Air Safety — Mind Over Matter

My first experience of the phenomenon of the airborne mindset came as a result of two incidents which subsequently made me imagine my aircraft had developed handling problems on a third.

The First Incident

The first incident occurred during our work up to go to Korea. We were operating in Hervey Bay off the Queensland coast to take advantage of a calm sea, something you needed in the old straight deck days as you got back into deck landing form after a period ashore.

I had just got airborne from the carrier in my Firefly with two 230kg (500lb) bombs and two 250 litre (55 gallon) nacelle (drop) tanks, when I discovered that my radiator shutters had jammed closed and the coolant temperature was rising at an alarming rate. I called the ship and advised them of my problem and was directed to jettison the bombs, and the drop tanks and return to the ship. Naturally as a young Sub Lieutenant I couldn’t resist dropping the bombs live to see what the effect would be; very spectacular!

Having got rid of the bombs I lifted the covers on the tank jettison buttons and gave them both a good press and as you have probably guessed by now, only one tank released. Despite repeated presses of the jettison button and a fair amount of “g” I couldn’t get rid of the other tank. We were operating with two nacelle tanks instead of the normal configuration of a tank on the port wing and the “Ash” radar set on the starboard.

With the coolant rapidly approaching the maximum permissible temperature (132°C from memory) I had no option but to attempt to “land on” (navy parlance for a deck landing) as soon as possible. I realised that I had to get down first time as I couldn’t afford a wave off with an overheating engine. As I came round the groove I found that I was having difficulty holding the wing up at the normal approach speed and had to add a few knots to maintain aileron control. The problem was that I had the weight of the fuel and the asymmetric drag of the tank which was located well out on the wing (refer accompanying photo). In addition I was skidding out of the turn and had started to trail, forcing me to go wide to maintain my view of the Batsman.

The latter knew that he had to get me on first go, and very skilfully “cut” me early to compensate for my excess speed, hoping I would line up properly when I dropped the nose prior to flaring. Well, more by good luck than applied skill, I managed to catch a wire in a none too dignified grope at the deck, thanking Himself up above for letting me get away with another one. As I got out of the aircraft I thought I would be greeted as a hero but was soon abused by the Batsman who gave me a roasting for not flying the right speed and for trailing.

The Replacement Firefly

Time went by and we had been operating for some time in Korea when the next incident(s) occurred. We had received a replacement Firefly for one damaged and I for some reason kept on being allocated this particular aircraft. Although we each had our own aircraft it was not possible to fly it all the time because of maintenance and deck parking requirements.

The first time I flew the new aircraft, the port tank refused to transfer and I ended up with a heavy wing again as I landed on. It wasn’t as bad as the first time because I still had the starboard tank. I naturally U/S’d it but the problem continued to occur on subsequent flights. After one particular hairy landing I accused the ship’s air engineer officer of being unconcerned as to my continued good health, receiving a rap on the knuckles from my CO for my lack of deference to a senior officer. It was then decided that the only thing to do was to change the wing. Although not an easy matter, it was possible because the folding wing allowed the whole assembly to be removed, however it solved the problem.

The Final Event

The final event in my mindset trilogy occurred some weeks later when a call for urgent assistance for a downed B-29 Superfortress crewman was received by the ship. He had bailed out of the crippled Fort which had been mauled by MiG-15s operating from their base north of the Yalu river and had ended up in the sea off Chinnampo on the west coast of North Korea. I was nominated as the bunny to locate him and to drop a “G” type dinghy whilst HMAS Murchison, which happened to be operating in the area, attempted to rescue him. The problem was that the water is very shallow on the west coast and Murchison, although quite close, had to proceed with extreme caution.

After a hurried briefing, my observer and I duly launched and headed north into MiG country with me carefully testing my 20mm cannon in case I came across any MiGs on the way; such is the confidence of youth!

We found the downed crewman OK and after some difficulty with the release mechanism, managed to drop the dinghy which he reached just as Murchison’s boat got to him; all in all a bit of a wasted trip! As soon as he was in the boat, I set off back to the ship as I knew the light would be fading by the time we arrived.

Tunnel Thinking

This is where my two previous experiences led me down the path of tunnel thinking. The “G” type dinghy was carried in a large metal container under the wing and looked like a narrow drop tank. I had dropped the starboard dinghy and was very conscious of the asymmetric drag condition of the aircraft. Well, to cut a long story short it took a number of approaches to get me down because as on the first incident, I was flying too fast and the batsman couldn’t get me to line up properly. Towards the end I could see the escorting destroyers’ lights quite distinctly as the light was now rapidly fading.

Finally, once again in desperation the Batsman “cut” me hoping I would line up in time, which I did, with a side slipping flare which got me back onto the centreline, a novel technique!

Now this is the point at which the full implications of how I had let my previous experiences totally screw up my thinking, hit me. As I got out of the aircraft I saw that the heavy metal container was still there under the starboard wing, and I realised (as I should have known) that only the dinghy went on release, not the container.

The whole episode had been the result of my imagination.

Lessons Learned

Now there are quite a few lessons to note in this sorry saga; the first and obvious one is to know your aircraft and equipment thoroughly. I should have known that only the dinghy dropped, not the container.

The second is, in any emergency or unusual situation concentrate on flying your aircraft accurately; on both occasions I failed to keep the aircraft in balance by proper use of rudder.

The third and final lesson is a bit more subtle. When things go wrong in the air, consciously say to yourself that you won’t let your imagination run riot, and that you will think the problem through in a logical and orderly manner. Knowing that an airborne mindset is easy to develop is halfway to preventing it.