Hi All
I’m looking into the crash of a Stirling Bomber in May 1941 at 02:30, he was 3 miles from his home aerodrome and was returning from a bombing raid. Met office says that it was clear weather, quarter moon (but under the horizon I think), cloud base was 4,000 ft. His undercarriage was down and he was only about 2 degrees azimuth off the centreline of the runway. He hit trees at 30 ft above the ground; the ground itself was 150 ft above the height of his airfield. He had 800 Hours flying time and had been a Cranwell graduate before the war. He had contacted the tower by R/T at some point (while less than 30 miles away) and had nothing to report. He was the only aircraft near the field the next aircraft was 15 minutes behind him.
I believe that the airfield only had gooseneck flares and probably a Chance floodlight. It was not a DREM site at that time. While the Stirling had the relevant aids such as DF and SBA the airfield apparently didn’t have the relevant ground systems.
I’m not trying to find out more about the aircraft, crew or the airfield. I’m not trying to work out or speculate why he crashed.
I would like to know what the procedure was for landing under such conditions. It seems to me to be a task equal in danger to the actual bombing they did but I can find very little about it on the Internet – unless you know more!
At the moment I have pieced together a possible landing sequence but it is very sketchy and without any proof at all – can you add to any of it in or correct it?
1. Start: Coming from the mission. The field is less than 30 miles away, he is roughly at right angles to the runway. The pilot radios the field, I know he did this but what would he have said to the tower? What sort of conversation would have gone on? I believe that an important item would have been the QFE(?) given to him by the Tower stating the atmospheric pressure at the field.
2. Approaching the airfield. How soon would he have been able to ‘see’ the runway. What would he have seen?
3. Turns to fly parallel to the runway but ‘upwind’ ie in the direction he would be landing in. Would he have used the gooseneck lights to do this?
4. Turns 180 degrees and flies back downwind, again parallel to the runway. Would he have seen and used the gooseneck lights to fly with? I assume that he would have noted his heading.
5. He flies away from the field on the same heading, at least 3 miles. Was that too far or was it reasonable? Would he have flown that far to be ready to line up for the landing? At 120mph that would have been just 90 seconds of flight. Would he have lowered his undercarriage by now?
6. He performs a 180 degree turn to line up to fly back and land. When would he lower his flaps?
7. At what distance would he have seen the Gooseneck flares? The Chance light would have come on at some point – but when?
I want to make a 3D animation of the event and I want to be accurate or failing that at least realistic! I guess I need a 1941 pilot to answer these but I’m reaching out to anyone who may know. It’s a pilot sort of question.
I know that working out why the aircraft crashed is fun but it’s the procedure in place at the time that is the topic of this thread gents.
Thanks in anticipation!
James
By: jamesinnewcastle - 24th February 2023 at 09:20
Hi Aerotony
You are quite right – the light load homeward cruising speed was 160mph, the stall speed with flaps in was 110 mph.
Cheers
James
By: Aerotony - 24th February 2023 at 08:16
Crew could only wish that Stirlings could achieve 400mph! Max speed was more than 100mph less that that and and on approach, an aircraft would not have been at max speed.
By: jamesinnewcastle - 23rd February 2023 at 20:33
Hi Oralcal
I know now that the Stirling was heard to pass over the tower and I assume that he had got his bearing from seeing the runway and was flying away to make a 180 degree turn. That turn appears to have taken place just past Dry Drayton. Given that the aircraft was pointing towards the airfield when it crashed it does seem that he was simply too low and hit trees. From the met office reports the weather would have been clear, I can’t remember if there was a moon or not. I’ve seen that trees just look black at night so it doesn’t seem unlikely that he didn’t see them. He had two altimeters – possibly he hadn’t adjusted for local pressure but I believe that the pressure hadn’t changed much since take off. He could have put on his wing light which would have lit up the trees but if you thought you were at 1000 feet that would seem a silly thing to do. The crash was 3 miles from the runway, at 400mph that would be about 30 seconds-ish so should he have been at the approach hieght which I think was usually 1000 ft. I have to say I’m running on my memory only here, so take all this with a grain of salt!
Cheers
James
By: Arabella-Cox - 23rd February 2023 at 19:05
Hmmm, 11 years on, did you work out an answer?
Goosenecks are not that bright, even on a dark night – even when no other domestic light around. They also cause a lot of smoke.
I expect the wireless man would have received bearing info from the field in the form of QDR/QDM, or QTE/QUJ and the nav or pilot done the maths to get the heading to fly to the airfield. This would be repeated at regular intervals. The runway in use would also be obtained at night by asking using r/t or morse, as would the QFE.
Letting down. Well the Nav would have been working roughly where they were. So descent to a safe altitude/height to break cloud would be made. Yes, the Nav sometimes did get it wrong, and with very low cloud the aircraft might well have CFIT event.
Once closer to the airfield the goosenecks would become visible. Then a simple matter to place the aircraft onto a downwind leg of a circuit for the runway at the correct height and distance judged away by the pilot’s judgement of the angle he sees the flares. Abeam the end of the gooseneck (landing end of runway) start the stopwatch/egg timer, fly for 20 to 30 seconds depending upon how they had been taught and gear down, required flaps. Then, turn base, start the descent at rate of about 5x their app speed (some were around 500 rpm), reconfigure flaps/props etc for base. Turn onto final, adjust flaps/speed and adjust the ROD to get the ‘correct’ picture for required descent path (learned by practice and experience).
Even today a PPL would fly a circuit at night in much the same way, by the correct height/ timing/ ROD/ judgement. Although I doubt today anyone uses or is taught a QTE/QUJ/QDR letdown like wot we was in the 60s.
By: jamesinnewcastle - 22nd February 2023 at 18:36
Hi Duckpond
I’m ashamed to say that life has overtaken my video regarding N6012 and the presentation I had promised to give to you all down in Dry Drayton! However it is still on the cards! I am still researching and I can tell you that the crash was officially pilot error. I have to say that your interest is already galvanising me to complete my efforts. Can you let me know a bit more about you and your interest in the Stirling? I met a few people when I came to Dry Drayton all those years ago, I wonder if you were one of them? Do send me an IM, if that is possible on here!
Cheers
James
By: Duckpond - 22nd February 2023 at 17:21
Hello James (in Newcastle). I’m in Dry Drayton. Did you ever make your video about the fate of N6012? Were you able to confirm if the crash was due to an attack or some other malfunction or pilot error?
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January 13, 2012 at 1:12 am