harrym's style of writing reminds me of my father.
These skilled pilots are invariably very reserved.
My father could make a point in an understated way but which left no-one in any doubt as to his opinion.
This being an example.
I recall after the accident at East Midlands I telephoned my father the following day. He just simply and quietly said 'I hope they turned off the correct engine'.
In those few words he of course provided the explanation that the subsequent AAIB enquiry established.
In early 1951 when the Korean war drained the pool of Royal Air Force fighter pilots, the Aux Air Squadrons were pressed into service. 613 Squadron equipped with Vampires was the first in the North West to be called-up.
As this newsreel at 8mins 31 secs makes clear, in 1951, Royal Air Force Vampires patrolled over Holland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djINBkPEb-o&t=519
Vampires, like Spitfires, unless fitted with drop tanks had a limited range.
One day he was patrolling over Holland in bad weather. Fog, I think he said, and the fighter controllers could not give him a fix. When eventually he worked out where he was he knew that he had insufficient fuel for a normal flight back to Ringway.
"So what did you do?" I asked
He replied " I knew that I would use much less fuel if I took it up to the ceiling and at that height I could glide it in, if I ran out of fuel before I got back".
He then demonstrated using his hand his near vertical descent into Ringway to ensure sufficient speed for a safe landing.
No ejector seats on that model of Vampire of course, as Danny will attest to.
Although he said he had had several "incidents" when he was at the controls, the only other two he shared were:
1. In the late 1940's, again with 613 Squadron, he was performing a barrel roll in a Spitfire near Chester, when he lost a spark plug which had not been tightened properly. He managed to get it down at Hawarden. He did admit that he had chain smoked a few ciggies after that flight.
2. When taking off at Shawbury in a Jet Provost, with an observer, in the 1960's, there was a problem with the engine -- at the time he suspected a birdstrike -- but he later said it was 'something else'. without saying what the something else was. He knew that the safety barrier was up and made the instant decision to make full use of it. He hit it at speed. There is a photograph in this link of the Shawbury safety barrier after someone else made full use it.
https://goo.gl/fE5TZR
His crash landing in helicopter into the jungle of Malaya, when travelling as a passenger, I will leave for another time.