A small technical question about the meaning of 'practicing a forced landing'. Does that mean you cut your engine and then land without power? Also does it imply that the landing will be rough?
The reason I ask is that my father's first log book has just turned up. I had really wanted to get my hands on it, but had supposed it was lost. It logs his early, pre-war flying when he was in the RAF(VR). One of Arthur's stories was that he flew for the cameras in the film 'It's in the Air', starring George Formby, in 1938. I was skeptical, because when he supposedly did it he hadn't yet quite qualified for his 'Wings'. He said that the company that ran the VR flying training asked him to fly for a re-shoot by the camera, as Ealing Studios weren't entirely happy with the first takes, which had been flown by one of the instructors. So it was really interesting to see the log book and check if Arthur was 'shooting a line' or telling the truth.
Hey presto, July '38 he makes a flight in
Audax K8334 in which he practices aerobatics, spins, steep turns, climbing turns and a forced landing. Well, I looked at the movie and, sure enough,
K8334 features in scenes on the ground and in a very rough landing. The movie script has Formby flying the aircraft without knowing how to fly, so that 'rough landing' is his horrible touch-down after a hair-raising flight all over the sky.
So I'm wondering if a landing featuring a side slip close to the ground, followed by a great bounce back into the air before settling, would be consistent with it being a 'practice forced landing', as recorded in his log book.
In the log book he makes no mention of flying for the cameras... though no where else does he make 'comments' in the margin, except for one forced landing. So it's possible that this was just a practice session, not a movie shoot, as he was just a week away from his final test prior to being awarded his 'Wings'. (Though that final test was in a
Hart and this practice was in an
Audax.)
The film was launched two months after this flight, which, assuming the studio had a fast 'turn-around' time, fits with Arthur's log book entry. So I'm interested to know if anyone can make a better guess than I can... is it reasonable to assume that this flight was made for the benefit of the movie... or was it just a standard practice flight?
I should add that the aerobatics in the movie is both very skillful and at least some of it is in an aircraft with a different set of lettering, so maybe Ealing Studios decided to use the original footage, that the instructor flew for, but used Arthur's bumpy landing also. Bit of a tricky question... but I'd be interested if anyone has an opinion.
