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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1167.PDF
SIMULATING HUNTER EMERGENCIES FLIGHT, 29 July 1960 143 "Double-lift" rescue procedure, used when the occupant of a dinghy is injured and has to be raised by a crewman, being demonstrated to members of an HSE course by a Whirlwind crew of No 22 (ASR) Sqn exact meaning of all the cockpit connections and "strappery."The simulator course, therefore, did not strictly come within our sphere of study (it was referred to in some detail after ourprevious visit to No 229 OCU, in the April 15 article); but never- theless I had the opportunity of a sortie in one of the simulators,which are products of the Air Trainers Link Division of General Precision Systems. Not being a Hunter pilot, I could not compareit with the actual machine; but the experience of flying it was quite stimulating: I felt a sense of power which was lacking in the oldtype of Link Trainer. Most of the time I spent chasing my instruments, owing to unfamiliarity with the Hunter's speeds. During the sortie I tried the effect of powered-control failure,and found all my strength was needed to move the control column. The exercise I did was a straightforward take-off, climb, cruise,descent and landing; and I earned at least a negative compliment from the instructor when he commented that not everybodymanaged to get the aircraft safely back on to the ground! There seems to be a proper sense of realism about these simulators, and(as was mentioned in the previous article) every type of emergency —operational or mechanical or pilot-induced—can be tried. Nine simulator exercises are carried out during the course, asfollows: (1) familiarization (i.e. cockpit checks, general handling, QGH); (2) cross-country; (3) cross-country at maximum range,including a diversion; (4) QGHs using the DME homing needle and ranges only; (5) concentrated emergency sortie (about twentyemergencies in 45min); (6) and (7) instrument rating tests, with emphasis on emergencies (normally fed in at inopportune RAF Chivenor Reaches Its Hundredth Course By HUMPHREY WYNN •FLIGHT" PHOTOGRAPHS RECENT successful ejections from RAF fighter aircraft haveunderlined how important it is for crews to be familiar with« emergency procedures. In Exercise Yeoman, during May, two Javelin pilots and two navigators lived to fly again after theirmachines had collided at 40,000ft; and a few weeks earlier Fg Off John Cleaver of No 43 Sqn survived ejection off Cyprus. He had taken the Hunter simulator and emergencies (HSE)course at RAF Chivenor, Devon, and after his Mediterranean rescue sent a letter to those who run it expressing gratitude for theinstruction he had received. While at Chivenor he had set up a record time—15isec—for inflating and entering a dinghy at sea. A large number of Hunter pilots have taken the HSE course, andwith No 100 due to stan on August 8 this seems an appropriate time to describe the extent and style of instruction given, Flighthaving recently been able to participate in one of the courses. This visit stemmed from an earlier one Ian Macdonald and Ipaid to Chivenor (Flight, April 15) to see the workings of No 229 OCU, which trains all the RAF day intercepter pilots. We feltthen that if we were to fly as passengers in high-performance air- craft, where seconds count in an emergency, we should becomereasonably familiar with the equipment we were to operate; and I also considered the HSE course merited a feature on its own.There were four pilots on the course we joined, three of them from Hunter squadrons: Sqn Ldr L. W. Phipps, who commandsNo 19 Sqn; Fit Lt J. E. Vickery of No 65 Sqn and Fg Off P. D. Blockey of No 54 Sqn. The fourth member of the course,Fit Lt I. H. Laurie, came from the Ferry Wing at Benson. At 8 o'clock on the Monday morning work started with abriefing by Sqn Ldr B. Byrne, who is OC simulator section. Like the other eight instructors in his section, the squadron leader isan experienced Hunter pilot; and like all the other tutors at No 229 OCU he wears his magisterial authority with good-humouredstyle: teaching at Chivenor is informal and friendly. Sqn Ldr Byrne gave an initial warning about over-controllingthe simulator, a fault which he finds everyone is prone to on their first experience. He emphasized that pilots are responsible fortheir own navigation from the 2nd sortie onwards, and warned about the "rapid deterioration of weather" which may occurduring exercises. He also said that it was possible to bale out, the simulators being fitted with a combined hood and seat eiection.Each sortie lasts lhr 40min, made up of 20 minutes' briefing, an hour's flying and 20 minutes' de-briefing. The intention of Macdonald and myself in going to the HSEcourse was to study the use of emergency equipment, the ejection seat and lifejacket in particular, so that when flying in Serviceaircraft (a pleasurably frequent occurrence) we would know what to do in the event of an emergency; we would also know the What the well-dressed fighter pilot wears, and the equipment he can use to assist survival, displayed in one of the Chivenor lecture-rooms moments); (8) control interceptions; and (9) IR test (as Exs 6 and7, clearing up points where the pilot has made mistakes). Macdonald and I began our real study with the "emergencies"part of the course, thirteen one-hour periods in the five-day syllabus being devoted to the proper use of emergency equipment,plus dinghy drill. Two instructors are in charge of this section of the HSE course,Fit Lts Brian Bart and John Firth. At the time of our visit, Fit Lt Firth had only just arrived at Chivenor and sat in on thelectures, which were given—with an attractive compound of clarity, wit and sound commonsense—by Fit Lt Batt.Batt dealt first with rescue and survival equipment, detailing the aids carried in the Mk 4 lifejacket as (a) SARAH; (b) helio-graph; (c) ground/air emergency code; (d) McMurdo light; (e) whistle; and (f) sea dye marker. On each of these he gave usefulinformation. SARAH, which has an endurance of about 20hr, can be used either on sea or land; but its ranges vary in thesecontexts. From 15,000ft the sea range is 75 nautical miles, land range 45 n.m.; from 10,000ft, 65 and 35; and from 5,000ft, 45 and15 n.m. Comprising a battery, transmitter and hand microphone (the latter to be sparingly used), and aerial, SARAH can beextracted entirely from its nesting-places on the lifejacket; in fact
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