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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0348.PDF
348 FLIGHT, 30 March 1956 HANDLING THE PRONE-PILOT METEOR . . . I could see the horizon and adjust the course of the climb. Themain feature of the loop was the restriction of visibility and the absence of any tendency to black out, despite starting at 380 ktat about 15,000ft. A roll off the top was next, and for this I gathered a full 410 kt at 14,000ft. Half way up I glanced at theg meter and saw the maximum-reading needle at 6 g with no sign of black-out; 6 g is the maximum permitted on this aircraft.Over the top S/L. Wambeek told me when we were level, and I rolled out without difficulty. Finally I rolled over and held the aircraft inverted for someseconds. My weight was taken on the straps at shoulders, waist and thigh and I began to feel a trifle unpleasantly divorced fromthe machine. Instead of having my head sticking out from under the top of a cockpit, so to speak, I felt rather that the wholemachine was poised above me. It suggested a smoother version of the Cossack trick of riding under the belly of a horse. I was now beginning to feel some pain from cold in the feet,and was not a little tired from applying g on an unhardened chest; we had in any case been airborne for some 30 min andwanted to try some roller landings; so we made a controlled descent through a thin cloud layer. With dive brakes out andat 11,000 r.p.m. the Meteor goes downhill quite sharply at about 5,000 ft/min. Lying down the sensations are no more markedthan when sitting up, and consist mainly of a loud popping of ears if the tubes are not quite clear. A small part of the descentwas on instruments and there was no trouble there, but I would reserve an opinion on prone instrument-flight until I had recoveredfrom some unusual attitudes, done a good deal of flying on primary instruments and successfully repeated the obnoxious"twizzle" (precision climbing turn on instruments). We joined circuit on the runway QDM and turned for a longdown-wind leg. Flap was lowered one-third at 200 kt and air- brake retracted and wheels lowered at 175 kt as per routine. Icould just see the runway from the downwind by craning, but as soon as I began the turn-in for a curved approach it was com-pletely lost from view. It appeared again when we were on finals about 50 deg off the QDM and going down at 150 kt with fullflap. I had been warned to allow for restricted rudder, directional characteristics and high weight by keeping 10-15 kt more over thehedge than usual, but overdid it a little and spent the first roller floating gaily down two-thirds of the runway before opening upand getting my stomach clear of it again. It was difficult to judge the aircraft's attitude in the final part of the approach and theheight of round-out was strange. It felt as if we were diving quite steeply down and I could see a great deal more of thearea just short of the runway than is normally the case. For the second roller I was advised to try a straight final approach,but here the point of the final turn was hard to judge, because PRONE TO PHOTOGRAPHY TN the opening paragraphs of the preceding article mention is••- made of the first Farnborough venture in prone piloting— the conversion of the Reid and Sigrist Desford trainer by theinstallation of a special control position in the extreme nose. By an odd coincidence, as that particular page was going topress, the Desford cropped up again after nodiing had been heard of it for several years. It has been acquired from the Air Ministryby Air Couriers, Ltd., who had realized that with its generous "glasshouse" nose and lively performance (something like 166m.p.h. cruising, 176 m.p.h. top, when Gipsy Major 10s have replaced the two Gipsy Major Is) it would make a thoroughlyuseful photographic aeroplane. Designed and built towards the end of the war by Reid andSigrist, the instrument firm, the Desford trainer embodied experi- ence which the company had obtained from operating five flyingtraining schools. Towards the end of 1951, the Ministry of Supply released a photograph (Flight, November 23rd, 1951) showing theDesford with its new transparent nose, adding the guarded infor- mation that it was "being used for experimental flying with aprone-pilot position." A recent photograph of the Desford at Croydon. "Flight" photograph The bed occupies a very prominent position in the cockpit. All controls and instruments are ahead of it in the space under the windscreen bridge. The striped handle is the "prepare to escape" lever. The chin-rest is covered in white chamois leather and the narrow trough down the centre of the couch accommodates the parachute-harness release box. The two shoulder-straps are laid out on the bed. of the difficulty of seeing sideways. But this time we madea normal touch-down and rolled some way before going round. The final landing was normal and judgement had settled downto cope with the unusual attitude on the approach. I held the nosewheel up after touchdown until the regulation lowering speedof about 70 kt. There was a slightly odd sensation as the nose finally came right down. I had to concentrate on the rudderpedals during braking, but turning off and taxying were easy enough. One feels much more irretrievably "landed" after slowingdown in the prone position, and is inclined to settle gratefully into the cushions, only to be alerted again for taxying withthe curious rudder pedal arrangement. I was thankful for the hand-operated brake valve—toe brakes would have needed themind of a conjuror who can do things behind his back, or of someone who could work a harmonium. Those rudder pedalsmight prove much more difficult if they really had to be used in the air; but, fortunately, they can be left more or less alone. When, in dispersal, the static line and harness had been undone,I clambered down the step-ladder and assumed once more an upright position. My feet were quite numb with cold and myribs felt a little sore, but considering that we had pulled a fair amount of g I was feeling quite fresh. S/L. Wambeek, who hadmade the flight in the upright position, felt the fatigue which is normally caused by a flight of this kind. I am not sure whetherI would prefer to be tired or sore; but I should dearly love to get into the prone-pilot Meteor again and go low flying. DECCA DISCUSSEDT HREE papers, under the general heading of Developments ofthe Decca Navigator System, were given at the Institute of Navigation meeting held at the Royal Geographical Society,Kensington, on March 21st. The first, Experiences with Decca on Viscount Operations in Europe, was presented by a senior pilotof B.E.A.'s Viscount Flight, Capt. E. R. Wright; the second (The Development of Dectra as a Long-range Navigational Aid) wasby Mr. H. G. Hawker, of the Decca Navigator Company; and the third was also by a member of that company, Mr. J. G. Adam,and was entitled Developments in Decca for Helicopter Operations. (In Mr. Adam's absence Mr. G. Hinchliffe read his paper.) Speaking of the Decca system from the viewpoint of the prac-tical pilot, Capt. Wright took his hearers on a simulated flight over France and Germany with the help of illustrations takenfrom an actual Flight Log chart. He emphasized that, once a pilot was accustomed to its operation, the system was essentiallysimple to use, adding that ground-speed checks facilitated by the Flight Log made an accurate E.T.A. very easy to predict. Mr. Hawker discussed the development and projected trials ofDectra, the company's new long-range system intended for use as an aid for jet transport aircraft on transatlantic routes. Afterdescribing the principles of Dectra the lecturer went on to con- sider the predicted performance and arrangements for the trials.. Mr. Hinchliffe (Decca Navigator Co.) then read Mr. Adam'spaper. The author, after reviewing the particular characteristics that made the Decca Navigator especially suitable for helicopteroperation—for example, low-altitude coverage and pictorial pre- sentation—referred to the accuracy requirements specified by theI.A.T.A. meeting on helicopter operations early in 1955, with par- ticular reference to the problem of accurate tracking. It couldbe shown that over practically the whole of the British Isles the system as it stood had the required degree of accuracy. The meeting was under the chairmanship of Capt. A. M. A.Majendie. We hope to report the papers and the subsequent ;• discussion more fully in our next issue.
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