Vampires on the Wing

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 794, 8 October 1954, Page 30

Vampires on the Wing

T was eight o’clock in the morning at Ohakea aerodrome. Out on the tarmac Vampire jets were warming up. The noise was terrific, like a gaggle of witches screaming in for their sabbatical convention. . . In the Met. Officer’s room the laconic briefing of crews for the flight exercises was concluding. "All O.K.?" "O.K." And the pilots ambled out into the sunshine. With them went two announcers from Station 2ZB-Lyall Boyes and Haydn Sherley-who had come to see as much as they could of how 75 Squadron ticks over. Lyall, as senior officer and older inhabitant, claimed the right to stay safe on the ‘drome with Mick Graves, the technician. Haydn volunteered (on the old principle of "Two volunteers. You and you.) to go up in a dual control jet and take the tape-recording machine with him. It’s believed, by the way, that this was the first time a tape recorder had been used to record a jet flight in New Zealand. It was like old times for Haydn, who used to be a navigator in the pre-jet age. On the ground Lyall Boyes talked to the mechanics who service the sleek, powerful aircraft. It’s quite a job, he found out, to give a Vampire a thorough overhaul. Engines must be removed from the nacelles for servicing and cleaning before being replaced and checked over. On planes which streak through the air at 500 m.p.h. or more, the slightest weakness can have a catastrophic

efect. Amid a nauseous odour of Durnt kerosene the aircraft taxied into position, a simultaneous heat-wave scorching from their pipes. Then they were off, screaming along the runway and hurtling into the air like steely darts. Meantime, in the Vampire's cockpit, Haydn Sherley was delivering an urbane commentary on the scene, while a crossgrained tape recorder, refusing to spool properly, spilled out hundreds of yards of tape, sargasso-like, on the floor. The _ iet turned due south, flipping down the

Island and back in an incredibly short time. A Vampire jet, with its maximum fuel load, is safe in the air for 1 hour 35 minutes at high altitudes, where it has greater endurance. At lower altitudes the time is halved. Pilots selected for the jet training course come mostly from Wigram, where they have trained on pistonengine aircraft. They spend 25 hours’ flying time in’ jets, half of it in dual control machines, before they complete the course. They must fly at all altitudes, and at night, and must be able to navigaté themselves as well. Youth and fitness are essential where quick reactions are demanded and the average age of the pilots on the, course which Lyall and Haydn visited was 21 years. In addition, a high standard of mathematics and physics is necessary. A highlight of the two announcers’ visit was an investigation into the workings of the control tower. When they agreed to finding out what a low-level attack would sound like they did not exvect the ear-shattering din which followed as four jets peeled off and "buzzed" the control tower in quick succession at fifty feet. The technician, Mick Graves, hovered anxiously over his precious equipment wondering whether the blast of sound would wreck it. Listeners can hear what 2ZB’s men heard when the programme Jet Flight takes to the air. from 2ZA on October 10, at 4.0 p.m., of from 2ZB on October 24 at 6.25