93 Sqn had slats on the leading edge of the wings (soft edges) and we maintained that condition the whole time, whereas 4 Sqn always had hard-edged wings.   On the 23rd August 1955 Ted Scott was killed on a pullout on an air to ground sortie at Meppen Range when it was thought that one of the slats stayed in during his hard pull out.   [See Aircraft Report]   Earlier on we had experience some sticking slats thought to be due to the wrong oil or grease being used on the slides.

Des Browne says that he experienced this incipient flick on a dive recovery from a rocket attack - a piece of clothing was found to be the culprit.   Foreign objects have also always been a bane to jet aircraft take-offs in box formation.   He also reports that the "hard" edge removed the uncertainty of 'slat-pop' which happened on one or more practices of his 93 Sqn formation aerobatic team.

Tom Balfour reports that he had an asymmetric slat problem.  He spun from 41,000 ft. down to 12,000 ft. with one slat in and the other out.  He recovered, short of breath, when the out slat came in.