{"id":82357,"date":"2018-10-19T13:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=82357"},"modified":"2018-10-18T19:29:34","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T23:29:34","slug":"weekend-open-thread-242","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=82357","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Open Thread"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, looks like it’s almost time to go on the road again. This one will be a short trip time-wise, though unlike the last this one was both expected and planned some time ago. <\/p>\n

So today\u2019s WOT will be a relatively short one as well \u2013 at least the part I\u2019m writing. (smile)<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s (hopefully) amusing and amazing aviation anecdote comes to you courtesy of longtime TAH reader and commenter GDContractor. Original attribution for the text is to an individual named Andy Rawson.<\/p>\n

The story which follows references a video link and a photo. The referenced video link can be found here<\/i><\/a>. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have a link to the precise photo referenced in the text below, nor do I have a copy of the photo. However, links to photos of the two trainer aircraft referenced have been inserted into that text. The text is otherwise as I received it.<\/p>\n

For those interested, here\u2019s a photo of the aircraft that’s the primary subject of this story, the English Electric Lightning F1:<\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n

“OK. Airplane story time! Link to a video in comments that tells the whole story. <\/p>\n

So once upon a time, there was a British aircraft maintainer (he was a civilian at the time but was RAF prior service), named Wing Commander Taffy Holden. He commanded a service and replacement group staffed by civilians that they wanted to close down, and they had one trouble. One sick English Electric Lightning F1. After they fixed it and sent it off, the unit was to be disbanded.<\/p>\n

So they got a test pilot, who hadn’t been able to help them during the time he was available, and there were no more available for at least a week.<\/p>\n

So WC Holden had a bright idea. He had served as an engineer, but had been through basic flight training during his service in WW2. He had trained on that biplane in the picture there. DH 82 Tiger Moth<\/i><\/a>, and the DHC 1 Chipmunk<\/i><\/a>, a monoplane trainer. Both of these are, how shall we say, safe, calm, forgiving aircraft. He’s a pilot. They only wanted to taxi the aircraft to run tests on the electrical systems, which is where the problem was. So they dragged this supersonic beast out to a closed runway, he hopped in, and had a quick briefing on how to start the engines and work the throttles, because he couldn’t figure out how to start a jet, never having flown one.<\/p>\n

Because he was only going to taxi 30 -40 yards, the canopy was removed, and Holden wasn’t wearing a helmet.<\/p>\n

So he cranks it up, gets ready, and opens the throttles. He has some trouble with the brakes, so the plane doesn’t move, so he cranked it up a bit more. All the way through the stop to “reheat”, which is gated to keep it in afterburner. At this point he is sitting in a rocket that can climb to altitude almost vertically.<\/p>\n

So he shoots off down this closed runway, misses a truck, crosses an active runway, also missing a DH Comet taking off, and starts to run out of tarmac. So he has to take off. Which the aircraft wants to do at this point. Once he’s past the ground hazards, he remembers how to disable the afterburners, but he has no helmet, no radio, and no canopy. Oh, and the ejection seat is still safed, so it doesn’t work either. On his third try, he manages to get it down, only breaking the box that holds the drogue chute because he landed it like a taildragger, He managed to get it stopped with 100yd of runway left.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, he isn’t charged or censured in any way, because the aircraft wasn’t seriously damaged. And he went from aircraft whose top speeds are like 120mph to one whose top speed was 1300+ MPH successfully with zero training.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

WC Holden was one lucky man, indeed. <\/p>\n

Enjoy the WOT, everyone. And have a great weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, looks like it’s almost time to go on the road again. This one will be … Weekend Open Thread<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,271],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-ygbsm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}