With Fortitude undergone the Rigorous Requirements

[Pontius Navigator]

TT.4, XL628, suffered major fin failure in flight. The pilot ejected successfully, landing in the Irish sea, but his emergency beacon failed to operate. As only high-level air-sea-rescue sorties were carried out, looking for the beacon's signal, he was not found and only survived because he reached shore himself a day later. .4, XL628, suffered major fin failure in flight. The pilot ejected successfully, landing in the Irish sea, but his emergency beacon failed to operate. As only high-level air-sea-rescue sorties were carried out, looking for the beacon's signal, he was not found and only survived because he reached shore himself a day later.

He was Johnny Squiers, it was 1959 and he made landfall after 30 hours.

[roving]

Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator

He was Johnny Squiers, it was 1959 and he made landfall after 30 hours.

first successful supersonic ejection in a British aircraft

[glad rag]

Old Duffer, that was magnificent.

You haven't lived until you've experienced Jacobs Cradle from the inside... BTW when being lifted with the stop did anyone else experience severe back pain in the hoist?

[Fareastdriver]

FED will remember when the Whirlwinds were all grounded after the QF aircraft crashed due to a gearbox failure

72 Squadron then detached Wessie to do the SAR standbye. At one training session with a Whirlwind rear crew the pilot declared how easy it was to hover a Wessex. The rear crew retorted by saying that they only did it on one engine. The pilot then demonstrated Wessex hovering with one speed select pulled back--until the working engine ran down with the winchman halfway down/up.

It crumped onto the ground just beside him fortunately with no damage apart from pride.

[Warmtoast]

Back in 1962 as a member of 99 Sqn (R.A.F. Lyneham — Britannias) I and the rest of my crew together with a crew from 511 Sqn, also Britannias, were sent on a sea survival training course at RAF Mountbatten.
A two-day course - day-one theory and techniques, day-two was practical. On day-two we donned service overalls and a Mae-west and boarded an ASR Launch at the breakwater to be taken out to Plymouth Sound. Once there we were tossed into the flippin-cold oggin, climbed one-by-one into an already inflated 12-man dinghy, zipped-up the dinghy entrance flap and were left for what seemed hours to get warm, but was probably not more than 45-minutes, but enough time to feel thoroughly queasy as the dinghy was tossed around by the waves.
One of the crew was manning the dinghy’s entrance flap and eventually the ASR helicopter (a Whirlwind?) appeared. We were then winched up into the helicopter one by one. With all aboard we were then winched one-by-one down onto the ASR launch nearby and once safely down on deck were then offered a noggin of Rum and eventually taken back to Mountbatten. The whole exercise was then repeated for the crew from 511.
Quite instructive and useful if we were ever forced to ditch so this event is something that sticks in one’s memory — even after 55-years!
This exercise probably took place around the 11th July 1962 because it coincided with the first live television transmission from the US via the Telstar satellite in orbit over the Atlantic and we, and most of the UK TV audience were engrossed enough to stay up late to watch this momentous event live. ISTR the first transmission early in the morning was a disappointment, but later, or the next day perhaps, more acceptable TV was transmitted. Mountbatten’s Mess must have made a fortune that night because we were drinking into the early hours to watch this event.
The ‘Lyneham Globe’ published an article about this training in the 17th August 1962 edition as can be seen from the photo in the cutting attached. I don’t appear in the photo, but believe the person shown climbing into the dinghy was an US Major on exchange posting to 511 Sqn.