AMAZING ESCAPE FROM DEATH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19626, 21 October 1933, Page 18

AMAZING ESCAPE FROM DEATH

BRITISH AIRMANS THRILLING EXPERIENCE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON. September 12. Plight. Lieut. C. S. Staniland, test pilot and racing motor car driver, had an amazing escape from death when he was making special research spinning trials with a secret type of aeroplane near Colnbrook. Middlesex, ves- : terday. Spinning trials form part of the routine work in the testing of new British aeroplanes and these trials are first done by the manufacturers and are repeated by the official test pilots of the Air Ministry's experimental stations. The result is that no military aeroplane, that is placed on the market by a British firm can ever have any serious flying "vices." Its behaviour under all conditions of flight has been investigated by highly skilled test pilots. Often considerable risks must be taken by these pilots when some novel feature is being tried out or. as in this instance, special research work is being done: but they develop special faculties for dealing with emergencies and the high quality of the aeroplanes they test is due in large measure to their coolness and judgment. But it is doubtful if, in the whole history of flying, any test pilot has had such an anxious moment as Flight Lieut. Staniland. He was performing their special research spinning trials at about 7,000 feet when a flat spin developed with high rate of rotation. For some time he endeavoured to extricate the machine but without success. Finally he decided that the time had come when he must jump with his parachute. The aeroplane was spinning to the right and. after quickly thinking the matter out. he decided to jump over the left side of the fuselage in ; order to fall clear of the machine. He therefore jumped to the left. Hurled Back into Cockpit. Owing to the direction and speed of rotation of the aeroplane, however. Flight Lieut. Staniland was immediately hurled back into the rear cockpit of the machine. Fortunately he had not begun to pull the rip cord of his parachute, so that the canopy was still in the pack. The rear cockpit of this particular machine is deep and he found difficulty hi getting up on to hi-; feet as a result of the high centrifugal loads. But eventually he struggled to his feet and climbed out of the machine for the second time. Through all these experiences he remained perfectly cool and was able to guess the cause of his being thrown back into the machine. He reasoned that he must this time jump over the other side and tills he succeeded in i doing, the machine still spinning flat i and rapidly. He fell clear but wait- ■ ed to ensure that there was no risk of his parachute fouling the aeroplane. The aeroplane passed within a few feet of him as he fell and he pulled . the rip cord. Immediately afterwards * he saw the machine only a few feet below him. While he had been pulling the cord the aeroplane must have passed behind him. falling at a higher speed than he had thought. He landed safely near Colnbrook and his aeroplane crashed in a disused gravel pit about two miles away. An Aerobatics Expert. Flight Lieut. Staniland Is a pilot with a remarkable record. He is not only a fine pilot but also a brilliant racing motor car and motor bicycle driver. He has won many events ! both on road and track and less than j two weeks ago during the Ulster T.T. ' motor car race he set up new class lap j records in a six-cylinder car. In 1928 he was selected to be a member of the I British Schneider Trophy team. Hi, | skill at aerobatics is universally acI knowledged and he has provided the j chief attraction at air meetings all over j the country with his displays in one of the fast Fairey “Firefly” single-seater * fighters. In this machine he will take off and immediately, almost so soon as the wheels have left the ground, he will start a slow roll, climbing all the time j and ending the manoeuvre with a 1 comfortable margin of height. His F j inverted zoom, in which he turns the i “Firefly” on to its back as it is shooting skyways and holds it still in the j attitude of a steep climb, is also specI tacular. But perhaps the most interesting feature of his display is also, curiously enough, the simplest. It is his figure of eight vertically banked turns near the ground. He brings the machine down to within twentyfeet of the ground and then puts it into a vertical bank so close ; to spectators that it is possible to look right into the cockpit as the machine roars overhead. After completing a circle he swings the machine over on to the opposite bank—inciden- , tally a striking demonstration of efficient aileron control—and completes ] the second circle in the opposite sense. j | The safety and sound handling | qualities of British aeroplanes are largely due to the work of pilots such ; as this and to the stringent tests to 1 which the machines are subjected.