Page 129 - Demo

127but Wittering was almost directly ahead, so I decided to aim for there, and attempted to restore some power. The throttle was fully forward at maximum boost, but I still had the propeller lever to play with, and discovered that 2400 rpm gave the smoothest running, although I was still losing height.Time to make a decision! Could I reach the runway at Wittering or, if not, was a forced landing in open country possible? To my left was Burghley Park, where preparations were well under way for the Three Day Event with people, horses and marquees everywhere while, to my right, was undulating land with small fields. That was it then, I had to make the airfield.In the cockpit, I made preparations for a crash landing on the airfield, by sliding back the canopy, locking it into position, and tightening my straps as I had never done before. The engine was still giving bursts of power as I changed radio channel to call Wittering Tower, but I was concentrating on flying at exactly the right speed to maximize my distance, and initially misdialled one of the numbers. When finally on frequency, I learned that I would have a slight tailwind and, as I started the 60 degree turn onto the runway centreline, I was becoming increasingly optimistic that a normal, wheels-down landing was possible. In common with the Spitfire, the Hurricane%u2019s undercarriage selector is on the right-hand side of the cockpit, which necessitates changing hands on the control column, and I had just done this when the right wing dropped without any warning. I had accidentally stalled the aircraft.I had a definite impression that I was still 50-100 feet above the runway, and therefore decided that I was a dead man, and how sad it was that my life should end in this way. So, under the circumstances, I simply relaxed and thought of my wife and children. I suddenly realised that I had crashed. I felt a crack on my head, and was aware that the aircraft was sliding along the runway, as I could see sparks through a transparent panel in the floor that was normally used to see if the undercarriage had locked down.