Sqn Ldr Mark 'Disco' Discombe awarded the AFC
 

Sqn Ldr Mark 'Disco' Discombe has been awarded the AFC for getting a BBMF Hurricane back on the ground safely after an oil pipe burst. :)
http://www.memorialflightclub.com/bl...isco’-discombe
mmitch.

Something similar happened to me. Climbing out of Lydd on an IMC exercise, passing 2500', the crankshaft seal decided to move forward and thus dump a lot of oil over the TB 10. I immediately turned back towards the airfield, (3.5nm) ,trimmed for best glide and throttled back to idle. Words to ATC, "by the way it's a PAN call"! The oil loss decreased and I managed to find one quick burst of power and made the threshold , using the side window as a landing visual reference. A quick tow to the back of the hanger. No damage to the engine , in fact we had 3qts remaining .Prop. off and seal changed. The aircraft then left with the owner back to its base at Biggin. Only paperwork, an MOR. Back home to a stiff whiskey and no medals!

Well done Disco. On a less serious note it appears there's only slightly more oil underneath LF than usual ;)

Great skills from Disco, and good to see the recognition.

Great to see such an award go to Disco, Top Bloke!

3FTS, surely.


Well done m8.

Having seen one or two AFCs awarded on the thinnest of pretexts which caused a few eyebrows to be raised at the time, I am delighted to see this very well deserved one. Congratulations!

IIRC, Flt Lt Grant Taylor had a similar experience in a BBMF fighter some years back and managed to land safely at RAF Woodhall Spa.

Presumably there was vastly more to this than gentling the engine for a mere 20 miles and landing with oil on the windscreen.
There must have been? Surely? For an AFC?

They used to award Green Endorsements for exemplary airmanship, didn't they?

I believe Grant was awarded a Green Endorsement for the recovery to RAF Woodhall Spa.

Well done Duck. Certainly come along way since we were in school all those years ago :D

My captain got one of those nasty banana death 'copters safely down after a hydraulic failure caused by an electrical cable rubbing through a pipe. Sparks, smoke, hyd oil everywhere. Didn't even get a Green Endorsement.
By the way, us whirlybird drivers dream of the kind of gliding ability the plankies have!

LF363 is a bit of a 'case'. Ain't she the Hurricane that was reduced to a back of bits several years ago and then completely rebuilt from scratch?

Any congrats to Sqn Ldr Discombe.

Old Duffer

I do believe it was the Hurri that cartwheeled into Wittering after a con rod failure. I was on RSS at the time and heard the emergency state 2 call "Hurricane" so went out to see it try and recover. When it crashed , I said a few expletives.. Was standing next to OC 1(F) at the time. On day 11 years later at Cottesmore, I was talking to a contracted pilot doing FRA stuff. Talking careers, he mentioned that he was OC 1 at that time. I apologised for my language of that day.