FEAT OF R.A.F. PILOT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 6

FEAT OF R.A.F. PILOT

IN DAMAGED PLANE

RUDDERLESSSHIP SAVED

An R.A.F. pilot who figured in a list of officers awarded the D.F.C. has just brought his Coastal Command plane and crew safely home after a three hours' crossing of the North Sea, with a broken rudder, said the "Manchester Guardian" on February 27. The aircraft was on a reconnaissance patrol towards the coast' of Norway when its tail was damaged in a fight with a Dornier. A bullet wrecked the hinge of one of the .double rudders as the British aircraft was diving to attack the Dornier close to the sea. The flapping rudder made the aircraft almost uncontrollable, and the pilot pulled out of the dive only a few feet above water. Limping away he would have made a good target, but the Dornier had taken its own share of punishment and flew off, badly damaged. After the:fight the British pilot was! unable to keep his machine flying straight. It vibrated violently fromj end to end and developed a corkscrew motion. He pulled open the emergency hatch above his head and the navigator and wireless operator opened the cabin door. All three had their parachutes and life jackets ready, but they j kept flying. Steering by varying the revolutions of the two engines and by manipulating the ailerons and remaining halfrudder, the pilot coaxed his aircraft back towards his base on the east coast. Soon it was dark. The aircraft ran . into a thunderstorm that made navigation impossible, but the crew flew on in the blackness. POSITION LEARNED. The pilot decided that the chances of making a safe landing were so small as to be negligible, and prepared the crew to "bail out" by parachute as soon as they saw they were over land. After nearly two hours, the wireless operator, who had been unable to establish contact with the base, succeeded in doing so. He asked the aircraft's position, and in a few moments the answer came back. The crew were astonished to learn they were over the Irish Sea, half-way; between the Cumberland coast and the, Isle of Man. They had flown across Northern England in the blackout without seeing land. With the wireless again in operation, they were guided back to the east coast. At the aerodrome anxious comrades) were waiting. They expected the crew to jump and allow the aircraft to crash. At last the aeroplane appeared above the flare path that had been prepared in case the pilot should attempt to land. He came lower, and the watchers saw the wildly kicking tail jumping in the light of the flares. The aircraft came in crabwise, touched down on the aerodrome, and straightened up. When the damaged tail was inspected it was found that, in addition to the broken hinge, a fracture had: started across the main tail plane and had crept two-thirds of the way across. This flight was a tribute to the quality of British aircraft and the fly-1 ing capacity of the crew—and. inci-i ! dentally, to the efficiency of the black-! (out in Northern England. I