Bailing out of Mosquito and Meteor nightfighters

….The book said the starboard engine had to be cut and the prop feathered first……the 11 did not have the air scoops down the side, they only appeared on the 12/14….

Thanks for refreshing my memory. Just checked my Pilots Notes and indeed feathering the starboard prop was recommended on the NF36. Oddly enough, no mention is made of disconnecting the stick, nor is the T-shaped toggle shown on the cockpit diagram.

Just checked my NF14 Notes which recommends diving over either side but warns to retract dive brakes first – otherwise I guess you’d end up with minced aircrew. 🙁

[QUOTE=bazv;1859114]…I know this has probably been posted before…/QUOTE]

Thanks, bazy, I hadn’t seen it so quite interesting, even though the commentary sounds incredibly corny to the point of nausea these days.:eek:

Great to read both TK and Peters recollections 😀
I know this has probably been posted before but shows NF’s at Church Fenton (in colour)…

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=727

Re the NF36, I think the navrad had a good chance of bailing out, but the driver really stood little chance. The thought of an aircraft out of control at night just doesn’t bear thinking about. My pilot had been on the FBVI during the war and I think he reckoned to jettison the top hatch and go that way. The book said the starboard engine had to be cut and the prop feathered first!!

Re the Meteor NF, the 11 did not have the air scoops down the side, they only appeared on the 12/14.

We did briefly discuss bailing out of an NF14 one day, but I am a complete wimp and did not want my hair blown about:o:rolleyes:, so persuaded him to find the nice aerodrome at Duxford while feeling for the deck at about 500 feet and not a lot of visibility. It was all good fun in those days, we had been instructed in a big panic, to divert to Uxbridge. As we both knew there was no aerodrome there we knew we were on our own.

Incidentally, talking of hair blown about, when I first met my pilot at Leeming he had a Lagonda Rapier, a four seater ragtop. This he insisted on driving with the hood down, regardless of the weather:cool::cool:
When we got to Whatashame and found the NF14 with the slide back canopy he was over the moon. We entered the circuit at about 170 knots and he calmly rolled the hood full back :eek::eek: He was fine hiding behind that big raking windscreen, but I was buffeted to bits with the airflow round the radar set, and let him know all about it in no uncertain fashion:D:D

Cannot recall offhand anyone bailing out from the Mossie NF36, but people certainly bailed out of Meteor NFs. The best story is the crew from Linton? in late 1951 or early 52, who ran short of fuel at night, and bailed out….

Thanks, Peter, I had thought that if anyone knew the answer, you would. My own NF11 near escape also happened at Linton when fog rolled in during daytime and we were down to 10/10 fuel when we finally got down, so would have had to bail out if we hadn’t spotted the runway at the last minute. Can’t remember ever being briefed on a the best side to bail from but I remember planning to climb steeply and exit at the stall point.

As for the NF36, the worst part was having to wait for the navrad to exit first (my guy was rather plump and needed a helping foot on the rear to boost him through the inadequate door), then having to pull a toggle to disconnect the stick so it flopped forward to allow pilot to get legs out. The mind boggled at having to do all this at night, maybe with the aircraft out of control.

I remember several NF36 fatal crashes but never a bail out.

Cannot recall offhand anyone bailing out from the Mossie NF36, but people certainly bailed out of Meteor NFs. The best story is the crew from Linton? in late 1951 or early 52, who ran short of fuel at night, and bailed out. The story goes that the navrad landed on a cow, don’t know who was more surprised.:eek:
I remember on the OCU at Leeming practising bailing out from the NF36 onto a couple of inflated dinghies. One had to kneel on the floor facing the door and roll out head first. Then very smartly scramble off the dinghies before his pilot landed on top of him.
When we got to Wattisham with the Meteor NF12/14, the briefing was to get out over the port side because there were two damn great air scoops on the starboard side, looking like hooks, feeding cooling air to gadgets in the rear fuselage. This was to stop parachute harness getting snagged on said scoops, to get straight out meant one would get clobbered by the tail.
It wasn’t long of course before another vital:rolleyes: piece of gear was installed requiring yet another air inlet, this time on the port side.

I guess then we were meant to burrow our way out through the ventral tank :D:D