Everyone who flew the Gnat remembers the STUPRECC (or STUPRE for us older pre 399 generation) and hydraulic failure at any stage of flight should not have caused any serious embarrassment to a Valley QFI. It should be noted, however, that Mr. Petter’s pocket rocket could present one or two less well known and unrehearsed surprises. In 1967 & 68, during my tour at 4 FTS, I remember two occasions where QFIs were faced with malfunctions making the aircraft uncontrollable.
1. Gordon Allin’s longitudinal control ran away completely nose up and stayed there, causing the aircraft to repeatedly pitch up to the near vertical until apparently stalling into a dive; control inputs having no effect, he and his student ejected.
2. Al Holyoake’s Gnat decided of its own volition to enter a continuous roll and couldn’t be persuaded to stop. Al and his student (Dave Moss?) ejected.
I don’t know of any other instances of Hobson Motor or PFCU failures, but I think either of these, had they occurred at low level, particularly in a banked attitude might have left insufficient time to abandon the aircraft.
Last edited by NutherA2; 5th Aug 2015 at 18:14.