Fixed Cross,
26er and
BEagle,
Thanks for your help with the question. The problem was, I hadn't dug deep enough:
"Picture of Hawker-Hunter T7 Military Trainer Plane and Information
www.airpowerworld.info/trainers/hawker-hunter-t7-trainer-plane.htm Cached
The Hawker Hunter T7 entered RAF service in 1958 and one aircraft was assigned to each of the RAF's Hawker Hunter fighter squadrons, the remaining aircraft......" (Google)....So 'Gus' didn't have a T7 to try.
'Fraid I don't know Chris Golds, but the name may ring bells with others.
Perhaps the moment to put this in, which I've been saving for a rainy day:
A visitor flew in one day for some reason: a smart Hunter F6 with Sqdn markings, Pilot - a F/L Fryer. Claude Fryer and I had been on 'A' Flight of 20 Sqdn together, we'd enjoyed many a tail-chase with Spitfires over Anglesey in the old days. I know he retired a S/Ldr, but don't know whether he got his Sqdn or whether his 'scraper' came later.
He invited me climb in and have a look round. It was one of those aircraft in which you feel at home right away. 80% of what was in front of me was much the same as in the Meteors and Vampires I'd flown ten years before. There was little to frighten the horses.
It would not be all that hard, I thought, for a "Proficient"(?) Meteor pilot to fire this up and take it away (I suppose the Commandant must have felt much the same). Of course, it was all just a pipe dream. My flying days were over for good - but I still had a tinge of regret for what might have been.
I cannot help contrasting that with the cockpits of today. Some short time ago there was a Thread here on the most recent Course of FJs to graduate from Valley. (I think there were
as many as four of them). There was a shot of the Hawk II simulator cockpit with an AVM in possession. I looked over his shoulder at a sort of Star Wars scenario.
Everything was utterly foreign to me, I spotted something which looked vaguely like an artificial horizon, but that was about all. And how do all those banks of numbers work ? Does a robot ask you:
"If you want to do a slow roll to the left, press number four - to hear these choices again, press hash ? (not entirely joking). And what happens when it all goes pear-shaped ? Do you actually have to
fly the thing ?
D.