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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0347.PDF
30 March 1956 347 The working end of the prone-position cockpit. Instruments and con- trols are similar to those of the standard Mk 8, but are re-arranged. The gyro instruments are on • vertical panel, and others on sloped panels on either side. A g-meter is mounted centrally, directly before the pilot's eyes. The adjustment knobs for the G.4 gyro-compass have been extended within reach of the pilot. Main controls, reading across the horizontal shelf, are V.H.F. selectors gfld controllers, rudder and elevator trim wheels, undercarriage and flap levers, control column and windscreen demisting air control. The four switches grouped in the foreground are for bed adjustment. perimeter track, S/L. Wambeek handed over control to me. Aswe rolled along I felt a little as if I were tied to a springboard in front of a lorry, but the ride was smooth. The Meteor is not aparticularly easy aircraft to taxi because of the slowness of engine and brake response, but I found that the prone position gave nomore than momentary uncertainty in rudder-pedal operation. Diffi- culty arose from the pedals being close together and the longtravel available led to a tendency to over-control. Though one does get a very intimate view of the tarmac, there is no violentlyunnatural sensation while all three wheels are in contact with the ground. The first anomaly was on lining up for take-off, when I foundit difficult to judge the neutral position for the very short stick without making a full fore-and-aft swing and then selecting thecentral position arbitrarily. Power-lever movement was quite natural, but the acceleration during take-off tended to pull meback off the bed. I kept the aircraft decently straight on the runway but, beingunused to the power boost, I raised the nosewheel a little abruptly at just over 80 kt. At 120 kt the main wheels left the ground andI had the first feeling of over-sensitive ailerons as the power boost made itself felt for the first time. The centre position was a littledifficult to find and the rate of roll high. I did not really get used to this characteristic throughout the flight. For the first fewminutes I found the attitude relative to the horizon a little diffi- cult to judge and made ample use of instruments in setting upthe climb. The sensation of going up head first was very pleasant, however, and I immediately felt the urge to do some low flying.Apparently this is very thrilling in the prone position, though turns on to a given point are difficult to judge, because of shortageof upward visibility in a steeply banked turn. A Rate 1 turn in a Meteor requires some 45 deg angle of bank. "Flight" photograph The author ready to be strapped into position. We pushed on through the haze and up through a gap in theclouds and sailed out into open sunlight at about 5,000ft. I kept on climbing up to about 10,000ft, making a turn towards the west,and levelled off to get the feel of things. Apart from having to become accustomed to a new position of the horizon against thewindscreen there was no particularly strange sensation, but the feeling of wanting to press on head-first still prevailed and I waslonging for something to bounce—though from the tactical point of view, I was not happy about the lack of rearward visibility. Imade a few gentle turns and then tightened them up to about 4 g without any sign of blacking out. Here, however, the pressureof g, instead of being spread over the body and reduced as I had expected, acted equally at full force all the way down my frontand exerted considerable pressure at the base of the rib cage. Automatically I tried to look behind me as I turned, but thisrequired tremendous effort. I did not mind this at the time, as my back muscles are fairly strong, but the following day Isuffered considerable stiffness between the shoulders. It would take only practice to get used to this. Repeated turns at moderateg caused considerable discomfort from pressure on the upper body, but one is so used to such things in other aircraft that Ifeel I failed to readjust the bed to give the best relief in this case. I was taking a good deal of weight on the elbows and shoulders.The prone-pilot Meteor is however very manoeuvrable, particu- larly in roll, and it was pleasant to throw about, though I fearI gave little thought for S/L. Wambeek in the back seat. He was very patient. I next tried some rolls and found that the prone position feltmuch more natural in this plane of manoeuvre than the usual upright attitude. I suppose the medical men would disagree, butI did feel that one is much more liable to plain giddiness when prone and rolling fast like a corkscrew rather than upright andwhirling like a conker on a string. Throughout this flying the stick forces at the grip of the short control column felt slightlylighter than in a Meteor 8, but response was far better in the rolling plane. The general feel of the machine was very muchthe same as that of the day-fighter version, except that snaking, when it developed, was pronounced. I managed to counteract oneparticularly strong snake for some seconds before it took its own head—an unusual experience since it is normally best simplyto clamp feet on the rudder pedals and try to prevent the rudder from moving. At last, at about 20,000ft, I found the lone Meteor 8 which wasstooging in readiness to be attacked. He was well within my limited field of view and I made a gentle level quarter attack fromstarboard and broke off at about 300 yd. Turning away, I had no idea whether he was following me round; but when I was again ina position to see him he was still going straight on, and I made another gentle quarter attack from above. This time he pulledhis air brakes as I came in, but still he did not break and I left him to it and pulled away over the top of him. With the limitedvisibility of the prone position it is quite feasible to make such an attack on another aircraft, so long as it is always kept in front andnot lost to view above the windscreen bridge. I next made a Mach run up to 0.8 Mach at 20.000ft. The normalstrong nose-up trim-change set in at about 0.76 but could be held fairly comfortably with the powered elevator. There wasreally no difference between this and the Meteor 8 and I was getting used to having my neck bent back and not seeing toomuch. Pulling the air-brakes and throttling back gave plenty of deceleration, as always, but no odd sensations resulted. Fromthis run I went straight back to the stall, which came with s'ight burbling at about 115 kt. The Meteor's stall is completely straight-forward, neither wing nor nose dropping, so recovery again pro- duced no unusual sensations. Aerobatics were the obvious next step—and the most intrigu-ing trial of the prone position. Rolls I had already done and found more pleasant prone than otherwise, so I wondered what the loophad in store. I dived to 380 kt. This was a little faster than normal for a loop, because it would have been undesirable to riskrunning out of speed at the top (the aircraft had not been spun, so its characteristics with the long nose and restricted ruddermovement were not known). I made a normal pull-out at about 4 g, feeling the presure on the chest quite strongly, but with nosign of a black-out. In characteristic way the Meteor bored up and up and slowly over and down again. The normal height range ofa loop is about 5,000ft. The trick is to keep the horizon in sight in order to fly the aircraft accurately all the way round. In dieprone position I had my work cut out, peering sideways as I went up and straining backwards as I came over the top. Here, how-ever, I was able to make use of the window in the floor for the first and only time. Through it, as we went vertically upwards,
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