The above posts prove to me that I do not remember as much as I thought I did. 😮

Thank you all for you continued contributions. Am now re-reading the Report yet again and looking for my Course notes from 1971 before I add anymore.

Just wondering why if your aircraft begins to have hydraulic issues causing one main gear to stay retracted, would you not land the thing there and then? It was done in the airforce…..

FRC’s were quite explicit. All Landing gear down and locked:- land. In any other configuration; fly the aircraft safely then “EJECT”. This aircraft would bite and take a valuable pilot with it.

As for aircraft being retired in 1976, you have to look at the build-up of Tornado’s. 74 Sqn came back from Singapore and left its Mk6’s in Cyprus and then brought the Mk3’s and surplus TMk5 back to Binbrook. One T5- XV329? (Battery acid spillage) came back by ship to Sydenham docks in Ireland before returning to Leconfield. Wattisham, Coltishall and Leuchars were all drawing down and in the summer? of 76 we marshalled and parked over 70 Lightnings of all marks at Binbrook. If I remember rightly 5 x TMK5’s were parked outside the storage hangar some with saltwater-sand bags in the intake. Not a good preservation move.

Back to the canopy ejection piping, I speculate and it is only that, that the pipe could have been damaged or pulled when the seats were removed for that last final unrecorded work in the cockpit. Loose article? Most likely. Nothing, but nothing extra was allowed to lurk in the Lightning. One of the test flights after Major was to roll the aircraft on to its back and pick what debris (if any) that landed on the canopy. Anything found was always an embarrassment to the Maintenance Team.

This story is so sad yet so repetitive. A father /husband lost when all his test pilot training should? Have brought a different outcome. Did he think that the loss of that one Lightning would bring about universal grounding of our iconic masterpiece. I believe he may have done and therefore focused on recovering the asset rather than saving his life. We all make decisions on known facts. Did he have the full facts to make that final judgement. I don’t think so. RIP Dave.

Bob

Stop, look and think.

Let’s all sit back, (a good glass of vino-collapso) forget hindsight and look at the facts.

No matter what you think of the oversights, lack of Quality Assurance and the most foolish extension of defects. The end result was that most probably (in the view of the very diligent investigation team) a ferruled pipe could not stand the pressure of a cartridge that fired. Whether that would have been picked up if canopy jettison checks had been carried out is open to conjecture.

We will never know if the pilot’s seat would have worked because the canopy never left the aircraft. This modification to the seat was because (as far as I can remember) a pilot was ejected into a single seat canopy when trying to carryout a wheels up landing on a very early mark of Lightning. The sear had to be removed by the cable attached to the canopy before the seat could be initiated.

As for fire warnings, I seem to remember crewroom talk was that if an intensive fire ensued in Zone 3, the Firewire could be popped and therefore no warning would appear on any of the cockpit panels. Your wingman was your only visual and timely warning.

Fuel leaks were the bane of our lives. Viton tape I used to dream about and not in a good way. Wing pickups were directed into titanium containers and then piped overboard. I seem to remember 25 drips per minute was the maximum from these overboard drains. Not a Modification I enjoyed fitting.

Of course, not reporting a flameout is just criminal and resulted in that person life being lost.

I can understand the pilots focus on recovering this valuable asset, but FRC’s have always been quite explicit (Mk1-6). No matter the problem, fly the aircraft safely and bang out.

As for maintenance, one of the aircraft I was involved with on its RAF Major Servicing and then went vertical into the wide blue yonder (50+ thousand feet) was lost in similar circumstances a year later. Lightning TMk4 -XM974.

The report shows a very familiar train of events, (to anyone in the fast jet community) at any time this chain of events could have been broken. It was not and I believe we will never see this great British icon in the sky again.

Bob
Leconfield 60 MU 1970-75; Binbrook 75-76.

Lovely to see the Piston Provost XF 690 back in its original training colours.

I have a lot to thank the previous owner (DM) and the Leicester Aircraft Preservation Group for ensuring that the RAF Lyneham Provost WW397 returned to the sky in 1983.

It was the sad loss of their Vickers Varsity WJ 897, 28 years ago this month that robbed the preservation world of some of this very capable team. http://wj897-lapg.moonfruit.com/#/history/4532783258.

Incidentally, WW 397 is, I believe, currently being reconditioned once more for flight by a forum member Captain Bombay.

Well said Kev, as usual the voice of reason.

I remember returning from ops down south, to find the wife had packed all my favourite paperbacks and directed me to take them to nearby RNAY Wroughton.

We arrived, very welcome, to take these books to one of the many Wards of the survivors of Sir Galahad & Sir Tristram. We too were humbled by their comradeship and upbeat mentality.

After that, each conflict was seen in a different perspective although the pain of loss still hurts as deep. I hope the present conflict will bring just rewards to compensate for the immense suffering these boys and girls are enduring. My heart goes out to them.

Firstly I am not a true out and out royalist although I live in the town of the last civil war punch-up. You know the roundheads and cavaliers etc. They do marvellous work for charity now! 🙂

Having spent 39 yrs serving Queen & Country (note: NOT government) I believe we should give credit where credits due.

She like the Red Arrows have done sterling service to bring industry and export orders to this country.

To those that believe the Royal Estate should be returned to the people, you should look around this ruined countryside before you return what the Royal Estate still maintains in excellent condition. Are you willing to pay loads more for their upkeep? I don’t think so. :rolleyes:

Today was a day for the people and they proved that a great number in this country share the belief that our Majesty the Queen is respected for her devotion to duty and silence. Yes that includes her husband as well. Fly the Flag!!:D:D

Unfortunately all the stores here sold out when the Olympic flame passed through. I managed a dozen hand waving flags which adorn my flower pots and hanging baskets! Tomorrow the street parties, ‘Beacon’ of donated wooden pallets (one of only a privileged few in this country) and fireworks, all for free, courtesy of the Cavaliers. A very big thank you to them all!:):):D:D

🙂

Must have been close to being the last 4 unconverted F.2 a/c left on 92 strength by then, as most of RAFG’s F.2’s went through F.2A conversion back at BAC during ’66-67.

We were still completing Major Servicing on F2’s in 71/72 @ 60MU Leconfield. One even had the full blue tail and spine repainted before returning to 90blue, tail number escapes me at present.

Yamamoto and Satyr apparently still doing well in late July 1936:

Well there is confirmation that Mr Yamamoto was still with the Satyr on 30th July 1936. Olympic Games no less. (Pages 1157 – 1160). International Long Distance Flight. Only collected 28.5 points though!

Now there’s a thought. With the rumblings of war in Europe, did Mr Yamamoto decide to go back to Japan?

Avion. Sorry, nil stock copy of WingSpan 127 I’m afraid. Mine are various from 1988-92.