been, after Meteors the sensitivity of the powered aileron controls and the few seconds of inadvertent wing waggling gave the game away. But from then on it was a delight to fly.
If you can ever get Chris Golds to repeat his performance of a first trip by putting a chair on a table, starting his walk round check, climbing up to sit down and strap in, taxy out and finally take off, as demonstrated at a Hunter pilots reunion at Wittering several years ago, it is a joy to behold.