Re: Post #4733, Page 237.
MPN11,
I have been meaning for some time to return at greater length to the subject of the cavalier way in which you were "withdrawn" ("flung off" might have been a better expression) from flying training in the Navy. You gave the full, sad details last December, (in your #4733 p.237), but briefly I recall that, after some 30 hrs (and a PPL) on nosewheels, you had trouble with the Tiger (who didn't ?)
Let's look at what we all know. This "Twin-Winged-Lord-of-the-Air" idea is nonsense. Any fool can fly an aeroplane in the air (and many fools do). Aeroplane flies itself quite well without much (or any) help from you. You merely have to learn two tricks - a little one and a big one. Little one is to get it off the ground into the air (which amounts to giving it "welly" and keeping it straight). Big one is to put it back again (in one piece if possible).
There are only two ways to do this. The old (tail-dragger) way, in which you (hopefully) have arranged affairs so that it gives up the unequal struggle with gravity not more than a couple of feet above ground and flops down more or less where you want it (this was called "Landing"). It was also called a "three-pointer", or "daisy-cutter"; it looked very nice when you managed to do it properly and you felt well pleased with yourself.
Or the new (nosewheel) way, in which you fly it onto (into ?) the Runway (or whatever), secure in the knowledge that any remaining lift will disappear as the nosewheel goes down (this is called "Landing",too, but it ain't). Even in the old way there were times when you couldn't quite pull it off, and had to push it hard down on the wheels to keep it there till it slowed down (this was called "Doing a Wheeler", and generally deprecated as sloppy flying).
When it came to the Great Changeover in the '50s, the transit (for me) after 600 hrs taildragging to the New Way (Meteor 7) was easy. "Just do wheelers !" said my QFI. So I did.
But transit back from New to Old was much harder. Geriaviator records (and my own experience bears out, after only 16 hrs "New") that all FJs had trouble with the Tiger at first. Why would you not, after your first 30 hours all on nosewheels ? Paradoxically, you might've stood a better chance if you'd never flown at all before ! They should have given you much more time - was there a War on ? I reckon you were unfairly treated.
Look at it from the Navy's point of view. Here you have a keen and willing youngster. He's got himself a gliding B Licence (and you don't "three-point" a glider), he'd joined the ATC Cadets and put his back into it to the extent of being awarded a Flying Scholarship. Thirty hours nearly all nosewheel later he's got a PPL. Isn't he exactly the kind of Right Stuff the Navy should be looking for ? What next ?
At this stage the Navy's got rid of its last carrier tail-dragging piston (Sea Fury retired '55 [Wiki], now it's '62). Every operational aircraft he'll fly in years to come will be a nosewheel. So what do their Lordships give him to fly now ? This old pterodactyl, for pity's sake ! Essentially a domesticated version of "Biggles's" 1917 Camel, the Tiger Moth had trained thousands of lads (who'd mostly never been in the air in their lives before) to fly in the Old Way. These would later fly the Spitfires and Hurricanes which saved Britain in '40, and the Lancasters and Halifaxes which were Harris's bludgeons of the Third Reich in '42-'44.
All these were tail-draggers. Now the Tiger had done its work; nearly all stations had their "pet" Tiger in a hangar, to be brought out to provide great fun on sunny afternoons.
The Jet Provost had come into service in the RAF in '58 (Wiki). Four years before. Couldn't the Navy get hold of even a dozen (everyone else in the world seems to have been able to get some) ? Seemingly not. They put their chap in a Tiger: he struggled: they scrubbed him. Doesn't make much sense, does it ?
Funny Post (hopefully) next time....Danny.