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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 26, 2006 8:58:42 GMT 12
According to adf.serials Vampire FB..52 NZ5721...
"Crashed near Rongotea after engine fire while carrying out aerobatics and destroyed 15 December 1958."
Does anyone know the details of this crash? Was it in a team? Was it a public display? A practice?
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Post by phil82 on Dec 26, 2006 10:03:53 GMT 12
I think you'll find Dave, that the pilot was named Bevan, and it wasn't his first bale-out!
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Post by Dave Homewood on Dec 26, 2006 10:40:18 GMT 12
Cheers Colin. Any other facts?
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Post by phil82 on Dec 26, 2006 16:27:09 GMT 12
His name was Peter Bevan, and I seem to recall he had a second bail-out but can't remember the circumstance. It may have been an ejection, but the when and where have slipped off my hard-drive!
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Post by camtech on May 17, 2009 14:22:56 GMT 12
Just checking some old threads and you are right Colin; Pete bevan did eject a second time, this from a leased Canberra WF915 in Malaysia. Apparently became disoriented in cloud and went into a spin. Bevan got out, but his navigator didn't (Fg Off Finn, I believe) date was 27 October 1961
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furd
Flight Lieutenant
Posts: 71
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Post by furd on May 18, 2009 16:42:17 GMT 12
WF915 was one of approx 10 B2 Canberra's operated by 75 Sqn RNZAF based at RAF Tengah during the Malayan Emergency. As a ground crew member of the Sqn during that period I often dispatched Pete Bevan and Dave Finn's aircraft. It was standard proceedure for ground crew to assist both pilot and nav to strap in. Dave Finn would quite often not fully strap into his ejection seat on departure and it is believed that when aircraft control was lost at night in CB activity he was not able to eject due to spin G forces. I believe that when his body was found in the wreckage he was not fully harnessed to the seat. Sadly Pete Bevan passed away several years ago.
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 18, 2009 18:23:17 GMT 12
Thanks for that info chaps.
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Post by avenger on May 25, 2009 15:22:47 GMT 12
I am not sure this was Peter Bevan's prang, maybe the pilot was Mike Airey?
Around this time Mike was on the way back to OH when he had a fire warning, apparently with no available extinguisher a bail out is standard practice?
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Post by camtech on May 26, 2009 11:22:16 GMT 12
Looking back at some old records, I think you are right. Pete Bevan, I believe, baled out of NZ5706, along with Sqn Ldr Jamieson, after the aircraft failed to recover from a spin and crashedsouth of Marton. The T55 Vampires did not have the ejection seat fitted to the later T11 model.
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Post by FlyNavy on May 26, 2009 11:56:55 GMT 12
avenger, to my recollection your question about 'bailout due to fire' would be true. There was no Vampire fire extinguisher so apart from shutting off fuel flow to engine there was nothing to be done, except maybe glide fast if possible to put out a fire. Then again likely the fire intensity might increase with extra airspeed, so it was an ejection situation. However there were many checks to ensure that there was a real fire because false fire warning lights in the T11 were fairly common anyway due to moisture contamination I think. I guess situation was similar in T55?
Had a fire warning light in a Sea Venom which turned out to be a cracked burner can. However this was not known in the air. Did an 'engine at idle' fast return to NAS Nowra because I was nearby with plenty of altitude. Checking for other indications there were none while the tower was not seeing smoke; so the 'practice forced landing' went OK to then shutdown on runway to be towed off RW. I got a ride back in the ATC jeep. Did not have to walk back like some who had shutdown the A4G engine by going past the idle detent during landing. OOPS!
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Post by camtech on May 26, 2009 17:42:15 GMT 12
Found the newspaper report, which confirms Pete Bevan's departure from 5706:
TWO BALE OUT FROM JET OUT OF CONTROL
WELLINGTON, December 16.
Two Royal New Zealand Air Force jet pilots, an instructor and a pupil, parachuted to safety near Ohakea this morning after they struggled to free themselves from a jet aircraft which was plunging to earth out of control.
The instructor, Squadron-Leader David Ewan Jamieson, aged 27, and his pupil, Pilot Officer Peter Granville Bevan, aged 22, were in a twin-seater Vampire jet from the R.N.Z.A.F. station at Ohakea. At 9.55 a.m., during aerobatics at 28,000 feet, south of Marton, the aircraft went into an uncontrollable spin which became more violent as the Vampire plunged earthwards.
The instructor jettisoned the canopy and told his pupil to bale out. The pupil managed to get himself half out of the fighter, but air pressure and the centrifugal force of the spin pinned him there, unable to jump clear..
The instructor managed to bump the aircraft sufficiently to shoot the pupil pilot clear. Then the instructor stood on the seat and, kicking the control column with one foot, also shot himself clear.
As Pilot-Officer Bevan was forced clear of the spinning aircraft, his right shoulder struck a portion of it, breaking his collarbone. This left him with scarcely sufficient strength to pull the rip-cord of his parachute, but with a desperate second attempt he succeeded.
Both men landed safely, 200 yards from each other, on the banks of the Rangitikei river. about five miles from Ohakea. The aircraft crashed into the flooded Rangitikei two miles upstream. leaving only the tail portion above water.
An R.N.Z.A.F. officer, praising the cool courage of Squadron Leader Jamieson, said it must have taken great nerve to remain at the controls and free his pupil before bailing out himself.
The aircraft did not have the standard ejector seats. Some other two-seater Vampires at Ohakea have them, and the conversion of the others is under way.
Squadron-Leader Jamieson was born at Shirley, Christchurch, and educated. at the Christchurch Boys' High School and New Plymouth Boys' High School. He was a member of the Air Training Corps, and in April, 1949. joined the RNZAF. He was commissioned at the end of his pilot training, and after a flying instructor's course at Wigram, was posted to exchange duties with the Royal Air Force in Britain and Europe as a fighter pilot. He returned to New Zealand last year and has been a jet fighter instructor since. He was married in Australia In July.
Pilot Officer Bevan was born in London and came to New Zealand with his parents when he was seven years old. He was educated at Nelson College where he was a prefect and a warrant officer in the Air Training Corps squadron at the college. He joined the R.N.Z.A.F. in 1954 as a cadet pilot and was later selected to attend the R.A.F. College at Cranwell. He returned to New Zealand in April this year after completing the three-year course at Cranwell. He was at Wigram from June to September and is at present on a fighter conversion course at Ohakea.
Christchurch Press 19 December 1957
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Post by Dave Homewood on May 26, 2009 18:51:24 GMT 12
That is an incredible story of escape. Thanks for that Les. I hope Sqn Ldr Jamieson got an award for staying with the aircraft till he got his pupil out. What a hero.
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Post by FlyNavy on May 26, 2009 20:03:50 GMT 12
The RAAF and RAN Vampire trainers were absolutely forbidden to spin. We were taught to be very careful near any stall to NOT SPIN or INCIPIENT SPIN. Fuel in the wings would rupture their containing bladders to go to the wingtips to prevent spin recovery during any Vampire spin. But at least we had ejection seats. Always going to be very difficult to egress from a jet aircraft without ejection seats - so MUCHOS KUDOS to the pair involved! Bravo Muchachos. ;D
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