Lightning from the Cockpit by Peter Caygill

Author:Peter Caygill
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781594285
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2012-11-30T05:00:00+00:00

It was subsequently discovered that the starboard ‘pip-pin’ that retained the nosewheel door strut had become detached and during the retraction sequence had penetrated the inner surface of the rear door, forming a lock across the shimmy damper assembly. A spot check carried out on all other Lightning aircraft in service found four with the pins partially withdrawn. For his calm and professional handling of the emergency, Dave Jones was awarded a Green Endorsement in his logbook. He was not the last to be confronted with a two-wheeled landing, Flg Off Ian MacFadyen successfully landed F.1 XM144 at Coltishall on 29 September 1964, and F.2 XN783 landed in similar fashion at Leconfield on 16 November 1965.

Two accidents occurred on Lightning T.4s because of imperfections in the casting of undercarriage legs, the most dramatic being XM993 of the Lightning Conversion Squadron (LCS) at Middleton St George on 12 December 1962. Shortly after touchdown Flt Lt Al Turley, and his student, Wg Cdr Charles Gibbs, became aware that the port wing was beginning to drop. Suspecting that a tyre had burst, and with the aircraft veering towards the edge of the runway, Turley applied full starboard rudder and brake in an attempt to keep the Lightning straight, but it soon became apparent that the port undercarriage had collapsed. Before coming to rest, the aircraft slewed 90 degrees to port and then rolled to starboard, breaking its fuselage as it did so. Although fire broke out, both pilots escaped unhurt. (Turley was involved in another emergency on 24 August 1966, when he was forced to eject from F.3 XP760 over the North Sea following an engine fire.) Although not of the same magnitude, a similar incident occurred at Binbrook on 22 January 1963, when XM973 of AFDS suffered a collapsed starboard undercarriage leg when lining up for take-off.

There were also problems with the undercarriage side-stay brackets on Lightning F.1s, which caused the demise of two development-batch aircraft, XG311 and XG335. English Electric test pilot Don Knight ejected from the former over the Ribble Estuary on 31 July 1963, and Sqn Ldr A.J. Whittaker abandoned XG335 over the Larkhill ranges in Wiltshire on 11 January 1965.

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