Originally Posted by
Fareastdriver
I am about No3. I climb in the RHS with Chunky in the LHS. We take off and Chunky knows that I can do them so we go straight into the first one. Downwind in the middle of Odiham airfield, 200ft, 90 knots. He asks me if I am ready, I say OK and he pulls the speed select. I do it as previously described and on the ground he announces that he is going to do one.
Off we go, not quite 200ft (180), not quite 90 knots and he tells me to pull the lever. There is, as far as I am concerned, no problem, I had done them from lower than that. He was pattering, as QHIs do until we reached 45 knots and then he turned. Left; A Whirlwind in that position will only let you get away with it when you turn right.
I knew something was wrong because the patter dried up. The aircraft was fighting against the turn and by the time we were into wind we had about 160ft and zero airspeed. Chunky stuffed the nose down to try and get some knots so we plummeted down towards the grass. At the last moment he pulled back, which made no difference to the rate of descent or the airspeed and we three-pointed onto the ground.
It did not feel very hard but the starboard undercarriage had collapsed so I watched in fascination as the rotor blades slapped on the ground and eventually we came to rest on the starboard side.
There was then a lot of huffing and puffing from the LHS as Chunky exited through the window. A fraction of a second he was back in because the engine was still running and he had put his face over the jet pipe. He shut down the engine and dived out again followed by me who had tidied up the switches and levers.
We stood outside the wreckage wondering what to do and guess who was first to arrive. Air Vice Marshall Micky Martin, AOC 38 Group. He had just arrived outside his HQ during his first week in charge and was the closest to the prang.
We were shut up in a room in the squadron to sort a story out but there was not a lot we could do. The aircraft was left for about five days providing an excellent scenario from the officer's mess bar windows. XR478 was the first aircraft with a monstrosity known as the package winch that was attached to the starboard side. This had been forced into the frames and stringers so the aircraft was a write-off. Chunky knew everybody on the B o I and he was effectively the expert witness. He got away with an AOC's reprimand.
Interestingly, this exact account is now the official version of events on the Aviation Safety Network in respect of the demise of said Whirlwind. They lifted Fareastdriver's post word for word.
ASN Aircraft accident 07-AUG-1967 Westland Whirlwind HAR10 (S-55) XR478