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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1282.PDF
384 Development and Demonstration means that helicopter test-flying is more likely to be affected byadverse weather.) Sear considers that the biggest strain is on a pilot's ears. As far as the recruitment of appropriately qualifiednew pilots is concerned, he would prefer to have "users," that is those with helicopter experience on RAF or Fleet Air Arm squad-rons. Most of the test-flying at Yeovil, which is a grass airfield on thewestern edge of the town, is done to the south—where Ham Hill memorial serves as a useful landmark—so as to keep clear of thejet aircraft traffic of Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, a few miles to the north. The Navy is one of Westland's best customers, but it will not beshowing off any of its Commando or anti-submarine helicopters at this year's Farnborough display; instead, after a Sabbatical year,the Senior Service is putting in the mighty roar of Scimitars with an aerobatic team, and the combined roar of Scimitars, Sea Vixens andGannets in a fly-past by the carrier group from HMS Hermes in the Channel. 800 Sqn, who are providing the Scimitar aerobatics, are nostrangers to demonstration flying: it was this squadron which in 1958 put on such a colourful and attractive show in their red SeaHawks. Since then, of course, the squadron personnel has changed completely: two of the former members are at RNAS Lossiemouth,where 800 have been working-up for Farnborough, one as an instructor and the other with the Buccaneer intensive flying trialsunit. The present CO is Lt Cdr D. P. ("Danny") Norman, an ex- Boscombe Down test pilot, who has done a splendid job in buildingup a team whose members had had no previous formation-aerobatic experience. The squadron came out of Ark Royal on March 31, and by thetime modifications had been carried out on their aircraft and per- sonnel had had a fortnight's leave, had only five weeks to work upfor the Paris Salon. Norman started with a pair of Scimitars doing aerobatics: himself and the Senior Pilot, Lt Cdr John Ford, whohad had Sea Hawk aerobatic experience, or Lt G. A. I. Johnston, a very experienced ex-RAF pilot. By the time of Paris, Norman hada 4 + 1 4- two spares team; and as those who were there know, they put on a brilliant show. One of Norman's display maxims is that"you should always try to do something the other fellow can't do" (vide Beamont and Bedford): hence, a slow flypast with arresterhook down is a natural gimmick for Navy pilots. Another is that there should be something happening all the time: hence, a "single-ton" to fill in the gaps while the formation enters its next manoeuvre. Norman believes that any squadron pilots can do formation aero-batics: the only difference between the better pilots and the average citizens is that the former learn more quickly. A speciality of 800Sqn is its use of red, white and blue smoke, the only drawback being that "it's very noticeable when it doesn't work" and the right colour FLIGHT, 7 September 1961 fails to appear in the right place. This is something mechanicaland chemical; as far as the personal matters of training and tech- nique are concerned, 800 have done everything possible. "Theimportant thing," says their CO, who looks remarkably like Alec Guinness and briefs his pilots with an actor's wit and aplomb, "is todo some formation aerobatics every day. At the end of a sortie, call up, say 'where are you?' then link up for some aeros beforelanding." There is, not unnaturally, a link between the Royal Navy andRolls-Royce because the former are users of R-R Avons; but it has been intensified recently by the secondment to the R-R flight devel-opment centre at Hucknall of a Scimitar squadron pilot, Lt P. J. Lovick. Lovick is on six months' secondment; at the end of that time hemay become a permanent Rolls-Royce test pilot, one of the team headed by A. J. Heyworth. His deputy is H. C. Rogers (likeHey worth, a wartime bomber pilot with a distinguished record): he specializes in turboprop engines, while Heyworth has VTO andSpey engines as his special responsibility. The other pilots, with their types, are J. A. Jackson (military Avons and Types), A. C.Bavin (VTO, civil Avons and Conways), M. C. Muir (military Conways and Darts), D. Whitham (military Avons) and P. J.Lovick (Naval Avons and helicopters). There are also four flight engineers, headed by the chief flight engineer, J. E. Butcher.Members of his team are S. G. Ratcliffe, R. Painting and G. F. Hill. To carry out development work, Rolls-Royce have a variedcollection of aircraft at Hucknall: a Dart-engined Ambassador; Ashton carrying a Conway; Dart-powered Dakota, which has beenhigher (36,000ft) than a Dakota probably has ever been before; Tyne Elizabethan; RA.24R-powered Javelin; Tyne Lincoln;Lightning; Meteor with downward-thrusting RB.108; Conway Victor and Spey Vulcan. Jim Heyworth is quick to emphasize the importance of versa-tility: the engine pilot must be able to fly at least five different types of aircraft; but the aircraft itself is not important, what matters isthe powerplant and associated systems. Rolls-Royce are continually "putting new wine in old bottles"; Hucknall aircraft are alwaysover-powered, are taken up higher than they were intended to be: there is commonly a lot of asymmetric flying "to absorb the powerin the airframe." Work at the Hucknall flight test development centre, as far as thepilots and observers are concerned, is being carried out on three or four fronts continuously: there is development and enduranceflying; noise-suppression tests; the lift-engine programme; tropical trials; icing tests; visits to airlines all over the world using Rolls-Royce engines—"one of the few companies which meets in the cockpit." On their side, the Hucknall pilots learn a great deal fromvisits abroad, seeing at first hand the conditions under which their engines are operated. Hucknall airfield itself is cleared for aircraft and pilots used tooperating to ICAO standards; it has line-and-bar approach lighting Meteor VZ608, with an RB. /08 engine mounted below it, on the Hucknall runway
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