Big Boys Toys - Playing with Jets
I've been very lucky in life, in many ways...
I always liked aircraft as a boy, and when I joined the Royal Air Force, I naturally had quite a bit to do with planes, which for several years was wonderful. Later, after the RAF, I worked with smaller planes, as a parachute instructor, but eventually that had to end too.
So imagine my joy, at the end of the Millennium, when a vintage British jet fighter, a Hawker Hunter, appeared at my local airfield, in private hands. This machine was almost 50 yrs old when it arrived, and is an example of the elegant aircraft the British aircraft industry used to produce.
In service I never worked on Hunters - I missed them by a couple of years - and finally here was a chance to get to see one close up.
But wait, as they say - there's more!!
The new owner, a former fighter pilot, and now an airline pilot, decided that he wanted to fit a live ejection seat, which would literally fire him out of the plane in an emergency, and naturally he needed a good parachute too. Enter John the Parachute Man....
The parachute assembly I was given to prepare was rather old, and the harness really needed replacing, but I wasn't able to procure a new one at a sensible price. Nor was I strictly qualified to make a new harness, but I WAS qualified to *replace all the webbing on the old one*, if you get the idea...:) The end result was entirely acceptable, and the owner was delighted.
Preparing the ejection seat was a task to be done by an expert, and an RNZAF armourer, Glen, took on that task, and I got to help him - imagine playing with stuff like that. Many a night was spent in a gloomy hangar helping Glen dismantle and test the seat components - a mixture of clockwork and gunpowder, more or less, until the device was ready for installation.
We finally installed the seat on Easter Day 1999, a tricky operation which we later streamlined. It was to be another year before the Hunter made her first flight in New Zealand, and since then she has been an airshow favourite, not to mention the fastest plane in the country. (and the only ejection seat too, military or civilian!!)
The Hunter is supersonic in a shallow dive, and when she makes a fast pass, she creates a distinctive *blue note* that can only mean a Hawker Hunter.
From time to time I get to help prepare the plane for flight, and help with engine starts, usually holding the fire extinguisher. I suppose I'm a self-appointed crew member really, and although I don't own any part of her, I still call her *My Hunter*.
I've been very lucky in life, in many ways - imagine my luck as an ageing civilian, to get to play with jets!!!
I always liked aircraft as a boy, and when I joined the Royal Air Force, I naturally had quite a bit to do with planes, which for several years was wonderful. Later, after the RAF, I worked with smaller planes, as a parachute instructor, but eventually that had to end too.
So imagine my joy, at the end of the Millennium, when a vintage British jet fighter, a Hawker Hunter, appeared at my local airfield, in private hands. This machine was almost 50 yrs old when it arrived, and is an example of the elegant aircraft the British aircraft industry used to produce.
In service I never worked on Hunters - I missed them by a couple of years - and finally here was a chance to get to see one close up.
But wait, as they say - there's more!!
The new owner, a former fighter pilot, and now an airline pilot, decided that he wanted to fit a live ejection seat, which would literally fire him out of the plane in an emergency, and naturally he needed a good parachute too. Enter John the Parachute Man....
The parachute assembly I was given to prepare was rather old, and the harness really needed replacing, but I wasn't able to procure a new one at a sensible price. Nor was I strictly qualified to make a new harness, but I WAS qualified to *replace all the webbing on the old one*, if you get the idea...:) The end result was entirely acceptable, and the owner was delighted.
Preparing the ejection seat was a task to be done by an expert, and an RNZAF armourer, Glen, took on that task, and I got to help him - imagine playing with stuff like that. Many a night was spent in a gloomy hangar helping Glen dismantle and test the seat components - a mixture of clockwork and gunpowder, more or less, until the device was ready for installation.
John and the *Hot Seat*, Easter 1999
We finally installed the seat on Easter Day 1999, a tricky operation which we later streamlined. It was to be another year before the Hunter made her first flight in New Zealand, and since then she has been an airshow favourite, not to mention the fastest plane in the country. (and the only ejection seat too, military or civilian!!)
The Hunter is supersonic in a shallow dive, and when she makes a fast pass, she creates a distinctive *blue note* that can only mean a Hawker Hunter.
From time to time I get to help prepare the plane for flight, and help with engine starts, usually holding the fire extinguisher. I suppose I'm a self-appointed crew member really, and although I don't own any part of her, I still call her *My Hunter*.
I've been very lucky in life, in many ways - imagine my luck as an ageing civilian, to get to play with jets!!!
Labels: Aircraft, Hunter, Life Story
posted by Kiwi_John at
Thursday, October 26, 2006
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