FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1945
1945 - 2254.PDF
FLIGHT NOVEMBER 15TH. 1945 THE AIR—IV Flying the Blenheim Another o/ a Series of Impressions of Famous Wartime Aircraft : First of the ^§| High-efficiency Twins ; Becoming "Safety* speed'conscious " 7 • i^ THE peculiar way in which-, where aircraft are con-cerned, the "advanced and difficult" eventuallybecomes the ".simple and straightforward," is almost perfectly exemplified in the history of the Blenheim. Only a few years ago the pilot of the Blenheim was considered something of a person, and it was for this type, 'I believe, that C.F.S. first developed their "twin technique" and also, probably, the,.verbal "drill" system. With the former, they taught the tyro to hold a twin right down on the ground after take-off, to be interested only in single- engined safety speed, and to disregard initial gain of height; with the latter we were taught to mumble "H.T.M.P. F.G." before take-off—or, more explicitly, "Hydraulics, Trim, Mixture, Pitch, Flaps and Gills," to save us all from lethal absent-mindedness. , , . ., . Puzzled Pilots " • • '*':*"'• For in those days many such items were unusual, and the whole set-up had none of the " complicated simplicity " which appeared when hydraulics and constant-speed air- screws had become the more normal equipment of aircraft. Not only had the hydraulic power to be selected, but it needed to be selected on the plunger in the right direction on the Blenheim, or one would be merely providing urge for the satisfaction of a possibly non-existent rear-gunner. And what a worried, contortionist business it all was, with the airscrew-pitch buttons and cut-outs behind one's left elbow and the hydraulic service controls, for all the world like old-fashioned lavatory handles, below and on i .' ,_» the right. How we barked our knuckles in our efforts to get the undercarriage up as soon as the machine was airborne. And how we afterwards held it down, watching the A.S.I, reading. That technique of speed-before- height undoubtedly saved me The most-used version of the Blenheim—the Mark IV, which later developed into the Mark V type, a version of which was known as the Bisley. V v -•' from a sticky end on at least one take-off, when the port engine cut over an airfield boundary while the aircraft was facing all the paraphernalia of a large industrial city; we crept safely round to a landing, over factories and between chimneys, with 110-120 on the clock all the time. Since the C.F.S. instructors used simply as a routine of demonstration to throttle back and switch off as soon as the wheels were up, I couldn't even shoot a line about it. There was a period when, after dozens of shocked pilots had raised the undercarriage in- ^few • stead of the flaps and, all • ^^*v unknown to the casual driver, \/\. a safety-catch was fitted tp the \, ^'•^V undercarriage selector. In a • >v ^V w^d effort to raise the under- carriage in the old way the floor was almost pulled out of the air- craft, and trips were made with undercarriage left down through The first and, in "Indicator's " view, the nicest of the Blen- heims—the Mark I, with its enormous area of transparency in the noss.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
