Page 207 - Demo

203and so eventually I just slept in someone%u2019s room who was away for a couple of days. I flew a Warrior back solo in formation with Steve. When we got back, I had a nose wheel red and so we did what we would have done at home in that Steve looked and saw it was down and then read out the checks to me. That should have included winding the undercarriage down with a handle stowed in the cockpit somewhere, but we missed that bit. When I turned into land on short finals there was a rumbling noise and the nosewheel locked down. A bit of a lucky break for me. It turned out that the electric motor had overheated but it had cooled enough while we were orbiting and so finished the job.The hierarchy of the Zimbabwe Air force were having a political battle with the Government over the Russian trained pilots. The Government wanted them to go straight on to the Hunters but the Air Force thought them incompetent. As a way out of the impasse, they realised that Steve and I were both CFS Examiners and so could give a world-renowned report on the poor lads. We were both very much against this as it would clearly be very political and could well result in us getting thrown out of the country. We were however, eventually persuaded that we could do it and so gathered the two chaps and briefed them on what they would be asked to do. We explained that we knew they had never flown the SF260 but we would only be looking at basic flying proficiency. We would do various checks if required but they would just have to demonstrate various turns, some aerobatics and what to do if the engine failed for example. I took off with my student and directed himto our general handling area where he did some manoeuvres. After a bit I explained that I would put the aircraft in some unusual positions, and he just had to get it straight and level again. We started gently but then I gave him control in about an 80 degree nose up position. Clearly, he had never seen anything like that and did not know what to do. He just sat there looking very confused. The aircraft then stalled and entered a spin. He just sat there holding the controls gently. To my surprise the