Ah, Memories (sigh)

[=CfC=Woof]

Great story, BD...but where are the F111 tales?  Even a routine trip in one of those must have been awesome.

And I loved the old photos , Bounder.  In fact I could swear I spotted one of my old girl friends sur la plage.

[=CfC=Bounder]

Great to hear from you Buzzaw........and we are all sitting comfortably, the lights are down and all ears....so when you are ready...you can begin one of your stories......?

Bounder

[=CfC=Fitz]

Stickied as requested!

Feel free to continue adding interesting stories chaps.....

Fitz

[=CfC=BlueDog]

The Hunter was a smooth bird, but it did have some 'nasties'.   One was the spin, which could catch the pilot out if pro-spin or anti-spin controls were applied the wrong way; or it could just catch you out if it felt 'ornery'.   You could get disorientated, spin recovery was sometimes dodgy; and on top of this, by the fourth turn of a fully developed spin the aircraft's rate of descent was in the order of 40,000 ft/minute.

The Pilot's Notes were quite specific:  NO INTENTIONAL SPINNING ALLOWED!!!!!!!!!

As students of a certain establishment some of us were required to conduct an assessment of the Hunter's spin characteristics (the others assessed the spin characteristics of the docile old Chipmunk).   Several solo sorties were allotted in the F6, and the final sortie was to be done dual (with a tutor) in the T7.   The final flight was to include incorrect (reverse) recovery actions (stick forward before opposite rudder) and out-spin and in-spin aileron inputs.   We were also encouraged to try to get into an inverted spin, which reportedly was rather difficult to achieve in the Hunter.   You had to enter it just right at the top of a mini barrel roll at low speed; but normally the nose would just drop through and a normal erect spin would ensue.

Emergency briefing for the exercise was concise and clear:  if you're not out of the spin by 10,000 feet - EJECT.

So there we were at 35,000 ft after completing a couple of spins and a couple of attempts to get into the inverted one - without success.   I put it into a normal spin with the intention of applying about 1/4 out-spin aileron during the transition to the full spin.   Then all hell broke loose.   The aircraft pitched rolled and yawed violently, moving in all 7 degrees of freedom (I know there's only 6, but it felt like more!).   It was like an extreme ride on a wildly bucking bronco..........or a moderate romp in the hay with Matron (so I'm told ).   Dust and cockpit debris hovered in the negative 'g' environment and amongst all this I heard the calm, controlled voice of the tutor saying:

"Good...........good.   This (pause) is an inverted spin"

Well, I'm pleased to say that centralising the controls got us out of it.   So we climbed once more to continue the exercise - albeit the white knuckles and the shaking of the hands detracted from the performance!

Walking away from the aircraft at the end of the flight the tutor said to me:  "I rather liked your comment in the inverted spin".

I replied "well, I heard what you said, but I don't recall saying anything"

"Oh yes,"  he replied "you said in an anxious voice: 'STUFF ME GENTLY!' "

Ah, memories......sigh.     

[CFC_Conky]

Great story Bluey!

It reminded me of my experience spinning a Beechcraft Musketeer back when I was a young lad. Now the Musketeer was a very docile kite, not at all as exciting as your birds but it did have some interesting characteristics. It had two appendages (strakes?) attached to either side of the engine cowling, ostensibly to make spins more difficult to enter. And difficult it was, kicking the rudder during a stall would result in a wing dropping, followed by the nose, then the thing would basically accelerate itself back into normal flight. Borrrring!

So, one day, while flying solo in the training area, I decided to see if I could coax one into a spin. I dutifully closed the throttle, raised the nose and waited for the speed to bleed away. On cue the aircraft began to shudder and the nose began to drop, meaning it was time to apply some rudder. This time though I decided to help the aircraft along by slamming the throttle full forward right after I applied full rudder. My faithful steed responded by flipping over onto its back and entering a rather violent, (at least to me and my 40-ish hours of experience at the time ), albeit conventional spin. In the time it took to say 'Holy shit!', I'd done about two turns. I let everything go and it righted itself, but I never tried it again.

Unfortunately I've never had the chance to practice real aerobatics but I have a friend who teaches it and he keeps asking (threatening? ) me  to go up with him. I should probably take him up on the offer.

Pip, pip,

Conky

[sadsack324]

Stickied as requested!

Feel free to continue adding interesting stories chaps.....

Fitz

G'day Fitz,
                             Mate, have you heard from "bluey" lately??? I sent him an email some time ago and still no reply?

                                                                                                               Cheers,

                                                                                                                            SS.

[dinosaurJR]

Egad chaps - this is a fantastic thread!

I must agree with one of the earlier posts - this should be a book! I would most certainly buy it!

But good grief, gents I am so jealous... I wasn't even born when you chaps were off, trotting round the globe with beautiful and mysterious blonds, ground looping C-45s and landing F-225s in white out conditions... I loved Woof's story about the unfortunate F-86 belly landing and the one about the C-47 (cutting #1 and hitting the bail out alarm... wizard jape, what?) Conky has experienced more in one season as a bush pilot than I have in my entire 30 years so far... And all the while proudly sporting the badge of office for all aviators (sun glasses and / or a manly mustache). Good show!

I was born in '81 and have been periodically a Car / Truck / Bus mechanic, a Construction Manager and I now fly a desk as a Technical Purchaser for HeidelbergCement... Quite a different background...

I am purely a commercial flyer and never, ever in the front (always in the back with the other cargo...) And this makes me sad...

Please, gents, keep the fantastic memoirs of Chuffy's Flying Circus coming. They make for incredibly interesting reading.

Good show!

[CFC_Conky]

We made up all those stories you know 

Pip, pip,
Conky

[CFC_Conky]

We made up all those stories you know 

Pip, pip,
Conky

Well, at least Woof and Bluey did...

[=CfC=Woof]

We made up all those stories you know 

Pip, pip,
Conky

Well, at least Woof and Bluey did...

Oh, no we didn't, Conkini, and I have the emotional scars, drool and vacant stare to prove  it.

[CFC_Conky]

 

Conkini eh? I like the sound of that, sort of like 'The Great Santini' (very good book btw)

'Make way for The Great Conkini!'

Yup, sounds grand.

[dinosaurJR]

Gents,

Firstly, I must apologise profusely for the extended absence.
A combination of wedding preparation, losing two colleagues at work (not down the back of the sofa, either) and much, much traveling have left me with a decided deficit in flying time...

But enough about me and my slack bladdered excuses... I have an aviation story! Not a very good one, but one, none the less... Are we sitting comfortably? Good, then I'll begin...

There I was, sitting in seat 21a of a SAS Bombardier CRJ900 (very smooth flying aircraft to be a passenger on... Not as nice as the BAC 111, but then nothing in my experience ever is...)  the aircraft was sitting at the end of the main runway at Gardermoen Intl airport, Oslo, Norway, awaiting clearance to begin the take off roll...

So, I hear the throttles open, the engines begin to lift in pitch and volume, I feel the kick of acceleration in the small of my back and we are off! Accelerating, Accelerating, Accelerating, reaching the rotation point and then.....

BRAKES BRAKES BRAKES!!!!

The incredibly uncomfortable feeling that something has gone wrong started to creep over me... The worst thing? There was absolutely nothing I could do... Worse still? The pilot was silent the whole time... So, with full spoilers and brakes, the aircraft slows to taxy speed and pulls off onto the last taxy way on the left...

The pilot then sheepishly comes over the intercom...

"Em... yes, sorry about that, we didn't have clearance to take off and so had to abort.... Also we have also over heated the brakes and so must wait for them to cool down before hopefully finding a slot in the schedule to take off...

Is this normal? Or do airline pilots get so bored at work that they decide to scare the shit out of their charges, just to liven things up a little...

1 hour later I was still sitting in seat 21a, still waiting for a slot to take off...

I was not amused... Next time, I'm taking the train...

[=CfC=BlueDog]

 

[CFC_Conky]

Hello Chaps,

A former employee of Nordair, my first airline, has created a video of the 'old days'. This video is of the FH-227 operation in the arctic during 1987. I's a short video, 1:43, and at the 1:13 point there is a slightly embarrassing shot of a much younger, thinner, better looking Conky   .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZB65ckjC58&NR=1&feature=endscreen


Here is another one on the various a/c operated by Nordair. I came along a little late so I did not get an opportunity to fly the smaller turboprops, piston-engined kites or flying boat, but I did fly every 737, L-188 Electra and FH-227 shown in the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=ttYuPdO3WkU&list=UUVwU4Nje9NjxT4ZwZmRI-Yw&feature=plcp


Pip, pip,
Conky

[=CfC=Father Ted]

So you're obviously one of the people standing at the back trying to avoid the camera...