AMAZING FEAT

Opotiki News, 15 October 1940, Page 1

AMAZING FEAT

PILOT’S LANDING PLANES JAMMED TOGETHER THRILLING NARRATIVE T~ A graphic account of his unprecedented feat in making a successful landing with his plane jammed on top of another machine has been given by Pilot L. G. Fuller. The machines had collided in midair 1000 feet above Brocklesby, near Corowa, and had become locked firmly together. The planes were returning from a training school. Pilot Fuller was in charge of one with an observer named I. N. Sinclair, and Pilot J. Hewston was in charge of the other with an observer named J. N. Frazer. A Grinding Crash “The accident happened so quickly that I hardly had time to register it,” said Pilot Fuller. “The two planes seemed to come together, mine on top, and there was a grinding crash and bang-bang-bang as the roaring propellers struck each other and bit into engine cowlings. It was a terrific bump, and I’d have been tossed right out of my seat and away from the controls if I hadn’t had my safety belt on. “When the first shock had passed I found the planes still flying, in a sort of way, and 1 thought I might have just a chance to get them down in one piece. I thought if I gave up and bailed out they’cl crash in Brocklesby and probably kill several people. So I decided to give it a go. I knew I had a slight chance. “I didn’t want my observer, lan Sinclair, to be killed, too, if I missed out and crashed, so I ordered him to jump. He yelled: “What about you?’ and threw me a parachute, but I said: ‘No, I’m staying on. Get • going 1’ lan got going, and I gave my attention to trying to keep the two planes steady. l,t wag some job, as she, or, rather, they, were flying as sluggishly as they could, “My port engine stopped, immediately the collision occurrred, as the propeller had sunk into the engine cowling of the other plane, but my starboard motor was just ticking over. Both engines of the lower plain were turning over at a good bat, and it was these engines that kept the locked machines in the air while I flew the freak combination by the controls of the top plane only. “I looked over the side of my cabin and saw the top of the cabin of the other bus was crushed in. 1 got worried then about Hewston, the other pilot, but suddenly I saw him, injured, crawling out of the wrecked cabin to bale out. I was terribly, relieved, so I leant out and gave him the ‘injun’ sign for good luck—held up my hand, touching the tips of the forefinger and thumb. “Then Hewston slipped away, and I went back to flying the planes. They were lumping along like a brick, or a couple of bricks. Then things started to get worse. The revolutions of the two motors on the lower plane, which were keeping me up, started to fall off, and they became harder to handle. I looked about for a, landing field, and saw a likely paddock away iu front of me. I tried to make that, but the engines were getting weaker and weaker, and then I knew I wouldn’t make it. . “Then I sighted another paddock —nearer —and decided to make for that. With, my heart in my mouth I tried a right-hand turn, and the locked planes lumbered slowly round. I made a leftrhand turn to approach the paddock, t'he engines were hardly going, so I cut <ny switches. At 500 ft. the motors of the low plane were just idling. “Glided Like an Elephant” “The joined planes glided in like an elephant, and I worked out how I’d land. They were sinking so fast I knew I’d have to level off for the landing sooner than usual. When I tried to pull the stick back for that, it was so difficult I just about had to stand up on the rudder bar, and heave back with all my might. They glided in, and, about 10ft. or 20ft up, stalled for the landing. It wasn’t a pancake. Though the wheels were up, they protruded below on the bottom side just suftici-

ontly to run along the surface. “There was surprisingly LUle bump and the planes must have run about 200yds., almost a normal landing run. They veered to the loft, but I had no chance of stopping that. Then I hopped out; I just heaved a huge sigh of relief, and it was a very large sigh, I can tell you.” Fuller said that, during the whole incident, he did not think of the danger. “I knew it was there, but I didn’t dare let myself think ot it, he declared. Asked if he would do it again, Fuller said, “Yes, m the same circumstances, I d tiy it again. Apart from saving lives below, it’s worth a/ chance to save two valuable planes.”