Dr. Banks.....now there is a name that jogged my memory!!
I was fortunate enough to meet Dr. Banks when he was a member of the Tiger Club, at Redhill Aerodrome, back in the early 1960's, and I was a teenage "hangar rat"
He kindly took me flying a couple of times in his Gemini G-AKDB, once to Biggin Hill and another time to Panshangar.
But the most interesting trip he took me on was a zero groundspeed, vertical landing, onto the hangar floor!!
The aircraft was kept next door to the Tiger Club, in one of the Bristow hangars.
I was approached one day, by one of the Bristow Licenced engineers to give him a hand changing a switch in the instrument panel on the Gemini.
In order to change the switch, the instrument panel was hinged, and had to be held aft, (this was my job) while the LAE unscrewed the switch from the back side.
To enable the removal of the panel's facia plate, the following switch selections, amongst others, had to be made.
Master switch on
Both Mag switches on, and undercarriage up.
To enable this selection to be done safely, we removed the rear seat cushion, and disconnected the ship's battery.
Halfway through the job, with myself and the LAE concentrating our attention behind the panel, Matt Banks climbed up onto the wing, behind us, and commented on the amount of sweet papers etc. under the now open rear seat.
He proceeded to clean up and tidy under the seat .......during this operation he unwittingly reconnected the battery, which resulted in the sound of the undercarriage retracting!!
Poor old Delta Bravo sat down in the middle of the hangar, on its belly.
Luckily the props were horizontal, the cowls and rocker covers were not so lucky!
The serious damage was the U/C uplocks being pushed past the normal up position and damaged.
The aircraft was AOG for three months while new uplocks were manufactured.
Tony
Last edited by Tony Mabelis; 17th Feb 2014 at 13:44.