was a moment or two before the throttled-back engine powered up with the aircraft still heading steeply downwards. It came very close to the ground before control was regained and level flight resumed. As luck would have it that particular Oxford was one that could maintain height on one engine and make its way back for an emergency landing on the airfield. Flt.Lt. Oliver was the instructor and he told us afterwards that he came to within 200 feet of crashing into the nearby Ministry of Agriculture Research Station greenhouses. As was usual in such cases both instructor and student took to the air again almost immediately afterwards so that there would be no chance of them losing their nerve.
Again viewed from the Flight hut were two other occurrences, one humorous yet damaging, the other more serious. It was usual (downright necessary) to wear a greatcoat or other official protective clothing when outdoors during the winter. With the engines of several aircraft running at the same time on the dispersal hardstanding a good lookout had to be maintained if out there on foot. In these circumstances it was possible to be unaware of another aircraft approaching. This being so, we watched an Airman walking along the taxiway who, it was obvious, had not noticed an aircraft approaching from behind. He was off to one side of its path but not far enough. As a result, and by pure misfortune, the pitot head of the plane caught in his greatcoat collar and effectively dragged him along by the scruff of the neck for several yards before he disentangled himself. Too late, the damage was done and the pitot head was bent back out of position. Said Erk quickly found himself on a fizzer and was charged with damaging one of Her Majesty's aircraft. The other instance occurred in similar circumstances. An Airman, confused by the noise, actually walked through a rotating propellor and came out the other side unscathed. We wondered if he would ever know but an Airwoman also saw it happen, screamed, and fainted on the spot. This drew the Airman's attention to what he had just done, whereupon he too fainted and had to be carried off to Sick Quarters. We never heard what happened to either of them but neither were seen again.
As an adjunct to proper instrument flying we also had to do several hours simulated IF in Link Trainers. These machines were equipped with a small cockpit in which were full flying controls and a full instrument panel. They were mounted on a swivel so that banking, climbing, diving and, to a lesser extent, yawing could be emulated and felt by the 'pilot' inside. Sitting inside one of these machines with the lid closed was a fairly good, but very unsophisticated, representation of being at an aircraft's controls. There was a system whereby the instructor, who sat in the room alongside the machine, could inject turbulence and simulate emergencies so that trainees' responses and reactions could be monitored. We used Link Trainers to practise the flight patterns we were expected to fly in our instrument rating exams. These patterns were recorded by a mechanical crab which left a trace on a map on the instructor's table and showed the accuracy of our flying. None of us liked Link Trainers, we always preferred the real thing, but they certainly had their uses when the weather was clamped in. It was possible to feel quite disoriented on climbing out after an hour's session. I spent a total of 16 hours on Link Trainers in 22 sessions.
I don't think any of us particularly enjoyed night flying but, nonetheless, we had to learn and practise it. When doing circuits and bumps it was usual to taxi to the end of the runway (or at an intersection) and turn right to use the taxiway on the far side of the airfield to arrive back at the take-off point for another go. The taxiways were well marked with coloured lights and that part of the exercise wasn't difficult. The trouble was that if the runway in use was one of the shorter runways, as opposed to the main runway, there was a wooded hill ahead topped with a red hazard light. It was often said that many of us, in these circumstances, if we got 33