My first flight came on Monday morning, April the 5th. Nerves were on edge in the crew room as we sat there all kitted up. Smokers smoked harder than ever, some of us couldn't sit still, and tensions ran high while we waited for our names to appear on the Detail Board. Three or four of us flew that morning. I was the third to go. I remember it as a clear day with little wind and being helped by an instructor with strapping-in and watched as I went through the engine start procedure for the first time. He reminded me of the Station and my personal call-signs, then he descended the ladder and he and the ground crew cleared the area. The past week's training took over. I called the Tower for taxi clearance, waved the chocks away, gingerly opened the throttle until I crept forward, engaged the nose-wheel steering by pressing on the button on the front of the stick with my little finger, and rolled out from the hard-standing on to the peri-track, checking the feel of the brakes as I did so.
Putting the fleeting thought that I was in charge of a quarter of a millions quid's worth of Royal Air Force kit out of my mind I tried various throttle settings as I taxied my way to the runway threshold for take-off. Given clearance, I lined up on the centre-line, held the brakes hard on as I opened up to full power then, satisfied that all instruments were 'in the green', released the brakes and rolled forward with increasing rapidity, keeping straight with the rudder until I was airborne, leaving the usual thick trail of black smoke behind me.
Thus far I had learned how to start and taxi the thing, now I had the flying bit to do.
After a moment's hesitation to put my hand on the control I raised the gear. It clunked up and indicated up. I can't say that I climbed away steadily, but climb I did - with a slight porpoising action. The hydraulic controls were so sensitive that the merest movement of the stick resulted in a response from the aircraft. By the time I radioed that I was clear of the circuit I realised that I was still accelerating on the climb and that some rapid map reading was called for so that I could find where I was above this unfamiliar bit of Europe. Everything was happening so fast and, not wanting to stray too far from base, I throttled back to 85% power, levelled off at what looked like a sensible height (it was 15,000 feet when I checked) and shoved the stick over to port to do a 180 back towards base. Wham! My head hit the side of the canopy, so fast was the rate of roll, and I was nearly inverted, my 'G' suit inflated and took me by surprise, squeezing my legs and gut as it did so. That was offputting in this first-time situation. This brute was vicious. With gentler control movements I taught it manners, but it took a while to stop over-correcting on the stick and reduce the consequential wing-waggling and porpoising. I have to admit that I was busy and keeping a good look out became a secondary occupation for a while. Shortly I became more comfortable and reached the point when the machine had stopped taking me for a ride and I was more or less making it do what I wanted. Gaining in confidence, I tamed the creature by trying out the usual raft of manoeuvres that one would do on an air test. I didn't stray far from Wildenrath, probably within a 40 nautical miles radius or so. A call came from the Tower to check my fuel state and to tell me that I should be thinking of landing.
Returning to Wildenrath I called for permission to join the circuit and, that given, I set up a wide circuit pattern to give time to carry out and check the slightly different vital actions for landing. Sweeping round at the end of the down-wind leg I called 'Finals' and lined up for my approach, aware that touch-down would look different as I was going to be much higher from the ground than in a Vampire when landing. OK, I landed a good 10 knots fast, at just under 130 knots, and have to admit that I used almost all of the near mile and a half long runway to stop. After that, taxying back was a doddle. I had done it, all 30 minutes of it!
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