Page 304 - Demo
P. 304


                                    300had done at Linton had been and how much it had helped on the CSRO course.In April, we started a new course again with a number of F & C students. The 13th of May did not start too well for me and went downhill after that. I was programmed for the early brief, but my car would not start. I tried bump starting it on our little hill but with no luck, and so I left it in the road, grabbed Gabby%u2019s car key and said I would take her car. I suggested Geoff Wood would be able to start mine for her to get to work. I made the briefing, but my student was not there. Luckily a secondary student of mine had unlocked the Squadron that morning and so was working on the desk. His next sortie was a pre-ride for a progress check and so he knew exactly what was required and so needed minimum briefing. He was Dode Dahroug. He was English although hisfather was Egyptian who owned an off licence in Kent. I had never flown with him but had read all his reports and so was up to speed on his progress. I told him I would take him on the pre-ride now and he found someone else to man the desk. The first part of the sortie was a climb to height for him to demonstrate that he could both enter and recover from a spin. We went and checked our aircraft which had been snagged for propellor vibration the trip before. The engineers claimed to have fixed it so no problem. I have copied out what I wrote that night and so you will find it a bit disjointed. The bits not in italics are later explanations.There was some vibration as we climbed up for the spin but not enough to cause concern. I intended to snag the aircraft once I landed but would suggest that it was aircrew accept until the end of the day. Dode entered the spin normally. On the first turn he relaxed on the rudder a shade but then put it full on again. He counted the turns calling 3 turns after about 2.5. On the last turn the spin started to get oscillatory and I was being thrown from side to side in the cockpit. This is not at all unusual although it is rather uncomforta-
                                
   298   299   300   301   302   303   304   305   306   307   308