A little aeronautical diversion for the interested.....

Some of you might have looked at the rather impressive video of Colin the 747 Captain (yes, Colin. All rumours about his dress code must be scotched now) and his last flight in a Lightning fighter jet that was mentioned in an earlier blog entry. For sad old characters like the captain, the lightning was the star of the RAF Coltishall air displays when they climbed pretty much vertically off the runway with lots of noise and afterburner.

It always looked like an airframe just wrapped around the two engines - twice the speed of sound but a very limited time in the air as it had little room for fuel on board. A real "Cold war warrior" - built to intercept Russian bombers, For younger folks, or the non UK readers, Wikipedia Lightning entry gives you a flavour:

The cockpit is a real 1960's throwback and looks less impressive than a modern big Nordhavn!

So, have another look at the video of Colin having fun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S7Mj33jhek , then read his description of the flight below. Most revealing:

Glad you enjoyed my last Lightning flight; I enjoyed it at the time too! It is at Warton, near Preston. I was a civilian at the time having left the Air Force the previous year. I was working in the production test department and got to fly quite a few aeroplanes but obviously chose the Frightning for my last flight. It weighed about 2000lbs less than the knackered ex-RAF ones we had there and had very few hours on the airframe so it wasn’t bent. Also, it was silver, the way God intended Lightnings to be and the apprentices polished it every week so it went like the proverbial off a shovel! The Air Force ones were so knackered that it was difficult to get them above M1.8 but this factory ship got to about M2.2 and was still going when I chickened out! You don’t realise the thrust required to push through the air at that speed until you close the throttles and your eyeballs pop out a bit as you are seemingly thrust forward as the aeroplane decelerates violently.

In the video, we measured the initial pull up at 8 feet which was possibly why the jet blast knocked the camera man over. The push down to achieve that was a bit abrupt but you cannot see the little aerial I had to clear first! Sadly, the climb was without reheat as I was already on minimum landing fuel as I had to hold off for a short time to allow someone to finish some work in the circuit testing a new aeroplane so the climb wasn’t as punchy as it could have been. Was nearly vertical though! The fast run is just subsonic, around 700mph, or just over 600kts. That is about 20-30ft and is quite exhilarating as your brain cannot process the peripheral vision input at that height so you start to get tunnel vision as the brain dumps the side bits.

I do miss it! You can assure everyone that I fly my 747 strictly by the book!

For Louise - I know this isn't going to help your fear of flying much. Sorry. It is probably a bloke thing....