climbed to over 20 thousand feet - much more than twice the height I had ever been before. It sounded, from within the cockpit, more like being on an electric train than being in any aircraft which I had flown previously. Fg.Off. Bennett shut down one engine and did some minor aerobatics before pointing out various useful features visible on the ground from that height. He re-lit the engine and handed control over to me. I was too timid for his liking and he told me so. This was the beginning of our incompatibility. He said I was not decisive enough at the controls and should be throwing the aircraft about. I thought his judgement unfair on what was my first jet flight, and told him so after we landed. It was not exactly the best way to start a flying course.
There was a lot to learn before going solo. Emergency procedures and cockpit drills and checks are essential knowledge before flying any type of aircraft new to a pilot. I was flying dual on Meteors and had to swot up everything there was to know about them, and the same for Vampires, because the first solo jet flights for any of us on the course were to be on these single-seaters.
I had nine dual flights on Meteors, five of which were with Fg.Off. Bennett, the rest were with two other instructors, probably because Fg.Off. Bennett didn't get on with me. I had no problems with the other instructors. I was checked out, on the last of these flights, by Flt.Lt. Greenfield as fit for my first solo. I had completed 5 hours 55 minutes. The longest flight was 45 minutes and the shortest just 25 minutes.
I had been trained on tail-wheel aircraft. Now I was flying tricycle undercarriage types, and found them much easier to taxi and land.
I had sat in a Vampire cockpit many times already so as to familiarise myself with the location of all controls and equipment which would be of use to me in flight. I rehearsed the drills and procedures until I could recite them parrot-fashion. However, there's nothing quite like sitting in your first single-seat jet aircraft knowing that you are actually going to start it up, taxi it, fly it, land it, return to dispersal, and shut it down - all on your own. On April 13th, 1953, I did just that.

A Vampire FB5. This aircraft was originally used by De Havilland when compiling the Pilots' Notes.
Although I never flew it at Merryfield, I flew it later at both Pembrey and Jever.

Engine start-up in a Vampire could be tricky until you got the hang of it. The fuel cocks had to be set just right and the start-up sequence demanded accurate timing; it was not automatic. I fluffed my first engine start. I got jet pipe resonance which indicated a wet start and at once shut down. The ground crew came over and climbed onto the tail to weigh it down, tipping the rear downwards so as to drain out the unburned fuel from the jet pipe. An instructor came across and the only thing he said to me was that a wet start was more dignified than a wet fart, and left me to try again. Knowing the probable state of students' stomachs when about to fly a first solo on a single-seat aircraft for the first time in their lives, this was neither as vulgar nor as irrelevant as it might seem, and especially in view of our having
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