17 Dec 09 Flight in a Grob Tutor from RAF Wyton

I’ve been very lucky to grab an aerobatic lesson with 5 AEF at RAF Wyton – Well, if you don’t ask, you don’t get…
The forecast was terrible all week leading up to the 17th, but at 6pm on the 16th, I noticed that the forecast for next morning looked vaguely promising, so I rise at 6am and head on over to RAF Wyton near Huntingdon, a 2 hour drive through sleet and snow showers! I was not especially hopeful but nothing ventured, nothing gained…
However, when I got to the base at 8am, I noted with some enthusiasm that gaps were opening to the north, just as forecast. Excellent news!
On arriving at the hangar, I introduced myself to the OIC of 5 AEF, Flt Lt Stu Rawnsley and we sit down over a cuppa for a chat about what I wanted to get out of the flight. We then head over to safety equipment so I could get kitted out with flying suit, gloves, bonedome and parachute. As I noted previously when flying a Grob from RAF Leuchars in Fife, it’s all a bit overkill for a flight in a GA machine, but this experience is designed to get potential aircrew straight into that ‘fast jet’ mentality, so fair enough. Just as I was about to walk for the aircraft though, there was a delay announced due to icy runway conditions, so I take it all off and head back to the crewroom for another cuppa (the RAF runs on tea by the way!). For various reasons, my pilot would now have to fly with someone else and so it was that I was introduced to Neil Carnegie (pronounced Car-Neggy) an ex-Argosy pilot with vast experience. In fact, all the AEF pilots are immensely experienced; I noted with some amusement that amongst their ranks are an ex-Air Chief Marshall and all ranks downwards. I can’t help but wonder if 5 AEF’s usual Air Cadet passengers realise that the elderly gent with the brevet rank of Pilot Officer used to RUN the Air Force – probably not, but it’s a curious situation nonetheless.
Anyway, after a short wait the runway was declared useable and Neil and I strapped in.
‘I’ll just get us started and out of the tight bit, then you can taxi us out’ said Neil. Fine by me.
Now as luck would have it, a bunch of newly trained pilots were graduating that day and with friends and family in attendance they were launching to do a formation flypast. This meant a lot of aircraft all heading to the hold; lucky for us we were cleared to push in and go first… Lining up on 08, I nailed the throttle and away we went. The skies were pregnant with snow and so I aimed for a big gap to the North. In clear air we did our HASSEL checks and Neil showed me a loop. Basically dive to 135Kt and pull back at 4G. The RAF loop differently to the civilian world and so whereas Phil in the CAP had told me to ease off the pull as I went over the top, Neil had me still heaving! Apparently this is the constant pitch method and produces a pear shaped loop – The Air Force doesn’t care whether your loop is round or not as long as you can perform the manoeuvre safely! We did a lot of them and it was with great satisfaction that I flew through our slipstream on. I really love looping; it’s just so much fun and so easy to do! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no expert, but I think I can now do them safely and it really puts a huge smile on my face!!!
Next on the agenda were wingovers. This deceptively simple manoeuvre is a lot more complicated than I thought, and I learned that what I had previously thought of as a wingover– isn’t!
Basically, a wingover is a wings level dive, a pull up to about 45 degrees (or heels on the horizon as Neil put it!) and then a bank to 90 degrees in the required direction with the nose high before allowing the nose to drop 30 degrees and rolling wings level on a new heading, finishing in a 45 degree nose down dive.
If I’m honest, I struggled to follow Neil on this one, for the simple reason that I didn’t have a good picture in my head of exactly what it was I had to do. Despite some excellent demo’s from Neil, I couldn’t get it quite right although it was acceptable by the end. Aero’s is clearly one of those disciplines where ‘practice makes perfect’.
Next on the agenda was the stall turn, and again, this flight shattered my preconceptions about the manoeuvre. This is initiated by a wings level dive, followed by a pull-up to the vertical, a quick check-forward and then a boot-full of rudder (progressively) whilst applying just a smidgen of opposite aileron. Unfortunately I was pushing my luck now and should really have called a halt, but it’s hard to just say ‘stop’ because it’s so difficult (and normally expensive) to tee lessons up at this time of year. Feeling a little queasy after several demo’s I only managed one go myself; and it wasn’t very good!

Ah well, wings level and back to Wyton we go for an overhead join. The Grobs fly a very tight (almost microlight-like circuit) which surprised me, but I made a reasonable landing so was fairly pleased. One thing that I found slightly frustrating was having to fly left hand stick and right hand throttle; this isn’t my strong suit and Neil has said he’ll put me in the right hand seat when I come back in the new year (that’s right, I’ve been invited back for another go!!!).
Once we shut down, I clambered out just in time for a 2 Typhoon flypast which was awesome as ever (but honestly, they really didn’t have to go to all that trouble!). Neil and I grabbed cuppa number 3 and we sat down to debrief which was at least as useful as the actual flying. We used a little model aircraft which made things easy to visualise and I shall ask if we can run through the manoeuvres before my next flight. There was only one thing left to do now; bring in the obligatory ‘thank you’ stickies (chocolates and biccies) – which were very gratefully received – and say my goodbyes.
Thanks guys, I had a really enjoyable and informative flight; can’t wait to fly with you again in 2010 :-)