Steenson's Lightning exploits anyone?
 

One of my ever-helpful book contributors mentioned to me a along-lost story concerning Eric Steenson having a slight mishap in his Lightning at Wattisham, which involved depositing the contents of his aircraft's ventral tank along the runway. Anyone have any more details about this, or know anyone who might know?

Sounds like a great story - be nice to include it!

Would that be the one where the pilot set the undercarriage switch to up during the roll, with the intention of retracting the gear as soon as the oleo squat switch operated? However this was a MkX and the pilot was used to flying the more powerful MkY, in the subsequent sinking of the aircraft following gear retraction and the consequent role change to twin engine sledge, the ventral tanks split and disgorged their contents. Of course the engines were in reheat and soon ignited the trail of avtur, the pilot voted to stay on board and headed skywards setting course to the Dogger Bank for an approach and full stop landing.
Those tanks only hold so much fuel and with a short time they were empty, the pilot then voted not to go to Dogger Bank but return to Base where he made an uneventful landing. The actual damage was minimal, requiring replacement of the ventral tanks, the landing parachute pod and a deflated ego.
The aircraft spent 6 months in sick bay before returning to service.
Has anyone heard the story….not me guv!

Certainly happened, cannot remember the details. However, only one of several similar events usually associated with the intent to fly a re-heat rotation shortly after take-off - some got airborne, some did a sledge act along the runway or across the grass.

Excepting the Mks 2A & 6, the other marks normally flew a flapless take-off and it was critical to ensure you achieved a decent separation from the ground before checking forwards to hold level prior to 'rotating'. If the check was initiated too early, the reduced wing incidence gave weight the dominant role and the jet sank back towards the runway. It was less critical in the Mks 2A & 6 due to the benefit of the lowered flaps at the take-off rotation, albeit they were retracted soon after. Another trap for those rolling further back in a stream take-of was the hot air and turbulence produced by the leading aircraft, not unusual for numbers 4 or 5 and upwards to develop a sinking feeling even when the toke-off was flown as described above. However, with enough space beneath you, this was controllable.

lm

Edit to include the Mk 2A - memory slip due to my overseas tour being Scotland!!!

I believe there were 2 'incidents' on successive Fridays - the other squadron at W not wishing to be outdone.:ugh:

From the horses mouth a few years ago..........I was intrigued as to how Eric'c career went from Lightning to Vulcan!!! He told me the story, but added that it was at a "Family Day":D

Is that the same Eric who made the news with a news reader?

And the Red Arrows Team Manager in 83 and 84?

I remember meeting Eric when he was flying the Cranfield A1 one off aerobatic aircraft.

Apologies to Tim for the thread creep, but does anyone know if this machine still exists?

The man himself!!!
 

I'll be happy to fill in the details for you if you'd like to contact me - [email protected]

Cranfield A1
 

Was last seen in a few bits in a hangar at Cranfield about 4 years ago

How's that for service?! Thank you kindly Sir - email on its way accordingly!

Thanks for that info ES. I'll try and find out if it's still there. Did it fly as good as it looked?

I remember doing the honours with the trolley ac for you at Cosford a good few years ago.
That bloody external power socket was far too close to the prop!

Welcome to Prune by the way.

Dak

I remember talking to Alan Wade who flew it for a couple of seasons, and he said it was good, but rather heavy and under-powered.

XR711 (Alpha 111 Sqn) piloted by Eric Steenson
 

Much has been written about this incident, along with many theories and supposition. I was working on the line at the time of this incident, and performed the last turn round on this particular aircraft (XR711). I was the last of the ground crew to have any contact with it before the events which befell it.

There was a 3 ship take off as a last sortie on the Friday afternoon. One of the reheats on 711 had been disabled due to a fault, but an entry was made in the limitations log and it was allowed to be used for one last sortie before shut down at the week end.

The first 2 aircraft made it away safely, whilst 711 which was underpowered due to a disabled reheat, sank back onto the runway. It looked quite spectacular as it hurtled down the runway in a ball of flame towards the barrier. It engaged the barrier at something just under take off speed. I was detailed by my NCO to get down to the end of the runway and bring back Flt Lt Steenson.

As I jumped into the Landrover, another pilot who was leaving the line hut, and had watched the drama unfold, tossed me a toilet roll with the instruction to pass it to Mr Steenson. When I arrived at the end of the runway, the aircraft had taken the barrier about 30 yards into a ploughed field, effectively snapping of a wooden approach light pole (like a matchstick), with the starboard leading edge. The barrier had torn into the spine of the aircraft and embedded itself into the leading edge of the fin.

There was the sound of hot tinkling metal. Mr Steenson exited the aircraft and I looked into the cockpit to ensure things were safe as the Fire Section hosed down and prevented a fuel fire. There were some crazy things happening with the gauges and instruments in the cockpit.

All was isolated and made safe. It took us 9 hours to recover the aeroplane, and it was taken to the "death" hangar" where it stood for around 3 months. The aircraft was a Cat5 (write off) and was cannibalised for usable non critical spares, before being placed on the burning area at RAF Wattisham for fire fighting practice. It was replaced by XR713 (A), which has just been transported and reassembled at Bruntingthorpe, and is the only remaining complete F3 airframe in the world.

BigT - about 85 time I was on the RAF TV Course at Newton. Each of us studes was given an "unknown", surprise topic for an interview. Mine was based on press confusion between GLCM vehicles and mobile radars (I was stationed at Neatishead). One of my colleagues was give a question based on the relationship you mentioned, which caused something of a stir, as the stude concerned (a) had been best man at ES's wedding, and (b) knew nothing of the "news item" - in all senses.

Gp Capt Reg Hallam (d) was thinking of buying the A1 at one time, but then Charles Church offered him use of a P51 Mustang!

Not quite.

XR749 is lovingly preserved near Peterhead, Aberdeenshire:

https://squawking7000.files.wordpres...0626_003-z.jpg

Mk2a takeoff
 

The Mk2a did NOT use flap for take off. The flaps were not 'interlinked' and a number of failure scenarios existed whereby an uncontrollable asymmetric retraction was possible, so, flapless T/O was the SOP!

Ladies and Gents,

For those who are not aware, Eric passed away of natural causes last year.

mcdhu

Well, Lightningf2a, don't know what outfit you were on but every one of my several hundred takeoffs in an F2A was with burners in and flap down