FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1964
1964 - 2202.PDF
FLIGHT International, 6 August 1964 217 THE target was a pile of cans perched near the cliff edge, in thecentre of a 40yd square marked by corner stones. Evenfrom 3,500ft we could see how the soil was churned up inside and around the square, contrasting with the rough, yellowing- green grass which carpeted the range. Nearing the downwind end of the range pattern, flying at 300kt, we rolled round and inward to make another simulated rocket attack. Briefly the ground came over the top of the canopy and then we were diving, the target rushing up toward us, the a.s.i. rapidly swinging round past 35Okt. The pilot began recovery; the heavy hand of g pressed us to our seats. My borrowed bonedome seemed to exert an extra crush. The target disappeared underneath the nose, the cliff and narrow beach flashed past and we were climbing again out to sea. We made such runs several times, the last one a simulated air-to- ground gunnery attack, flown lower, shallower and faster. Earlier we had stood off and watched or followed at a prudent distance two single-seat Hunter FGA.9s as they made rocket attacks over the Cowden range on the Yorkshire coast. Several times they had made their 25° dives, firing 3in rockets which snapped away, smoke-puff-trailing, to kick up spurts of earth 1,000yd away in little more than a second. Each dive was followed by a rapid, 7g pull-out near the safety height of 800ft, a steep climb back to 3,500ft, a turn downwind and another circuit of the range. Following them in a Hunter T.7, Fit Lt Farooq Khan, a Pakistan Air Force pilot just completing a two-year exchange posting with 54 Sqn, RAF, treated me more gently; as I was not wearing a g-suit he did not pull more than 4g. Eventually the single seaters, of 1 Sqn, which comprises the other half of the West Raynham wing, streaked off for home and after our dummy runs we followed them. It was a dull but calm day; nothing broke the placid surface of the sea but a few fishing boats, withies marking lines of lobster pots and an inbound freighter heading for the Humber mouth. Withernsea flashed past, domin- ated by the lighthouse which rises from the centre of the town. We came down to 40ft off the sea at 35Okt for a few moments; Spurn Head curving away to the right. "This is why I should not like to be a commercial pilot," Fit Lt Khan remarked, "I should not be able to do this." We settled back to 250ft for the run over the sea to the North Norfolk coast, flying through some turbulence and a rain squall on the way. Climbing to 1,500ft to cross the coast we called up West Raynham for a GCA. Condensation from the cabin airducts wreathed the THE ARMY'S CLOSE SUPPORTERS Hunter Ground-attack Element of the Strategic Reserve BY ROBERT R. RODWELL 'Flight International" photographs "Arrowhead," a formation often employed for low-level cross-country flying by the Hunter FGA.9 squadrons. Here, four Nines of I Sqn cross the tracks at about 2S0ft in the area of the Norfolk Broads, West Raynham's local low-flying area
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
