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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0791.PDF
19 June 1953 785 well pleased) he had flown one of the Sea Hawks in the tail-end of the formation "to see what it looked like"; but on The Day he was proposing to fly an Attacker of the "Spare Squadron." This was composed of a Vampire, a Meteor, four Attackers and two Sea Hawks, and its task was to fly astern of the main stream as far as St. Catherine's Point in readiness to replace any machine which might drop out. The great briefing board was boldly inscribed in red, white and blue chalk "Coronation Review and Fly-past," and we read off the check points and times: "S/C [set course] o 00; coast 1 42; Shanklin 4 30; St. Catherine's 5 42; Needles 8 06; Christchurch 9 30; Lyndhurst 11 57; Calshot 14 15." The customary good- natured leg-pulling was not absent, but there was unaffected earnestness in two brief sentences spoken by Cdr. Fell and which evidently made a deep impression on the assembled pilots. They were to this effect: "We trust that never again in your lifetimes will you fly in a Coronation Review. It's going to be bumpy; but grit your teeth and get there." And again, "Sweat a bit more and stay right in." The aircraft would fly in "close-finger" formation, with flights and squadrons line-astern, the squadrons being stepped down and spaced at 150-yd intervals. Our own pilot was Lt. L. D. M. Searson, who was flying as "No. 4" to Lt. Cdr. Price; thus, we should be positioned on the starboard side of the formation and should have the best possible view. Our departure from Ford was an experience in itself. The Sea Vampires were first on to the runway, where they halted at the 500-yd mark, while our Meteors, and the succeeding Attackers, Sea Hawks and Sea Venoms packed themselves in astern. In the lead was Lt. Cdr. S. G. Orr, D.S.C., A.F.C., officer commanding the Naval Air Fighting Development Unit at West Raynham. He alone was responsible for the timing and only he was authorized to use R/T. By this means he would announce "Vampire leader setting course" and would request landing instructions on return. The sun shone strongly through a patch of blue and the cockpit temperature mounted as we sat waiting and inhaling paraffin fumes. It was a relief—and a real thrill—to see the Vampires inch forward as the moment of departure came up on the stop watch, and on the split second go hareing up the runway. Then the first two Meteors of the formation arrowed away and in intimate company with our section-mate we ourselves were suddenly projected forward. The air was, sure enough, bumpy; but in two wide orbits of Ford the sections and squadrons gradually knit themselves to gether into their sixty-strong armada. Of this, of course, we could see nothing, except in the steep turns. Distantly they appeared like swarming insects though the Meteors close on our left, pat terned against the green of the sea as we swung steeply out over the coast, irresistibly reminded us of great silver fish. And let us here remark that, graceful and orderly as these jet formations may appear from the ground, they require intense concentration, and often exhausting physical labour, to maintain should conditions be other than perfect. For this reason Lt. Searson counted himself fortunate that our Meteor had spring-tab ailerons. As we left Selsey Bill behind on our first leg we had a distant glimpse of the concourse of ships, shadowy grey in Spithead. Our course lay by way of Ventnor; round St. Catherine's Point, on the south coast of the Isle of Wight; skirting the shore and over The Needles; and across to meet the mainland again at Christchurch. There we changed course once more for Lyndhurst, and it was on this leg—the last before the final run-in—that the threatening rain-clouds took on an increasingly forbidding aspect. Suddenly we found ourselves confronted by the very Cyclops' eye, as it were, of a sullen black monster. Earlier, as we had orbited Ford, we had been obliged to cut through the tops of clouds; but this was something vastly more malignant, and the full significance of Cdr. Fell's remarks came home to us. In rain, bumps and black ness we did stick together (though at least one back-seat driver was very sorely tried), and at length we emerged into clearer skies To observe the great Fawley refinery with its flaming-torch stack as we thrust down over Calshot. We were on the run-in. The spectacle now before us was one of incomparable majesty and strange beauty. Perhaps half the ships, towards the farthest end of the lines, were gleaming in a flood of sunlight; the rest lay in the dark grev shadows of the clouds. For some six miles (which with 300-odd knots on the clock, were covered in well under a minute) the lines of vessels, so varied in shape, size and nationality, streamed past on our right, till the lofty hulls of the carriers and the sauatter mass of H.M.S. Vanguard proclaimed the imminence of H.M.S. Surprise. And there she lay, by Vanguard. We were dead on time. In saluting their Queen at that historic instant the eyes of the pilots were only for their wing men, their hands urgently occupied with power and flying controls. They were saluting in the fashion of the Fleet Air Arm. Our course now lay towards Selsey Bill and to our left we glimpsed the Gannets drawing away round the east coast of the Island. Next we spotted the Wyverns and, as we watched, the A singularly striking impression of Avengers of No. 815 Squadron, Royal Canadian Navy, pictured through the cockpit enclosure of a machine of the formation. The flight is described on page 769. leading machine began to draw ahead of the rest. Its pilot, we knew, was Lt. Cdr. Laurie, the CO. of 813 Squadron, and he was opening up the great Python turboprop and heading for Ford. There, together with Rear Admiral W. T. Couchman, D.S.O., O.B.E., Flag Officer Flying Training (who had led the whole fly past in a Sea Vampire) and with the three senior jet-squadron commanders, he was to board a helicopter which would set him down aboard Eagle. Thence the party would transfer to Surprise to take sherry with Her Majesty. Orbiting base, the rest of us were suddenly transformed into a group of vapour shimmies and at last in the clear again we broke formation with loads of g and relief. The runway ahead was crawling with jets, but we touched down in good order and taxied round the perimeter track as the Attackers, Sea Hawks and Sea Venoms came streaking low across the airfield for a stirring suc cession of lightning peel-offs. It was good to be down again, and especially to hear that we had been bang-on time throughout. The crouching black cloud-beas had done its worst in vain. H.F.K. Clear of the dense storm-cloud, the fringes of which are much in evidence, surface craft and submarines lie arrayed on the dappled sea. «*•*
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