It would depend on the job, Piers, but right now I would fancy regular
access to flights in a single-seat Hunter. The T-bird was a bit
large: it has side-by-side seating and great mounds of framework to
obscure the view ahead. Flying formation in the T-7 was really quite
tricky as a result. I flew the F6, 6A and FGA9 during training and
they were lovely. In particular, the F6, stripped as it was of any
armament was a hot ship; it could make 30,000ft in 3 minutes, I
gather. We didn't do that as we were made to reduce the thrust once
we reached climb speed; but I did to a supersonic run over the sea
north of the Lleyn Peninsula which was rather surreal.
I do yearn for the speed and job of the Tornado, now and then; and I
would love a trip in a Typhoon, especially as I helped to design the
cockpit and various systems, but it's more realistic to hope for a
trip in a Hunter before I reach my dotage. In fact, i gather that
former Hunter pilots are allowed to fly aircraft at Kemble (see
www.deltajets.com
). To answer your question, I think that flashing around in a Hunter
would suit me fine now.
Chris
On 18 Apr 2008, at 16:58, Piers Hemy wrote:
> Close, but you can't smoke cigars in the cockpit anyway.
>
> I think the Blue Diamonds were disbanded in about 1962 - I wasn't
> accusing
> you of being precocious, but you might have been showing
> particularly early
> promise, (in the cradle), old fruit!
>
> So, how about a pilot's comparative review of the Hunter against other
> types? Given the chance and choice, would you fly one in preference
> to a
> Tornado? Or a Typhoon??
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