November 1962
After a few days to settle down back in England we spent the first three weeks of November in house hunting. I had learnt with great interest and excitement that my next appointment was to be Staff Officer Flying at the Ministry of Aviation in London, so our search was for a house in the home counties with reasonable access to the city. We were fortunate in finding a nice property near Woking coming on the market in the near future, with a very good train service to Waterloo, but it would be some time before all the negotiations with agents and solicitors could be finalized, and for a while I would not be able to move the family down from Ratcliffe-on-Trent, where they were staying with the Bentons. I was not due to take up my new job for some days, so I joined my brother in a week’s holiday in the Mediterranean. We left Heathrow in a Viscount and flew to Gibraltar. The flight was pleasant enough en route, but we ran into a thunderstorm just before reaching the Rock. The tropical downpour left inches of water on the runway, making landing very difficult, and the captain obviously found the brakes were having little effect, as the tyres were aquaplaning over the surface water and we were lucky not to run out of runway. We stayed in a pleasant hotel in Algeciras, and happily it did not rain during the rest of our holiday, and we took a hired car up into Spain on a widespread visit to places of interest and charm, which we thoroughly enjoyed.
On landing back at Heathrow I lost no time in reporting to the Ministry to find out the details of my new post, Staff Officer Flying at the Ministry of Aviation. Although it was essentially a desk job I was delighted to hear that I was to have responsibility for supervision of all test flying of military aircraft by civil manufacturers throughout the United Kingdom under the Director-General of Flying. I was alarmed to discover that the Director was my erstwhile AOC in Cyprus with whom Hughie Edwards and I had fallen out. But happily all was forgiven and I could not have had a more considerate boss. We got on well, particularly as he just let me get on with my daily task without interfering, and it must be said, without showing a great deal of interest. I was also to have responsibility for the testing, research and development flying at Boscombe Down and the conduct of flying training at the Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) at Farnborough. Thus I would be expected to travel all over the country in pursuance of my duties, to meet all the civilian test pilots, and have close contact with the development of new service aircraft. How else could I cover all this ground in the time available than by air? Plenty of flying was in prospect and my cup of happiness was filled to the brim. I considered myself fortunate indeed, particularly as I was now a group captain!
Even without my dropping a hint it was recommended that I should get my jet rating up to date before taking up my job, and on my own recommendation I was attached to the Empire Test Pilots’ School for a flying refresher course on the Meteor. I completed the course on 7 December, when I did my instrument rating test with the senior instructor and went away with my Master Green Card safely tucked in my log book once more. After a short break after Christmas and the New Year, I travelled up to London and found my office in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Building at the top of Tottenham Court Road. Awaiting me was a staff of eight civil servants, including a secretary who turned out to be absolute perfection, knowing everything and everybody that mattered in the job. She made my task through the coming months very much easier, enjoyable and rewarding. On my first day I brought Peggy an African Violet for her desk, not knowing then that she was an ardent gardener. By the time that I left the Ministry the office looked like a flower festival with wall-to-wall African Violets! Among her many talents she certainly had green fingers. She was a perfect secretary and never once was there ever a cross word or misunderstanding between us. My staff were mostly experts in some field of flight safety, such as air traffic, fire and rescue and the professionalism of personnel employed by contractors doing Ministry of Aviation aircraft flight testing. My office laid down the criteria that the Ministry required for the flight-testing of military aircraft at civil contractors’ airfields. Thus, regular inspection was a necessity, and I was also responsible to the Director-General of Flying for ensuring that civil test pilots were fully qualified and competent and in up-to-date flying practice for the highly skilled and responsible job of flight-testing very valuable and high-performance aircraft belonging to the Ministry of Defence. The question of flying practice requirement became a matter of some significance, as will be seen later. It was always a matter dear to my heart, as will be appreciated.
I started in the new job at the beginning of January, and was glad to find out that I could call on the Test Pilots’ School at Farnborough for an aircraft whenever I needed one for my staff visits. It was very seldom that they ever failed to produce something flyable, and to prepare for my visiting I went down to Farnborough to be checked out on their aircraft. After being cleared on the Devon, I took it to Warton with two of my staff to visit English Electric and discuss their set-up for flight development of the Lightning and flight-testing of production aircraft. I returned late in the day for a night landing at Farnborough. I only got to Farnborough twice in February, getting checked out on the piston-engined Provost and doing dusk landings on the first occasion, and on the 19th taking the Devon to Lyneham and return for VOR/ILS practice approaches. At the beginning of March I flew down to Dunsfold in the Meteor 7 to talk to Bill Bedford about the early trials on the P.1127, later to become the Harrier. This vertical-take-off fighter was the first of its kind and already showing great promise, but as so often seemed to happen in the United Kingdom, support for it was so half hearted that it took years to get it recognized as the invaluable tactical fighter that it eventually became. Even the Americans bought it! The Test Pilots’ School was fortunate enough to have a Vickers Viscount 810 on their establishment for multi-engine flight-testing training, and I persuaded Wg Cdr Laidler, the chief flying instructor, to give me some dual on the aircraft. We did an hour’s flight, including landings with one engine stopped, and lastly with two engines stopped on the same side. I found the aircraft beautiful to handle, even under those conditions, although admittedly it was very lightly loaded at the time. I would have another chance to fly the aircraft when we took it to the States on a visit to Edwards Air Force Base and also on shorter trips to the continent. At the end of the month, after two flights in the Meteor I was fortunate to join the test pilots in flying the American F4H Phantom, a very advanced and sophisticated aircraft that became the standard fighter/strike aircraft of many air forces throughout the world. It was a comparably large and heavy aircraft, but the power-assisted flying controls made it exceptionally manoeuvrable and straightforward to land.
On 5 April I took my signals expert to the Radar Establishment at Pershore and return, and on the 11th I visited Rolls-Royce at Hucknall. Here their chief test pilot, Capt Rogers, took me on a demonstration flight in the Ambassador G-37-3 fitted with two Rolls-Royce Dart engines and with reverse thrust. We accomplished some remarkably short landings. The following week I took the Meteor 7 to visit Marshals of Cambridge, where Mr Worsdell let me fly the company’s Aztec, which was waiting outside his office like a taxi – a very gentlemanly way of checking their air traffic control facilities at Cambridge. On the 18th, using the Devon, Eric and I did a similar exercise at Chalgrove and Luton, carrying out ILS and GCA approaches at both airfields. Before the end of the month we had visited Tarrant Rushton, Turnhouse and Prestwick. In June I was busy catching up with paperwork in the office, where Peggy kept me going on copious cups of coffee – the real blend, for she did not hold with ‘instant’. When I managed to get out of the office again I flew over to Hatfield to see my old night-fighter friend John Cunningham. Over a good lunch at the Comet, John told me about the Trident programme, which had run into problems and suffered two aircraft crashed. Investigations had shown that the aircraft had been allowed to enter a deep stall from which recovery had been impossible. John explained that with aircraft with tailplane and elevators positioned high up on the tailfin it was possible to raise the aircraft nose so high at low speed that the airflow over the wing blanketed the flow over the elevators and made them ineffective for recovery. John had emphasized this danger in his briefing for operating the Trident, and droop flaps on the wing leading edge had been modified and warning systems fitted. John was now engaged in proving the remedial action taken by de Havilland, and after lunch he invited me to go with him on one of these test flights. So we boarded Trident G-ARPA, together with Peter Buggee, and did an hour carrying out trials on the stalling characteristics of the Trident under various conditions with a clean aircraft, with various stages of flaps and slots and full landing rig with wheels and flaps down. Quite alarming at times, with a horn screeching, the stick shaker going madly and the aircraft doing all sorts of antics, not like a well-behaved passenger airliner. But it was a convincing demonstration, nevertheless, clearly showing that it would be very difficult for an airline pilot to reach a stalling situation inadvertently, and that even if he did the Trident would recover easily if handled right. After landing I complimented John on the calm way he handled the aircraft, but he said he had no worries as he made sure the aircraft was fitted with an anti-spin tail parachute before the trial. The Trident went on to be quite a successful feeder airliner with BEA, and it was the first to be fitted for fully automatic blind landings, which I observed in flying trials at Bedford. On 20 July Eric Mather and I went across to Yeovil in the Chipmunk to visit Westland Aircraft Company, the principal helicopter firm in the UK. After lunch we flew to Weston-super-Mare to see the flight-test division of the firm, and then back to Farnborough that evening. There was something very captivating in flying a light aircraft on a still summer evening, apparently with the sky to ourselves and the air as smooth as silk. I remembered us both saying what a shame it was that we had to come down to the chaos of traffic round Farnborough and back to London. The next day in my office I realized that my knowledge of helicopter operations was very limited. I therefore thought it was a good reason to go to my Director-General and suggest that I might gain experience by doing a helicopter flying course. To my surprise he agreed and sent me off to Farnborough for a short helicopter conversion course, and ETPS was as usual only too pleased to agree. Before the end of the month I had already done an hour and a half of hovering, cyclic handling and use of the collective control in the Dragonfly helicopter.
On 1 August I was at Rearsby to evaluate the little Beagle Terrier G-ARLF and to look at the firm’s air traffic and safety facilities. The following week I took Mather and a lieutenant-commander in the Devon to Sydenham (Bedford), where we landed in heavy drizzle with 400 feet cloud base, using Decca for our let-down and approach. Our return to Farnborough the next day was by contrast in the clear. I was busy at the beginning of the month with the commandant of ETPS and the instructors considering the flying demonstration programmes of the company test pilots at the SBAC Show at Farnborough. We considered two things were paramount: firstly, the safety of the public spectators, so the flight paths of the demonstrated aircraft had to be over a safe route and well away from the crowd enclosures; secondly, of course, the safety of the valuable development aircraft themselves and their test pilots. There was clearly a temptation to fly to the limit of their performance to impress the onlookers and potential customers, particularly foreign buyers, but some curbs were essential to ensure, as far as possible, that no catastrophe happened to spoil the show. While flying programmes were clearly up to the test pilots themselves, their routines had to be cleared by the show committee, of which I was a member This was a very responsible job, and the details took us some time to work out and agree. Happily the show went off without a hitch and I was lucky enough to fly in the new VC.10 G-ARTA with Jock Bryce and Bryan Trubshaw on its demonstration flight: a most impressive display in a really beautiful aircraft.
Visits to various company airfields continued into November, including a flight to Luton where I managed to get a flight in a Jet Provost, an aircraft I had not flown before. I returned to Farnborough in my piston-engined Provost and landed in a snow storm with a cloud base of 400 feet. At the beginning of December I took the Devon to Shoreham, where Mr Mitchell briefed me on the handling of the twin-engined Beagle 206 G-ARRM, which I flew solo for an hour, enjoying the comfort and light handling of this delightful aircraft while checking the air traffic controllers in the tower. After lunch I flew the little Airdale, G-ARNP, for half an hour before flying home in the Devon. There was no flying at Farnborough during January as the airfield was closed on and off with snow, and it was not until the middle of February that I managed to get down to Farnborough again. On the 19th I took Sir Charles Gardener in a Devon to Northolt, where Mr Pike from de Havilland took him and other ministers on a demonstration flight of the new Dove 8. I went as second pilot to make up the numbers.
At the end of April a visit was arranged to some French test-flying establishments, and on the 23rd I joined Ray Watts and several test pilots from ETPS flying in the Viscount to Istres. Here was the French Helicopter-Testing Establishment, where we had a session comparing notes on test procedures and training. The next day Ray and I were flown in a French Alouette for a demonstration flight by their Commandant Hablo. After some interesting handling performance the commandant said, ‘Now I will show you something really interesting’, and much to our surprise descended to tree-top height and made for the coast. After a few minutes we circled a sandy bay so low that the sand began to swirl around, and out of the murk appeared a bevy of naked girls waving with great enthusiasm. No doubt the commandant and his lads were regular visitors to this nude bathing beach. We did find it most interesting, but it hardly added to our understanding of the French flight-testing procedures.
Two days later we took the Viscount from Istres to Bretigny, where we spent the day with French test pilots and were generously entertained in the evening with choice French wines and cuisine. The next day we returned to Farnborough, having called at Manston to clear customs. The excisemen always seemed much stricter at Air Force stations than at civil airports. For some weeks the Dragonfly helicopter had been on trials, but it now become available again, and in July I had been able to continue my flying training on the helicopter. After more dual with Sqn Ldr Stevens, including hovering, auto-rotation in the event of engine failure, approaches and rolling landings, I did my first helicopter solo flight on the 18th, and thereafter six more solo flights before the end of the month. In no time I was revelling in this new challenge and thoroughly enjoying the helicopter experience. Admittedly it was noisy, with uncomfortable vibration, but what a thrill to be able to land the chopper with ease on its hard standing between the hangars.
In August and September I continued to build up some helicopter hours, interspersed with visits to the Bristol Engine Company at Filton and to Colerne. Similarly, in October, I finalized my helicopter course with practice solo auto-rotation forced landings and side and backward manoeuvres. In November I had the opportunity of more second-pilot hours on the Viscount when ETPS test pilots flew to Italy on a liaison visit to the Italian Flight Test Centre. We took the Viscount to Luqa, and then a night landing at Nicosia, and the next day to Ciampino airport, Rome. Two days later we flew back to Farnborough via Lyneham to clear customs. I did a little Meteor and Devon flying during December, but was looking forward to an exciting visit to the United States that had been planned for the New Year.