by Mike Brooke
During my final visit to the USAFTPS, in January 1983, I was temporarily unfit to fly in ejection seats but I did spend an hour and a half sitting in the left-hand seat of the school’s Boeing KC-135 under the watchful eye of Major Dan Vanderhorst. The main aim of the sortie was to introduce me to an experimental visualisation of the ILS on an HUD. Before we flew a few of those approaches Dan let me fly the big, four-engined jet ‘up and away’. One very interesting feature was when he showed me what is called a lateral stick rap. This is a test to discover something about the lateral control system or, at high speeds, to see whether there is any tendency for the control to oscillate and, perhaps, go into a dangerous state called flutter. When Dan did give the control yoke a sharp input in roll the aircraft responded with a shudder and a couple of seconds later the cockpit rose and fell sharply as if we had just flown through some turbulence. Interesting!
It was fascinating to fly a big, four-engined jet – I had done it before in the Comet and Nimrod – but the Boeing 707, which is what the basic airframe of the KC-135 was, felt like a bigger aeroplane and had that slow response and relatively heavy control forces of the passenger/freighter/tanker. I was still pretty sure that it wasn’t something I would want to do for a living!
The mention of the Comet and 707 reminds me of a favourite flying story. In the early days of jet airliners crossing the Atlantic a BOAC Comet was flying westbound at 40,000ft and its usual cruising speed of 0.76 Mach. Coming the other way was a Pan Am 707 at 33,000ft. As they crossed in mid Atlantic the BOAC captain said on the radio:
‘I say, old boy, what are you doing down there?’
‘Mach point 8 and makin’ a profit,’ came the reply.
In early 1983 I would be once more winging my way across the Atlantic at 0.8 Mach in the back of a Varig Airlines Boeing on the way to Rio de Janeiro. I was accompanying the A&AEE Commandant, Air Cdr Reggie Spiers, ETPS CO, Wg Cdr Robin Hargreaves and the Principal Tutor (Rotary Wing), Sqn Ldr Dave Reid on a visit to Brazil at the invitation of the CEO of the Embraer Aircraft Company and the Head of the Brazilian Flight Test Centre, located at the airfield of São José dos Campos. After a very pleasant stopover in Rio we were flown up country in an Embraer aircraft to make our visit. There I got to fly one of the Tucano YT-27 trainer prototypes. One of the other prototypes had been lost during testing in August of the previous year and Señor Gabral, who had jumped out of that one, was the man I was due to fly with. The Embraer Tucano was powered by a Pratt & Whitney PT6A free-turbine turboprop. The cockpit was very well designed and I particularly liked the fully glazed, curving canopy with no arch in my field of view; it was the first time I had ever flown a powered aircraft with a completely unobstructed view of the outside world.
The Tucano handled very nicely with a good balance between power and controllability. We climbed to carry out stalls, spins (including two inverted) and a full range of aerobatics. I had very little to criticise about the aircraft; it was truly delightful to fly. Then came the best trick of all. Once back over the airfield Senor Gabral asked me to pull the throttle back through a gate at the rear end of its travel. This caused the prop to feather, but the engine continued to idle. We then carried out a practice forced landing. Once I had touched down I moved the throttle out of its gate and progressively forward. The power response was almost instantaneous. During the couple of circuits that we flew after that I found the Tucano very easy to fly accurately, the only tricky bit was in keeping straight with the rudder when power was increased for touch-and-go landings on the runway. The final trick was the ability to use reverse pitch to help slow down. I had been asked to make an assessment of the Tucano as a replacement for the Harvards at Boscombe Down, which were used to chase parachute trials. Accordingly I had tried flying the low-speed, steep turns that were needed. Unfortunately they could not be done safely at the speeds we flew in the venerable Harvard. However, I was very impressed with the machine as a trainer and particularly liked the ability to make PFLs under near-real conditions with the prop feathered. In other types of turboprops, where the turbine is not free, it can be a bit of a distraction trying to maintain zero-thrust while carrying out an already challenging exercise.
Although, as far as I am aware, my report did not circulate outside Boscombe Down I thought that the MOD’s decision to re-engine and part-redesign the Tucano under a contract with Short Brothers was a retrograde and no doubt politically driven step.
33 AMERICAN VISITS – USNTPS
In January 1982 the ETPS staff made a visit to the US Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, situated on the shore of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. We had arrived to find the weather very cold and frosty with, initially at least, clear blue skies. After a day of orientation and interchanges with the USNTPS staff there was some flying in their aircraft on offer. On Tuesday 12 January I was slated to fly the Douglas TA-4F Skyhawk in the morning and the Rockwell T-2 Buckeye in the afternoon. A busy day was ahead!
Ed Heinemann of the Douglas Aircraft Company originally designed the Skyhawk in the 1950s as a light attack aircraft for the US Navy, to replace the piston-engined A-1 Skyraider. The Skyhawk has a low-mounted delta wing small enough not to require the usual wing-folding mechanism common on naval, carrier-borne aircraft. The two-seat T model was used for operational conversion and the USNTPS had at least two of them in their fleet. I was to fly with Lt Cdr Bob Vessely and we walked out to our diminutive white and red jet sitting rather prettily on the tarmac. Bob helped me strap into the aircraft and gave me a whistle-stop tour of the tiny cockpit. The Martin Baker ejection seat and cosy cockpit made me feel at home; it was not dissimilar to the single-seat Hunter. I had sole control for starting the engine and that turned out to be a bit of a trick. As the engine wound up, under the influence of the external electrical power, I had to open the throttle a bit to allow the fuel in and then push it outboard to initiate the electrical igniters (like spark plugs) in the engine combustion chambers to get the fire going. At the first attempt I couldn’t make it work, but one of the ground crew climbed up and showed me how!
Once we had checked everything we moved out towards the runway. The Skyhawk was easy to manoeuvre with its sensitive nose wheel steering and, when we had done all the pre-take-off checks, I lined up on the runway. I wound the J65 engine up to full power against the brakes, made sure there were no adverse indications and released the brakes. The acceleration was good but not startling and we lifted off at about 130kt. Holding a shallow climb I retracted the landing gear and accelerated to the climbing speed. We soared up over Chesapeake Bay, with the Atlantic seaboard soon in view beyond the Delaware Peninsula. Bob told me to stay over the bay and gave me a free hand to throw the Skyhawk around as I wished. The roll rate was quick and it was easy to stop it where I wanted to. A loop from 360kt used up about 3,500ft of sky and the little bird turned well at that sort of speed using full power at 5–6G. One slightly bizarre thing that I noted was that if there was any sideslip at all when G was applied a wing went down quite rapidly. This was due to the slats on the leading edge of the wings being operated by increased AOA and/or gravity. If one dropped before the other the lift on that wing would, temporarily at least, increase more than on the other: hence the undemanded roll.
But that was the only problem I came across. It was no wonder that the Skyhawk, which had sparkling performance for its size and could carry its own weight in ordinance, was such a success. It had been in USN service since 1956 and sold widely around the world. It was equally pleasant to fly around the visual pattern, although being a delta the nose was quite high at the lower speeds. There was a dummy deck with the appropriate lights to guide the pilot, simulating an aircraft carrier approach, so Bob showed me one and I had a couple of goes. There was one at Boscombe Down so it wasn’t totally new to me. I think that my back-seater was reasonably happy with my attempts!
After an American aircrew lunch – coffee and doughnuts – I met up with Commander John Watkins, the CO of t
he school and a 1974 ETPS graduate, for my flight in the T-2B Buckeye. This was another 1950s USN airplane that was still doing sterling service as the service’s intermediate jet trainer. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney J60 turbojets, each delivering 3,000lb of thrust at maximum power. That gave the aircraft a power-to-weight ratio of 1:2. The main aim of the trip was to let me experience the various spin modes of the Buckeye, including the inverted spin. John briefed me on the actions required to get the T-2 into the latter; it was rather complicated so I paid attention.
When we took off I was pleasantly surprised by the Buckeye’s performance with an initial climb rate of over 5,000ft per minute. It was not one of those aircraft that looked good: it was rather short and ‘stubby’ with the profile of a rather overweight porpoise! However, it handled well enough for its role. Once we were up and away, high over Chesapeake Bay, John took control to demonstrate an erect spin. It was relatively unremarkable for a straight-winged jet, fairly smooth with a steady spin rate. I then climbed back up for a couple of my own. After that John said it was time to go inverted. He took control once more to demonstrate the entry and recovery.
He started by accelerating and then pulling up to a vertical climb. The throttles were closed and as the speed dropped the stick went fully forward then fully left, after which full right rudder was applied and the stick came fully and centrally back. The timing of each of these inputs was completed to the chant, ‘One potato, two potato, three potato – four’!
The result was a wildly gyrating tumble that quickly settled into a fairly fast upside-down rotation with at least –1G, possibly a bit more. After four or five turns (I had lost count by then) John recovered the gyrating Buckeye back to normal flight.
‘OK, Mike – your turn.
I took control and tried my best to emulate what John had done. The result was satisfyingly similar but this time I noticed just how much noise the airframe made as if in protest to this abuse. I recovered on John’s call and asked if we could do one more. He agreed so I put the poor old Buckeye through it all one more time. That was enough. Then I was allowed to try some aerobatics, with John prompting me as to the best speeds. It reminded me of the Vampire, except that I could see out better!
Back in the visual pattern John coached me round the circuit and we did some landings, including a couple to the dummy deck that I had used that morning in the Skyhawk. The Buckeye ‘came aboard’ about 20kt slower than the TA-4 and a fairly smooth landing was not difficult to accomplish. However, I supposed that ‘greasers’29 were not much taught by the Navy! The following day was very cold, with snow, icy roads and no flying. We had been given the use of a minibus and, for reasons I can no longer remember, I was the designated driver. After spending some time at the school we were invited to look around the hangars of the primary test squadron at Pax River – VX-1. As we entered the huge, thankfully heated, space we were greeted by the sight of several brand-new F-18 Hornets, the US Navy’s latest fighter. The aircraft’s full test and development programme had been flown from Pax River since the late 1970s and it was due to go into US Navy and Marine Corps service the year after our visit. I had heard about various problems encountered by the Hornet in its early testing, including an inability to match the required rates of roll. As it used ailerons as well as other devices on the back of a ‘plastic’ wing I had wondered whether the problem was caused by some adverse twisting of the wing, due to the aerodynamic force on the deflected aileron, so reducing the rate of roll. I sneaked up to one of the shiny jets and reached up to grab the missile guide rail on the wingtip. Sure enough it took little effort to move it up and down by several inches! While flexibility is a key to the use of air power it can have its limitations!
As development progressed the flight control folks had to work hard to achieve what the USN and USMC wanted. It was rumoured that, in the end, when the pilot moved the stick to the left at high speed no fewer than seven aerodynamic surfaces moved. Notwithstanding all that, the Hornet soon became a formidable fighter and, later, strike/attack aeroplane.
When we had received some more briefings and chatted with a few of the resident test pilots it was time to return to our rooms in the BOQ. We walked out to the minibus, very carefully because of the ice on the ground. The vehicle was totally glazed over in thick ice. Rain was falling and freezing on contact with everything it landed on. I had to crack the ice to get the key in the door lock, meanwhile the guys were all banging the sides of the bus to get their doors to open. We finally got aboard, started up and I drove us back to our quarters at about 5mph.
When I got to my room, I turned the heating up and switched the TV on. There seemed to be some sort of disaster movie on. A helicopter was flying above water with chunks of ice in it. Then a woman, hanging desperately onto a rope lowered from the chopper, was being towed to the bank of what was clearly a river. The rope slipped from her grasp. I continued watching wondering what film it was. Then a man dived into the icy water, fully clothed and managed to drag the woman to the other people gathered on the bank. This was very exciting and realistic stuff! Then the picture switched to a bridge and the camera was carried along towards some cars that had obviously been crushed by something. I saw a bloody hand. Then the camera panned out to the river where a blue painted aircraft fin and rudder was sticking up out of the water.
Then the realisation came. This was no Hollywood disaster movie – it was real and live. Then a pair of news anchors came on and brought new viewers up to date. An Air Florida Boeing 737 had taken off from National Airport in Washington DC but had descended after take-off onto the 14th Street Bridge and crashed into the Potomac River. Then we were taken back to the helicopter, a Bell JetRanger, doing its extraordinary work of trying to get the few people that were still alive and floating in the river to the shore.
After our experience only 60 miles away I was surprised that any aircraft had tried to take off that afternoon. The icing on the wings and tail surfaces must have made them less than aerodynamically efficient. We learnt much later that icing, not just of the wings but also of very important probes that gave the pilots wrong information as to the thrust of their engines, was the cause. It was a great tragedy that should never have happened. Seventy-eight people perished that grey, glacial afternoon, including four in the cars on the bridge. It was horrific to watch the aftermath.
The next day we visited the NASA establishment at Langley, Virginia – also home to the National Security Agency – but we were not allowed anywhere near that. Our journey from Pax to Langley was by Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight twin-rotor helicopter; it would take about an hour. The previous night the heating in my room had failed and I had passed the night in very cold and fitful sleep with all my heavy-duty clothing on or over my bed. This one hour ride in the back of an unheated Mini Chinook was not helping! Some of the guys were quite worried about me and they weren’t alone. Hypothermia was setting in. I just huddled down in my RAF greatcoat (officers for the use of) and waited for it all to be over.
We eventually reached our destination and were welcomed by the nice NASA folks with large mugs of steaming coffee and yet more doughnuts. By the time we went in to the welcoming talk I was warming up and soon back on form. After some lectures we were taken on a guided tour during which we were shown a series of wind tunnels, one of which was enormous, and the Light Aircraft Crash Rig. This was used to drop real light aircraft from a large gantry onto concrete at varying angles and rates of descent; all aimed at helping the industry build more survivability into them. We had been shown lots of films of the work there and there was a test specimen in the rig. Sadly it had already been dropped so we didn’t get to see an impact for real. The dummies inside the crumpled ‘spam-can’ certainly didn’t look too happy!
A lunch and more lectures followed and we mounted the still serviceable Sea Knight for our return journey in the late afternoon. As was the custom a social event followed, an evening out at Evans’ seafood restaurant, where the tablecloths were e
ither brown wrapping paper or non-existent, but the food was terrific. There I discovered that I don’t like oysters unless they are cooked. However, my prowess as a one-handed Key lime pie eater had preceded me and I had to take on their newest instructor. Thankfully I won again!
Visits to the US Navy at Patuxent River were always congenial, educational and a very useful interchange of ideas. They made return visits each year, once memorably delayed because their own transport, a rather aged Lockheed P-3 Orion, gave up on the way. If I recall correctly they spent a couple of days north of the Arctic Circle while it was fixed! However, that did not inhibit their enthusiasm while they were with us – for sampling the flying on offer nor the beer and skittles in a local pub.
Note
29 ‘Greaser’ is aircrew-speak for a very smooth landing.
34 EUROPEAN TOURS
During every course, visits were made to centres of aerospace excellence in the UK and on continental Europe. The UK visits were much as I have described them earlier and the students seemed always to enjoy them as much as we had – especially the lunches and dinners! However, I have some memories that stand out. During a visit to Westland Helicopters at Yeovil, after a good lunch, we were sat down in a softly lit room for a series of lectures on Westland’s vision for their future. One of our number, who shall be nameless to protect his reputation, and who was in the seat closest to the lecturer, quite quickly nodded off! His head then progressively sank towards the table. The presenter bravely carried on by dint of never looking at the recumbent figure in front of him, but addressing all his remarks to the back wall! Embarrassing or what?
