Tales from The Seat (as told by the pilots themselves)
New Tales will be published on an "as and when" available basis. If any former lightning pilots would like to have a story published here, then please contact us. Thank you
Flight Performance
By Clive Rowley, MBE
The Lightning seemed an ungainly beast on the ground, sitting on its tall, spindly undercarriage and thin high-pressure tyres, but in the air with the undercarriage retracted, its highly-swept-wing planform gave it a sleek and purposeful shape which made it look fast even when it was flying relatively slowly . . .
North Sea Ejection
By Jim Wild
My Lightning career didn’t start like most of my colleagues. I started in the RAF as a ground tradesman following my failure to pass aircrew selection. I joined up aged 18, trained as an instrument mechanic, then fitter and served 8 years, finishing as a Junior Technician. I finally passed aircrew selection in late . . .
Spin Sequence
By Pete Boothroyd
My first introduction to losing control and departing at the start of an incipient spin occurred when I was on my third Lightning tour, serving with 11 Squadron at RAF Binbrook in the period 73 to 75. I was on a general handling sortie (we had to do a couple a month). I was around 8000ft or maybe lower and . . .
Final Flight of . . .
By Keith Hartley
The delivery of XP693 and XR773 from Warton to Exeter went much as usual in Lightning terms; that's to say it was frequently fraught, tense, prone to change, exciting and, in the end, straightforward . . .
Lightning vs F-15
By Brian Carroll
Quite where to start with comparisons between the Lightning and the F-15 Eagle is extremely difficult, as they are two high performance aircraft but from differing eras. The Lightning concept dates back to a period just after the . . .
How not to handle . . .
By name not supplied
Anyone who ever flew the Lightning landed short of fuel at some stage in their career, but that's not surprising really in an aircraft that on average burned 100lbs of fuel per minute in a low-level cruise. The story begins with . . .
Northern QRA
By Brian Carroll
Hunting Bears for most folk generates visions of big brown beasties or even the polar variety in off white, but for us, the pilots who manned the Northern Quick Reaction Alert Force, the vision was quite different. We knew . . .
Last of the lightning pilots
By Ian Black
Some years ago, the choices for a trainee pilot, having completed the Attack and Weapons training course on Hawks at RAF Brawdy and having been assessed for suitability for a high workload environment (possibly single-seat), were either . . .
Lightning vs Mirage 2000
By Ian Black
With the sands of time and the gradual depletion of memory cells, I can no longer remember every event during this last flight. I recall it was a '3 vs many', a woolly term which means 3 Lightnings versus several others - Tornado F.3's from . . .
Tiger or Pussycat
By Brian Carroll
Tiger or Pussycat? That depended on whether you were flying it or being hassled by it. As a fighting machine it was surely a real Tiger, as many opponents discovered to their cost due to its pure unadulterated power, the mind numbing . . .
T.4 Display Flying
By Roland 'Bee' Beamont
Farnborough air displays are not events in which technical defects are a normal occurrence. Immense effort is put into preparing demonstration aircraft to the highest possible standard but, of course, there is always the . . .
P.1 Supersonic Testing at Warton
By Roland 'Bee' Beamont
The P.1 prototype WG760 was well into its intensive experimental programme at Warton in March 1955 following its exceptionally successful initial Company trials at Boscombe Down from August to October 1954, during which handling and . . .
Do Not Panic!
By Brian Carroll
The following incident took place in Saudi Arabia back in June 1981. At that time, I was privileged to hold the post of Chief Flying Instructor at Dhahran, where we operated the F.53 & T.55 Lightnings. The weather was fairly . . .
Letter from America
By Bill Beardsley (ex USAF exchange pilot)
How did I get selected for the tour? I had been interviewed for an exchange with the RAAF flying Mirages, as Personnel knew that the slot would soon be available. Once the request came down from the USAF, it was stated that they wanted a . . .
Ejection in Saudi - Memories of a 'Magic Carpet'
By Charles Wightman
I was one of three civilian pilots on 28 Course at Coltishall. Looking at my course photo I see we were a motley band of miscreants, mostly RAF of course but containing the three civilians, an American and probably a Canadian. The other two civvies were . . .
A Student's First Impression
By Brian Carroll
To set the scene; the time was late 1971 and we had recently received a new intake of pilots. They had completed their initial ground school programme of lectures and were reasonably conversant with the Lightning's systems and . . .
Excess Fuel in a Lightning?
By Brian Carroll
As Lightning enthusiasts, we are all aware that fuel was never an excess commodity. It was not that we didn't carry a lot, it was simply the rate of usage. I do, however, recall one particular occasion when I really did have fuel to . . .