Looking at those interior shots of the Varsity takes me back to about 1960 when on an ATC Summer Camp at Manby. One of the tasks of the base was to get desk bound officers back into the air, by way of refresher courses. Myself and another cadet were lucky (?) enough to go in a Varsity WJ890 on one of the flights. We were sat facing the rear looking at the top of the wing.
All was going well, with a few circuits, but then the instructor decided his student should try some stall recovery… The 1st couple were OK, but then my companion began to look a tad pale and shortly after filled the bag provided. I can’t say that mine was directly influenced by his retching, or whether the stalls, now with one engine shut down, caused my reactions, but suffice to say, I followed suit!
As the flight lasted some 90 minutes, I can honestly say it was my least pleasant flying experience while in the ATC.
3 days later however, I experienced a far more comfortable flight in Valetta VW197, lasting 55 minutes, during which time we were flown over the Thor rocket launching pads at North Luffenham (?). I was fascinated during the flight by a loose rivet gently rotating on the port engine cowling…
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