The Start Of It All
April 5 1965 – Jet Provost Mk3 XM 416.
My Royal Air Force flying instructor, Pete A. was not so sure. I’d had several flying training flights totalling 14 hours already but a lack of confidence (mine – and his in me) meant my first solo flight had been delayed. So all of my flights had been with an instructor.
In 1965, towards the end of the cold war, but with other regional conflicts the RAF was still very busy training pilots. With several training airfields, the failure rate of trainee pilots was low but not uncommon and, from time to time, accidents did occur.
This day, we flew from our base, RAF Church Fenton, to a satellite training airfield, RAF Elvington also in Yorkshire, and flew a few more circuits in order to practice landings.
Elvington had been a wartime Halifax bomber airfield, possessing a very long runway but, by 1965 it was little used. On April 5th the weather was perfect, cold with a light wind. The aircraft was a Jet Provost – a small two seater (side-by-side) RAF training aircraft with a jet engine.
After the fourth circuit and landing we taxied back to the take-off point. Pete, my instructor, gave me instruction on flying the next circuit without him. Just before he got out of the cockpit he told me sternly – “Fly just one circuit and landing and taxi back to this point. Remember, if anything BUT ANYTHING goes wrong – EJECT!!”
Outcome – I flew the circuit and landed without a major problem and continued through flying training. Just a few months later, on my 21st birthday, I found myself in a old Tiger Moth aircraft at Fairoaks grass airfield “upside down, nothing on the clock except for the makers name. And that was Smiths”.
Published: 16 June 2015