I never actually put a Gannet down on its belly, but have to confess to this one......
Brawdy was a busy Naval Air Station. The Massed Gannets of 849 Squadron HQ and the four sea-going Flights were based there, 759 Squadron had T8 Hunters for Advanced Flying Training, 738 had the utterly beautiful Hunter GA11 for Operational Training, 781 passed through regularly with the Clipper (Sea Heron), the Maintenance Unit air tested their work and Station Flight handled all sorts of visitors as well as their own Vampires and Sea Prince.
So, flying apart, taxiing to and from the duty runway took one past a wide variety of flight lines and hardware. And, like most airfields, it wasn't exactly level. Rural Pembrokeshire must have presented quite a challenge to the original constructors.
One late September day in 1965, almost exactly fifty years ago today, Tony Darby and I were taxiing back in an AEW3 after a training sortie. As we rounded the corner before the long lines of Hunters Tony suddenly said "I can hear the hook dragging on the ground!"
The arrester hook is held UP hydraulically so it drops in the event of failure. I looked for the gauge, conveniently hidden by my left knee, to see the needle drop to zero. It had been fine a minute before as we turned off the runway. After 50 years I can't recall the cause, but was now faced with the effects.
We were only doing about 15 mph but no longer had brakes. This meant we could neither stop nor steer. We were pointed down a long stretch of straight taxiway, slightly downhill at first and then sloping up again on open ground BUT, to reach that open ground we had to pass between a row of GA11's, a row of T8's and a hangar on our left, with hangars and parked cars on our right. To add to the fun, the ground overall also sloped gently to our right.
In a propellor-driven aircraft you CAN steer with rudder on the ground, at the risk of steadily increasing speed and possible control difficulties. Faced with the possibility of hitting any of the hardware either side of me at 30 knots or more I rapidly decided on a safer course. I shut down both engines while simultaneously telling an incredulous Channel One controller in the Tower what was going on.
Momentum and a bit of gravity kept us going ahead in a straight line and I began to be hopeful. Then, very gradually, the Gannet began to wander off to the right. Slowing gradually, we went across the grass in front of 759 Squadron and into the parked cars.
We picked up the Air Engineer Officer's almost new Sunbeam Rapier with the starboard oleo and a green Minivan with the radome........and were stopped abruptly by a static water tank.
By now, everything on board was turned off. No signs of fire or anything like that, Tony and I left the aircraft rapidly. I climbed the 14 feet down the side still masked and helmeted to be faced by the local civilian owner of the mangled Mini, who I knew well.
As I tore off all my headgear Dai looked at me and said "I might have bloody known it was you........Sir!"
Mike