aa62:-
He may be persuaded to tell his tale of the 'interesting' arrival he once had at West Raynham in a Hastings.
I think I've already bored here about this incident, but perhaps it was on another thread. We had flown into Northolt from Gutersloh full of Italian Alpine Troops (the ones with feathers in their hats), and then returned empty to West Raynham where we were detached to for Exercise Drumbeat. The landing there was followed shortly after by a swing to the right. I put in rudder to compensate, to no avail. I then opened up the No. 4 engine, to no avail. We were now taking to the grass, so I closed the throttles again, held back on the stick and tried the brakes. One of the many hutments that Danny et al inhabit was looming, but we were still going right, until the starboard wheel decided thus far and no further. We pirouetted around it, and the remaining kinetic energy expended itself by raising the tail (easy thanks to the empty cabin) and thrusting the nose into the boggy grass. We carried out a shutdown (though the Graviner Switch had fired anyway given the final deceleration) and evacuated the aircraft, the Flight Deck Crew through the Eng Escape Hatch, the AQM through the pax door and down the escape rope. It stopped some feet above the ground and he had to jump the rest, strangely it was not long enough for this classic prang config.
Various people then started turning up, some you might expect like the crash crew, others more of a bonus, like RAF and civilian police, and even the Padre. Mercifully his administrations were not required, but if we had been full of pax or any of us were not fully strapped in it might have been different.
I was left to assist the BoI with its inquiries, as the exercise was over the detachment returned to Colerne. West Raynham now busied itself in preparation for its AOC's Inspection next week, with an added feature for him in the middle of the airfield. The BoI kicked off in the meantime. When I said I applied full rudder, which one?. When I said that I opened up the outer engine, which one? Even I could see which way the wind was blowing here, until in the midst of my sputtering explanations there was a knock at the door. It was the detachment Engineering Officer (whose name is etched into my memory as my saviour). He was sorry to interrupt my interrogation but thought that the Board should know that they had inspected the Starboard Wheel and found it to have split around the circumference of the tyre well. It had obviously then seized solid and caused our uncontrolled excursions. It transpired that this was a known weakness in our wheels dating back to the Lancaster and Halifax ones. The Board deliberated and found that they had no further use for me.
I was free to return to my unit, an aircraft was despatched to pick me up (as part of essential training of course). I boarded, to be told by the captain as he climbed out of his seat that the Boss had authorised me to fly the return sector. That one statement of confidence in me meant a great deal in the circumstances. I was blessed with good Bosses throughout my RAF career. I left West Raynham to its AOC's inspection and its new static display, which wasn't static for long. A sling was soon put around the rear fuselage and the aircraft lowered to a more gainly attitude awaiting its fate. It was a Cat5 right off...
