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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0943.PDF
FLIGHT International, 14 June 1962 941 ohr; IF, 30hr; night flying (which also includes night navigation), Xhx. GAF aircrew who go to Landsberg—third stream in the training pattern—do 160hr or 200hr on Fouga CM.170 Magisters, and in having so delightful an aeroplane to fly may count themselves fortunate, though having only flown L-18s, Do27s or Piaggios previously they perhaps do not appreciate it as much as they might. From the experience of a couple of sorties at Landsberg, albeit not to be compared with 160 or 200 hours, the writer may express some personal feelings. The first of these sorties was with Sqn Ldr Lofting, and consisted of general handling, aerobatics, the stall sequence and landing procedures; the second sortie was with Fit Lt E. Simmons and consisted largely of formation flying with two other Magisters posing for photographer Ian Macdonald. It is only when one gets into a Magister that one realizes how small an aircraft it is, in the sense of being low on the ground (though in contrast with its slender cigar of a fuselage it has a wingspan of 40ft): height of the cockpit coaming above ground level is not more than 4ft. This is because of the low undercarriage, which in turn means that on landing one has to get used to flying the aircraft "into the deck." But that's the finish of the story; the beginning was fairly simple, with no complications to the strapping-in procedure as there are no ejection seats, and starting the Turbomeca Marbores being done by Lofting in the front cockpit, which has the engine switches. One of the most difficult things about the Magister, for the uninitiated, is taxying: sitting in the back seat, there is the unusual- ness of "looking through the pilot's head" via the periscopic sight; while without a steerable nosewheel, and keeping the engine r.p.m. to 10,000, the difficulty is to keep straight while going along a rather narrow taxi way at what seems to be a smart pace. Inevitably one checks with one brake, then the other, and so on, describing an unhappy zig-zag. At one point in the perimeter track there was an appreciable dip, down one side of which we seemed to speed haplessly; fortunately, the rise opposite has a compensating effect, and we reached the holding point safely. Here the runway controller held us for about three minutes, though it seemed longer to the 'student" in the back, pushing forward on his toe-brakes (the parking brake is in the front cockpit); but once we were on the runway and opening up, this temporary discomfiture was forgotten. Doing a back-seat take-off, one looks through the periscope; but ; or two loops, facing south, the clarity of the atmosphere made one feel one
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