Reflections-GAG Winjeel

We flew the basic sequences of instruction in the Winjeel before going onto the Wirraway and Vampire. One particular sequence which was to cause my fellow Navy student and myself some mirth was stalling. Our ground school instructor took us through the theory of the various stalls that one could encounter, ie clean, dirty, power on, power off, turning, high speed recovery, etc. When he had listed them all, I could put hand up and saying that he had forgotten one, the torque stall. His reaction was a little indignant, I think he had gone through his spiel on this subject many times and never had anyone have the temerity to query him.

I need to digress here to explain that the torque stall was a real and ever fact of life for navy pilots in the days of powerful piston engines and big multi-bladed airscrews. Flying some ten knots above the stall on a carrier approach, one was always conscious of the effects of propeller torque if a large amount of power was rapidly applied, say for an overshoot, with the speed a little slow. The effect was simply for the airscrew to bite and for the aircraft to rotate around it. A simple example I always used with students was the elastic driven model aircraft which would rotate around the propeller if you lost your grip on the fuselage as you were winding it up.

If the aircraft started to roll against the airscrew, the down going wing would stall and auto-rotation as in a spin would result. The only way to counter a torque stall was opposite rudder, forward stick, and a reduction in power, the latter not always an easy thing if you were a few feet off the water. To use aileron was fatal, and delicate elevator control was required to increase airspeed. I can recall seeing a Firefly torque stall during dummy deck landings in Northern Ireland as a result of the pilot letting the speed drop and then applying full power for the overshoot. The aircraft just rolled over to the right and hit the ground shedding bits and pieces as it ploughed its way through the soft Irish turf! Fortunately, British aircraft engines rotated anti-clockwise when viewed from the cockpit which meant that the aircraft would roll out of a left-hand approach and not into it as US aircraft did.

My most vivid recollection of the effects of a torque stall was the tragic loss of a Sea Fury from HMAS Sydney in 1951. We were about to depart for Korea and it was decided that we should gain experience with RATOG or “rocket assisted takeoff gear” in case the ship’s catapult should fail during operations. The rockets were attached to the sides of the aircraft in cradles which were jettisoned after takeoff. The Firefly was fitted with four rockets and the Sea Fury six, the thrust line of the rockets being set to give a vertical component as well as a horizontal component of thrust. On the day in question I was the last Firefly off, to be followed by the Sea Furys. I well recall the shove in the back when I fired the rockets and having to pole forward to the stops to prevent the aircraft from stalling. Unfortunately the pilot of the first Sea Fury off behind me did not react quickly enough to the rapid increase in lift and was pitched into a torque stall when the rocket motors cut out. The aircraft rolled over onto its back and dived straight into the sea.

Returning to the Instructor’s course; having insisted that torque stalls had to be considered in the whole question of stalling, it was now up to my fellow Navy student and myself to demonstrate them! With tongue in cheek we each showed our instructors during the stalling sequence how, if the aircraft was on the point of stall and full power was applied, the wing opposite to the direction of rotation of the· airscrew would drop. With so little power and a small airscrew, the movement of the wing was almost imperceptible but honour was satisfied!

We flew all the basic sequences in the aircraft and I for one thought the side-by-side seating was ideal for ab initio instructing. Unfortunately it was not to be my lot to experience the delights of raw students, spending all my subsequent instructing time on conversions and instrument flying. I did, however, spend a lot of time in that other side-by-side trainer, the Vampire. Side-by-side seating allowed you to point out to the student particular aspects in the sequence and, equally importantly, it allowed you to observe the student flying the aircraft. I don’t know whether the third seat in the Winjeel, located behind the instructor, was ever used for a second pupil, but I believe the concept was sound as you can learn a lot by watching other’s mistakes.

One aspect of the aircraft which particularly appealed to me was the roomy cockpit , in line with American practice. For some reason or other British training aircraft always seemed cramped for space.

It is good to know that the Winjeel is still soldiering on in Australian military service and that a growing number are flying again in the hands of private owners. In conclusion let us not forget that it remains the only post-war Australian designed trainer to enter service; that alone should ensure it a place in our aviation history. □

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