Cranfield 1971: Part Three

Cranfield 1971 Part Three:

Finishing off my Cranfield set. Perhaps not as interesting as the first two parts but still “historic” (well the pictures are 40 years old!).

Firstly, a sequence covering a typical flying session for College students. There were a number of flying sessions during a course, each one covering particular demonstrations and an experiment. These sessions were done in Doves G-AMXW and G-APSO with as many sorties flown as required to give everyone a turn. Typically there were two pilots and a supervisor with, if I remember correctly, four or five students.

One of the experiments involved flying a continuous humpback flightpath. The Banudouin-Hussenot A.13 trace recorder showed that we were pulling up to something like 1.5g in the pullouts, which was what was required. Over the top we only achieved slightly less than 1.0 g and certainly didn’t get into zero g territory. There was a feeling that the pilot was being too conservative!

On one trip I had my camera with me and took some pictures.

MXW starts up and then taxies out.

PSO taxies to the pickup point (bad technique on my part, missing the aircraft reg).

MXW changes over groups.

MXW “Somewhere over Bedfordshire.”

Internal view in MXW. Front left is the supervisor who has an extra instrument panel. The students have their own panels of relevant instruments. The pilots are in their own world up front. As movement around the aircraft was possible during flight, students took it in turns (one per flight that is) to ride in the righthand seat during takeoff.

Part of an observer’s instrument panel. I couldn’t fit the whole thing in shot. 172 knots? I’ve probably travelled faster by train.

This was our primary “recording device”. You have to remember this was before the days of sophisticated electronics.

Final approach to landing.

There were a couple of dismantled Doves on the airfield: G-ARGN and G-AJDP.

Among the operational aircraft near the hangars, there were several Cessnas of various sorts as well as a few other types. I particular liked this Beech Baron.

That’s all for now.