Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 25, 2018 10:58:08 GMT 12
Here in New Zealand it is a reasonably well known piece of history that Squadron Leader Dave Allan who was the Commanding Officer of the Flying Instructor's School at RNZAF Station Mangere fell out of a Tiger Moth during a training session on the 12th of March 1940, and fell to his death. This was an extremely sad event as Dave Allan was one of New Zealand's best known and most admired pilots. He was the Ray Hanna of his day (in fact I'd not be all all surprised if Ray had seen Dave's displays when he was a kid!). He had been the CFI of Auckland Aero Club and every weekend he performed aerobatic displays either at Mangere or elsewhere around NZ to raise interest in flying. He was renowned for his low level flying and his aerobatics.
On the sad occasion of his death Dave was giving instruction to young pilot Guy Newton (who went on to become an ace in the Pacific and only died a few weeks ago, aged 100). Guy was told t perform a loop and after completing it he found his instructor was no longer behind him. He landed safely and a search was mounted but Dave had not had time to use his parachute and was killed on impact. This incident sparked an inquiry that concluded that the joystick that Guy was moving had unhooked Dave's seat belt harness, and he'd simply dropped out of the plane due to the loop being a fairly slow manoeuvre. Privately I have been told that Dave actually was known to never actually fly with his harness done up, but who knows. The Court of Inquiry's findings set in place a modification to all Tiger Moth harnesses, supposedly throughout the world, to prevent this happening again.
So i was surprised to find it did indeed happen again! This time in Australia. I found this article in The Press newspaper (Christchurch, New Zealand) dated the 8th of October 1940. I wonder who this pilot was, and what happened to him later in his career.
PUPIL FALLS OUT OF AEROPLANE
MACHINE LANDED BY INSTRUCTOR
DESCENT TO SAFETY BY PARACHUTE
A Royal Australian Air Force officer fell out of his aeroplane while flying upside down near Sydney, but made a safe landing by parachute (writes the Sydney correspondent of ‘‘The Press" ). An instructor who accompanied him landed the machine.
The pilot and the instructor were practising aerobatics. The safety clip on the pilot’s harness pulled loose when the machine was flying upside down after a slow roll. Unaware that his pupil had fallen out, the instructor turned after admonishing him for a bad roll, and discovered the cockpit behind him empty. He straightened up the machine, and looked over the side, to see his pupil floating towards the earth on an open parachute.
"‘That’s my favourite parachute. It s worth its weight in gold, but I hope it’s a long time before I have to use it again.” declared the officer, as he displayed the equipment which saved his life. ‘I certainly had an effective initiation to parachute jumping but I’m still wondering how the thing opened. We were at a height of about 4000 feet. I did a left-hand roll and a right-hand roll, and then the instructor took over. We started a roll. I felt myself slip a bit. but thought the belt would pull me back. I then realised that I was still slipping. I grabbed for anything and everything, but got nothing, and the next thing I remember I was floating in mid-air."
“Just for a few seconds I didn’t know quite what had happened, or where I was, until the aeroplane zoomed around in front of me. The instructor waved, I blew him a kiss, and then I started to think of all I had been taught about parachutes. It was two years since I had had a ground lesson with parachutes, and as we are not given any jumping in our course of instruction, I was suddenly faced I with the problem of applying as quickly as possible, my knowledge."
“I had a good look round at the countryside, and I had a nasty feeling when I found that there was nothing but tall trees everywhere below, I had visions of being suspended from a tree-top. I sighted a small clear patch in the midst of the jungle, and by spilling air out of the parachute. I coupled with a terrible lot of good I luck. I gradually floated down towards the patch. I just sat tight and I waited, waving now and again to my instructor, who cruised round me as I floated down. I landed on my back, but I was able to regain my feet almost immediately. It was a lucky break."
On the sad occasion of his death Dave was giving instruction to young pilot Guy Newton (who went on to become an ace in the Pacific and only died a few weeks ago, aged 100). Guy was told t perform a loop and after completing it he found his instructor was no longer behind him. He landed safely and a search was mounted but Dave had not had time to use his parachute and was killed on impact. This incident sparked an inquiry that concluded that the joystick that Guy was moving had unhooked Dave's seat belt harness, and he'd simply dropped out of the plane due to the loop being a fairly slow manoeuvre. Privately I have been told that Dave actually was known to never actually fly with his harness done up, but who knows. The Court of Inquiry's findings set in place a modification to all Tiger Moth harnesses, supposedly throughout the world, to prevent this happening again.
So i was surprised to find it did indeed happen again! This time in Australia. I found this article in The Press newspaper (Christchurch, New Zealand) dated the 8th of October 1940. I wonder who this pilot was, and what happened to him later in his career.
PUPIL FALLS OUT OF AEROPLANE
MACHINE LANDED BY INSTRUCTOR
DESCENT TO SAFETY BY PARACHUTE
A Royal Australian Air Force officer fell out of his aeroplane while flying upside down near Sydney, but made a safe landing by parachute (writes the Sydney correspondent of ‘‘The Press" ). An instructor who accompanied him landed the machine.
The pilot and the instructor were practising aerobatics. The safety clip on the pilot’s harness pulled loose when the machine was flying upside down after a slow roll. Unaware that his pupil had fallen out, the instructor turned after admonishing him for a bad roll, and discovered the cockpit behind him empty. He straightened up the machine, and looked over the side, to see his pupil floating towards the earth on an open parachute.
"‘That’s my favourite parachute. It s worth its weight in gold, but I hope it’s a long time before I have to use it again.” declared the officer, as he displayed the equipment which saved his life. ‘I certainly had an effective initiation to parachute jumping but I’m still wondering how the thing opened. We were at a height of about 4000 feet. I did a left-hand roll and a right-hand roll, and then the instructor took over. We started a roll. I felt myself slip a bit. but thought the belt would pull me back. I then realised that I was still slipping. I grabbed for anything and everything, but got nothing, and the next thing I remember I was floating in mid-air."
“Just for a few seconds I didn’t know quite what had happened, or where I was, until the aeroplane zoomed around in front of me. The instructor waved, I blew him a kiss, and then I started to think of all I had been taught about parachutes. It was two years since I had had a ground lesson with parachutes, and as we are not given any jumping in our course of instruction, I was suddenly faced I with the problem of applying as quickly as possible, my knowledge."
“I had a good look round at the countryside, and I had a nasty feeling when I found that there was nothing but tall trees everywhere below, I had visions of being suspended from a tree-top. I sighted a small clear patch in the midst of the jungle, and by spilling air out of the parachute. I coupled with a terrible lot of good I luck. I gradually floated down towards the patch. I just sat tight and I waited, waving now and again to my instructor, who cruised round me as I floated down. I landed on my back, but I was able to regain my feet almost immediately. It was a lucky break."