The 0700 morning rush at ABZ....

[FD2]

There are so many stories about fixed wing exploits from those days that make our 'chopper puke' (as they called us) experiences pale. The ultimate 'cool guy' story I remember was a Vixen getting a 'cold' shot' from a catapult one day and dropping rapidly to just above sea level, like an ekranoplan, he continued for about a mile before he gained sufficient airspeed to climb. 'OK God, I have control now' came through on the radio. A Rhodesian, Lyn Middleton, actually went under a carrier twice after similar experiences in Sea Venoms. Later, he was captain of Hermes during the Falklands War.

Having mentioned the fixed wing and rotary wing rivalry there are many rotary experiences that made the plank drivers gape.

[Cacophonix]

There are so many stories about fixed wing exploits from those days that make our 'chopper puke' (as they called us) experiences pale. The ultimate 'cool guy' story I remember was a Vixen getting a 'cold' shot' from a catapult one day and dropping rapidly to just above sea level, like an ekranoplan, he continued for about a mile before he gained sufficient airspeed to climb. 'OK God, I have control now' came through on the radio. A Rhodesian, Lyn Middleton, actually went under a carrier twice after similar experiences in Sea Venoms. Later, he was captain of Hermes during the Falklands War.

Having mentioned the fixed wing and rotary wing rivalry there are many rotary experiences that made the plank drivers gape.

I guess many rotary pilots had been fixed wing pilots at one time and vice versa. One correction in your piece above (I couldn't let this one go on the basis of South African chauvinism ). Linley Middleton was South African... he was an old boy at one of my best friend's school and remembered and esteemed there.

Linley Eric Middleton was born in East London, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, on August 17 1929 into a family which had settled in the early 19th century . After attending Dale College, King William’s Town, he did national service in the South African Army, then transferred to the South African Air Force, with which he learned to fly. In 1952 he joined the Fleet Air Arm.

Over the next 11 years he served in the carriers Indefatigable, Centaur, Bulwark, Eagle, Victorious and Ark Royal, with a brief break in the frigate Mounts Bay to qualify for his bridge watch keeping ticket.

Middleton displayed great personal bravery during the course of 1956 when, flying Sea Hawk jet fighter-bombers in 897 Naval Air Squadron from Eagle, he almost drowned on three occasions. On July 7 his Sea Hawk suffered an engine failure while in inverted flight over the Mediterranean; he bailed out and was rescued by helicopter. On August 4 his Sea Hawk caught fire as he was being launched from the deck of Eagle, and, too low to eject, he had to ditch . Then, on October 12, his Sea Hawk fell into the sea after the catapult had failed as he was taking off. On the last two occasions the aircraft quickly sank, but Middleton had the presence of mind to stay in the cockpit until the ship had run over him, releasing the cockpit hood only when he could see that he was in the ship’s wake. As he bobbed to the surface on the first occasion, however, he looked certain to be run down by the rescue destroyer — but its bow wave pushed him aside. After the second ditching, he was unconscious by the time the rescue helicopter landed him on to the flight deck and he was resuscitated by the ship’s doctor.

None of these misadventures discouraged him, and during his career he flew 2,643 hours and made 455 deck landings and 342 catapult launches. The many types he piloted included the Sea Fury ground-attack fighter; the Sea Hawk jet, on ground attack missions during Suez; the Scimitar day-fighter; and the Buccaneer low-level bomber.

In 1964-65 he taught young officers at Dartmouth to fly the Tiger Moth biplane, and in 1966-67 he commanded 809 Naval Air Squadron in Hermes, when the ship was still equipped to fly fixed-wing aircraft.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituar ... leton.html

Caco

[FD2]

Beg pardon about Middleton - mea culpa - I did meet him once but I was very junior and much in awe!

Quite a few pilots have gone from rotary to fixed wing - they were an attractive commodity to the airlines. Not many went the other way as it wasn't exactly a glamorous life and there weren't many hosties serving nice meals in the cockpit and entertaining us in exotic parts. We did very occasionally got a hot meal from a rig or platform, in a foil dish/tray and it could be gobbled on the way back or re-heated back at base, assuming there wasn't a rotors running turn around. The worst meal during an evening shuttle was the large stale roll with raw onion and grated orange cheese no butter. The cheese went all over the cockpit to the annoyance of the engineers and the onion made our breath smeel to the annoyance of our wives. Yum yum. The offshore camp bosses budgets were for the number of people that were on the platform for the night and we weren't, so no grub.

[Cacophonix]

Beg pardon about Middleton - mea culpa - I did meet him once but I was very junior and much in awe!

No mea's or culpas needed!

Caco

[CharlieOneSix]

Sad to say but my recollection is that as MD of British International Helicopters he was not well liked by the troops.

[Cacophonix]

Sad to say but my recollection is that as MD of British International Helicopters he was not well liked by the troops.

I guess senior military folks take a certain set of expectations with them when they go into management in civie life and find the impact they have may not be quite what they expect! Not always the case I know but it wouldn't be the first time a good militatry commander made for a bad board member!

Of course, it might just been another case of the old "Never met a nice South African" syndrome.

Edited to say I cannot imagine working for Robert Maxwell was that easy either.

Caco

[CharlieOneSix]

You hit it in one Caco - even relatively junior military officers found adjusting to civvie life difficult when they joined us direct from the Services. I've seen it so many times in the helicopter world where someone comes in and finds not everyone jumps to their demands and that we did things differently to when we were in the military!

.....Quite a few pilots have gone from rotary to fixed wing - they were an attractive commodity to the airlines.....

A little story.... in 2006 I organised our annual Squadron reunion of Wessex aircrew and their partners - that year it was 40 years since we disbanded. This time it was a short cruise on the Oriana. One night after dinner we were all done up in our DJ's posing on an ornate staircase for a group photo of the menfolk.

We were getting heckled in a pleasant way by some very happy ladies who asked in loud voices who we were. We replied that it was a reunion of pilots. A voice from the ladies shouted out "You'll be telling us next that you're Concorde pilots". At that point we pushed forward Dick B and said that no, none of us were except this one.

From a 90kt Wessex to a Mach 2 Concorde Captain - what a career! Sadly three in that photo have now passed on - our numbers are rapidly getting smaller every year.

815Oriana2006.jpg (204.42 KiB) Viewed 677 times

[Cacophonix]

"You'll be telling us next that you're Concorde pilots". At that point we pushed forward Dick B and said that no, none of us were except this one.

From a 90kt Wessex to a Mach 2 Concorde Captain - what a career!

I get the impression that if you could fly a helicopter or an aircraft to the standard required of the British Navy then you could probably fly anything you turned your head to. What a distinguished, amiable set of rogues you chaps looked like! No wonder the ladies were impressed.

Talking of ladies and pilots, I was privleged to meet the Red Arrows at a trade day at the Farnborough Airshow with my better half two shows ago. She was enornously inpressed by them and their damned uniforms and still gushes about the experience to this day, much to my chagrin. Whenever she goes on about how absolutely bloody wonderful they all were I note, "but I am a pilot too" and she just gives me a withering glance and says, yes, but you are not "a Red Arrow". There's no answering that one I guess!

Caco

[FD2]

Caco

Middleton joined the company after I'd left and as CharlieOneSix says he was not well liked - exactly for one of the reasons you thought. I was told that he wanted to address everybody to give them a bollocking and mend their slovenly ways or something similar. In the Navy he would have ordered a 'clear lower deck' which everyone in the ship apart from those on watch had to attend - and was hopping mad when told that he couldn't just order people into work as they were civilians and not subject to the Naval Discipline Act! We had a clear lower deck in Cherbourg in Hermes c1976 when a lot of the 'lads' had misbehaved ashore.

We had been swanning around Arctic Norway for months in winter and we should have gone to Portsmouth first so they could let off steam - the French were upset at them being naughty in a French port, naturally. It was administered in amazing fashion by our captain, Derek Reffell, who spoke without hesitation for about 5 minutes but left no one in any doubt about what he expected from them. I think he was governor of Gibraltar after he left the Royal Navy - a really first class man.

There's something in my remaining grey matter which tells me Middleton was put in as MD by the white whale Maxwell to sharpen up the company, in which task he was frustrated, while Maxwell played fast and loose with the company pension funds to prop up other companies in his group. Several old chums believed Maxwell's hype about doubling the value of their pensions and lost very badly. There was never any suspicion that Middleton knew what Maxwell was doing - I think that knowledge was restricted to Maxwell's family only.

The Red Arrows made many ladies swoon and it was nice that the RAF had a dedicated aerobatic team. The Navy relied on using squadron aircraft and volunteers who would be willing to do the airshow rounds in the summer. Simon's Sircus, led by Simon Idiens was a Sea Vixen display team and there were quite a few more. Kristin Scott Thomas' father was a Vixen pilot and died in a crash. She was re-married another naval aviator and he also died in a crash.

[Cacophonix]

Digressing again: Talking of Sea Vixens I was sorry to see the last airworthy aircraft of that type was damaged after an under carriage failure last year.

Following the Sea Vixen’s successful display closing the show at Duxford Air Show, upon her return the Sea Vixen suffered an under carriage failure and Pilot Cdr Simon Hargreaves performed a highly controlled wheels up text book landing at RNAS Yeovilton showing first class airmanship.

Simon’s calm professionalism and outstanding flying skills, in a situation that demanded the utmost courage and control, minimised damage to a rare and nationally important heritage jet. The aircraft has been safely recovered from the runway and assessors will now carry out an inspection of the damage. The Trust would like to thank all its supporters and well wishers for their donations and support.

The charity will make every effort to get the Sea Vixen repaired and back in the air as soon as possible. If subsequently the assessors feel that the damage may be beyond repair, monies donated to the Sea Vixen Appeal will be used to support other historic naval aircraft in the Navy Wings collection.

https://www.navywings.org.uk/support-us ... peal-2017/

I do hope they get the aircraft into an airworthy state again.

It is sad that the Sea Vixen will always be remembered for the awful accident at the 1952 Farnborough airshow that killed John Derry, his observer Tony Richards and 29 spectators. I saw the Navywings aircraft (noted above) displayed in 2015 and it certainly looked an agile and rather beautiful aircraft that seemed to beg to be flown. Hopefully it will be again.

Caco

[FD2]

Here's a link to the display team theme:

https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthr ... play-teams

I also seem to remember a Seahawk team when I was little which had Ace of Diamonds cards painted on them.

In my haste to grab breakfast I didn't make it very clear - it was Kristin Scott Thomas' mother who re-married another naval pilot, who was himself killed in a flying accident 6 years later.

Sorry for the rambling thread drift C16.

[CharlieOneSix]

I think one of the beauties about this forum is no-one minds about the drift.

[Cacophonix]

I think one of the beauties about this forum is no-one minds about the drift.

I agree and thanks for your good sense of humour about it CharlieOneSix. Twas me that instigated the current deviation from straight and level flight as well as heading!

Caco