Three days later I had another solo flight lasting 30 minutes. The break between flights was a little unsettling but any nervousness disappeared as soon as I had strapped myself in the cockpit.
Meteors were known to be a bit tricky, and we were aware that quite a few had been falling out of the sky in an undignified manner.8 I lost several friends from previous courses who were killed when flying them. We were thankful that we were being trained on Vampires.
The next flight was booked 'dual' with Fg.Off. Bennett. On taxying out to the runway a fire warning light came on for the starboard engine. I spotted it and was already taking action before he spotted a flare of flame coming from its jet pipe. Both engines were shut down immediately and the on-board fire extinguisher system doused the fire. Fg.Off. Bennett had the canopy hinged back in an instant while I was doing all this. I took all the actions while he was slow to react, even though, as first pilot, he was technically in charge, but I was in control at the time. He called the Tower, told them what had happened, and a tow vehicle came and pulled us back to dispersal while we sat out on the edge of the cockpit ready to jump down if anything started to fry up again. We were greeted by the usual crowd that gathers when something serious, or potentially serious, goes wrong. Friend Bennett modified his attitude towards me after that.
I have to say that I was never quite happy in a Meteor. I disliked the heavy tilting cockpit canopy, I found the sliding throttles very awkward, and I always felt that the aircraft was fighting its way through the air rather than sliding through it. Later in the course, when I flew Vampire T11s I found the side-by-side seating extremely uncomfortable. I hated sitting with my shoulders pressed close to someone else's. I never ever enjoyed flying dual on these types but I had to do it.
The first part of the course dealt with enhancing our knowledge of jet flying, high altitude handling, and speed runs during which we experienced the effects of compressibility leading to eventual loss of control.9 During the middle part of the course there was more solo than dual flying. At this stage we were practising aerobatics (spinning was forbidden because of the risk of flame-outs) and formation flying. Aerobatics were effortless compared with doing them in a piston-engined aircraft; there was so much more power available. Upward Charlies, hesitation rolls, and Derry turns were a piece of cake. The drawback was that we rapidly found that we could easily black out in a steep turn or when pulling out of a dive. I must have greyed out or blacked out dozens of times through pulling too much 'G'. Later in my career there was hardly a flight when that didn't happen. The required skill was to be able to pull as much 'G' as possible without blacking out.
As the course progressed there was an amount of concentration on low flying. If it was fun at slow speeds it was downright hairy in a jet. Everything came up so fast and navigation at that height became more difficult as a result. During the third week of May I did one low-level cross-country with Fg.Off. Bennett in a Meteor and then two Vampire solo runs. These lasted 40 and 45 minutes, each over Exmoor. Exhilarating as they were, they were also very tiring. Flocks of birds were the biggest danger.
I have already mentioned going to Cosford for hay fever tests when I was at Wellesbourne. The outcome of these was that I was to have regular desensitisation injections of increasing strength over a period of some weeks. These injections were still taking place while I was at Merryfield. I had just started the final series of the highest strength. I had been to Sick Quarters on a Saturday afternoon, so as to avoid
____________________________________
8 Many years later it was acknowledged that the pilot training in Meteors was very sub-standard. As a result many accidents, aircraft losses, and deaths, were due to consequential pilot error. Reliability was lacking too.
9 A Vampire would 'break' at about Mach .83. That is, it became totally uncontrollable. Control was quickly regained on slowing down a few knots. 41