John Wildey and the Cessna
Part way through watching the TV programme about John Wildey's dilemma while up in the Cessna (when his pilot died) . I've searched the forum but drawn a blank for an earlier thread.
So I have a couple of questions...
1) It made sense to try and get him to land on runway 26 as it was into wind. The only problem was that it was unlit. Could they not have illuminated the boundaries of it using the headlights on the emergency vehicles? We had a similar problem at Bidford when, due to a monumental cock-up on time and available sunlight, one of the pilots was going to land in the field in the dark. We helped by parking cars down the airfield to give him an idea of the boundaries and one right at the end to show the limit of the field. OK..he was an experienced pilot and they had perhaps more time to arrange the vehicles...but even so.
2) Having no cockpit dash lights did not help. Now the instructor (thinking John was in the P1 seat) said that the row of switches was by his right knee. Which would make it John's left knee in reality. The cockpit isn't that big that he couldn't get to the switches?
I'm clearly missing something.