Instructors - any favourite "bon mots" ?
More of a 'I Learnt About Flying From That' was the Wessex pilot who parked his aircraft on a sloping parade square and hung his helmet by its strap from the rotor brake handle in the cockpit roof. Went off for a brew. The brake lever disengaged itself from its clip, helmet dropped and flicked the parking brake lever to off. With no chocks, the Wessex trundled down the square and trashed its tail rotor on the wall at the bottom.
Originally Posted by BEagle
...This chap turned onto some piece of tarmac which proved itself not to be the taxiway when grass appeared dead ahead. So he shut down, which meant no radio. Or lights. He then got out and made his way to the tower...
(Apologies, that's out of context. Just responding to a previous Gnat post.)
Last edited by MPN11; 3rd Sep 2017 at 10:24.
Look son, I'm not being piccy but I'm sure you were towing a glider when you left
643GS Kirton in Lindsey mid 60's. Foggy fog fog, so foggy it was really foggy. (Just makinga point so you grasp how foggy it was) Not forecast just dropped out of the sky like a stone leaving six assorted Mk111's and T21's littering the launch point. After a miserable hour with no sign of it lifting and the day drawing to an end CFI orders eveything to be towed in. Easier said then done. One Landy vanished into the gloom with a Mk111 dangling on the rope Half and hour later Landy emerges from the gloom near the hangers. (glider wot glider) It took some finding.
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MPN11 (#62),
Totally irrelevant to Thread, but whenever did that stand in the way of a good story ?)
Your:
You are in good company, Sir ! (it can happen to anybody) - Dum-Dum, 1943:
!
Danny (ex-ATCO, Strubby)
and
megan (#67) - Marvellous ! D.
Totally irrelevant to Thread, but whenever did that stand in the way of a good story ?)
Your:
Not an aircraft incident, but one very foggy night at Strubby I set off in a Mini to turn off the Pundit on the north side of the airfield [I think it was left on for Many night-flying, if they could]. That achieved, it was now both dark and foggy. And, as a Strubby ATCO, it took me bloody ages to find my way back across to the south side.
To cut a long story short, I turned off, missed the first (proper) track, which looked small and insignificant, and took the next. When that looped round, heading off the airfield, the penny dropped. I was on a contractor's access road. I stopped, stuck.
There was no room to turn round and the VV had no reverse gear. I shut down and sent (mutinously muttering) "Stew" back on foot to confess. He didn't have far to walk: my absence had been noted. "Where's Danny?" - "He landed behind me", said Number Five, "so he must be on the field somewhere". The Flight truck raced back up the taxiway and found us.
They had to fetch a tractor and towing dolly to haul me out, ignominiously, tail-first back down the track to the flight line. The Boss was not well pleased, time had been lost, the word "idiot" may have been used. Others chuckled that, as a rule, aircraft got lost in the air - not on the ground
There was no room to turn round and the VV had no reverse gear. I shut down and sent (mutinously muttering) "Stew" back on foot to confess. He didn't have far to walk: my absence had been noted. "Where's Danny?" - "He landed behind me", said Number Five, "so he must be on the field somewhere". The Flight truck raced back up the taxiway and found us.
They had to fetch a tractor and towing dolly to haul me out, ignominiously, tail-first back down the track to the flight line. The Boss was not well pleased, time had been lost, the word "idiot" may have been used. Others chuckled that, as a rule, aircraft got lost in the air - not on the ground
Danny (ex-ATCO, Strubby)
and
megan (#67) - Marvellous ! D.
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A multi engine /crew story from the dim and distant involved a splendid QFI with the name of Taff John. It was a night CT sortie at Colerne in a Hastings that it occurred. The Handley Page Hastings did not conform to Perf A standards and there was a perilous gap between Vr and Flaps up safety speed. In a heavily laden craft the unwritten drill for EFATO was to put the nose down Bannerdown Hill and aim at Bath Abbey until the ASI quivered up to the approved 3 engine speed. In those days a practice EFATO could be initiated by bottling one of the four Bristol Hercules engines without any disastrous effects (a practice continued for a while on the Herc until they realised that the remaining three Allison turbo props at max throttle would take you straight to the scene of the accident!) Anyway that night Taff reached forward at take off and retarded a throttle. There ensued a frenzy of activity whereby the Co misidentified the HP cock of the engine and switched off the adjacent one. The Engineer saw the HP cock off and retarded the appropriate throttle on his own panel and switched off the wrong LP cock . The Captain was now double asymmetric and tried to restart an engine which they all cocked up and the remaining engine spluttered to a halt for want of fuel. The mighty Hastings was then utterly quiet in the night sky apart from the wind blowing over its wings when a dry Welsh voice intoned. "Rrright! Now will everrybody put everrything back where they found it!"
Dougie M Thank you so much for retelling that classic story. I heard it at Farnborough c.1970 in Southern Squadron word-for-word and it is great to see it properly recorded in writing after all these years.
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Robin Olds recounts a similar tale from the days after the war when he served as an exchange pilot on an RAF Meteor squadron (ultimately becoming the first american to command an RAF squadron I believe).
On being instructed by a slightly plummy sounding RAF flying officer regarding the Meteor's controls, he was advised as follows regarding the engine start procedure:
"Now do you see these two things here old chap, well when you want to start an engine you just have to push one of the t!ts...."
Olds was said to be more than comfortable adopting the new abbreviated term for an "engine start push button".
On being instructed by a slightly plummy sounding RAF flying officer regarding the Meteor's controls, he was advised as follows regarding the engine start procedure:
"Now do you see these two things here old chap, well when you want to start an engine you just have to push one of the t!ts...."
Olds was said to be more than comfortable adopting the new abbreviated term for an "engine start push button".
Anyway that night Taff reached forward at take off and retarded a throttle. There ensued a frenzy of activity whereby the Co misidentified the HP cock of the engine and switched off the adjacent one. The Engineer saw the HP cock off and retarded the appropriate throttle on his own panel and switched off the wrong LP cock . The Captain was now double asymmetric and tried to restart an engine which they all cocked up and the remaining engine spluttered to a halt for want of fuel. The mighty Hastings was then utterly quiet in the night sky
There is no way a Hastings would have remained airborne with so many engines failed / mishandled; I simply don't believe this tale.
Neither would a single engine shut down any time after V1 have been a problem for the C-130.
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BEagle (#75),
Well spotted, Sir ! When did a Herc ever have Allison engines ?...
(#70)..."Herc until they realised that the remaining three Allison turbo props" !....
I give you Wikipedia (Specifications):
I should think that our Chugalug will be "up in arms" when he reads of this calumny on the Queen of The Skies !
D.
Well spotted, Sir ! When did a Herc ever have Allison engines ?...
(#70)..."Herc until they realised that the remaining three Allison turbo props" !....
I give you Wikipedia (Specifications):
- Powerplant: 4 × Bristol Hercules 106 14-cylinder two-row air-cooled radial engines, 1,675 hp (1,249 kW) each.
I should think that our Chugalug will be "up in arms" when he reads of this calumny on the Queen of The Skies !
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Originally Posted by Danny42C
When did a Herc ever have Allison engines ?...
(#70)..."Herc until they realised that the remaining three Allison turbo props" !....
(#70)..."Herc until they realised that the remaining three Allison turbo props" !....
The current C-130J (or 'Super Hercules') has Rolls-Royce AE2100 Turbo-props but these themselves are a derivative of the Allison AE 1107C-Liberty, Allison being now part of Rolls-Royce North America.
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Danny 42C
With all due respect, I think you've got your Herc' and Hastings mixed up.
The Herc' K model had Allison engines with IIRC Hamilton props - being a lowly Nav' who left 'The Mob' in '73 I think I'm right.
The Hastings had Hercules engines - Bristol?
The Herc' K model had Allison engines with IIRC Hamilton props - being a lowly Nav' who left 'The Mob' in '73 I think I'm right.
The Hastings had Hercules engines - Bristol?
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Originally Posted by Dougie M
a practice continued for a while on the Herc until they realised that the remaining three Allison turbo props at max throttle would take you straight to the scene of the accident!
During my time on Albert you only ever got to see practice assymetric once during the OCU (Ex 3 IIRC), and that was done straight and level in the cruise.
At all other times assymetric (whether single or double) was simulated assymetric ie the power levers were retarded to set zero torque.
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On the V force in the sixties the procedure after an engine fire was to go through the motions for the affected engine and then shut down the adjacent one to cater for debris, fire spread etc.. On practices one would go through the motions for the affected engine and then retard the adjacent and carry out a two-engine approach and landing. The thrust line was sufficiently close to the centreline for you to be able to carry out a two engines on one side overshoot.
Ken Baker was overseeing his co-pilot carrying out this procedure in a Vulcan 2. That's when they found out that the rudder on the 2 couldn't contain the yaw of two Olympus's on one side at full chat.................
Ken Baker was overseeing his co-pilot carrying out this procedure in a Vulcan 2. That's when they found out that the rudder on the 2 couldn't contain the yaw of two Olympus's on one side at full chat.................
Last edited by Fareastdriver; 4th Sep 2017 at 08:37.
ExAscoteer, the practices in earlier years were somewhat more demanding. Whilst on UAS Summer Camp at Thorney Island in 1970, I went for a trip in a C-130. It was an MCT trip and the co-pilot was flying - we'd literally just got airborne when the captain reached up and T-handled the #1 engine....
