I would say it's worth reading Holden's account of it directly, which starts on page 3 of this PDF:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210319185656if_/http://www.nzr...
Holden's Lightning Flight
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Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#12Love this story. There is something interesting that nags at me though. - There's a test pilot on staff at the base, but they're not qualified for the Lightning. - There's a test that needs doing, which doesn't require a test pilot (unless something goes wrong). - There's no qualified test pilot available for the test, so Holden decides to run the test with someone who knows how to move the plane down the runway, but…
If I've read the original account correctly, there was no longer a test pilot on staff at the base at the time of the incident:
"In my service, one of my postings took me to 33MU Lyneham where as the CO of a civilian manned aircraft storage unit, I had Canberra, Meteor and Lighting types, which were gradually being prepared for dispatch to various flying unit tasks. When the Meteor and Canberra types had been cleared, the powers that be decided that the MU should be closed after the last Lightning had been dispatched. Up until the last Canberra, I had a qualified and current test pilot on my staff for those aircraft, but he was not a current Lightning pilot. When a Lightning needed test flying, I had to call for any available pilot with a current test pilot rating. Most times I could find one who could be spared within a 24 to 36 hour period."
https://web.archive.org/web/20210319185656if_/http://www.nzr...
Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#13> According to Holden, in a review before Air Marshal Kenneth Porter, he was asked whether he agreed that "With the limited flying experience I had, the test would have been better left to an experienced and current Lightning test pilot", which he answered in the affirmative, following which Porter related some of his own unfortunate flying incidents. I feel like there’s something between these lines that I don’t und…
I think the joke is that Air Marshal Kenneth Porter was chief of the RAF’s maintenance command, and also not a pilot. [0] Edit: fergal_reid’s reply below is correct. Porter did serve several years at the start of his career as a pilot, in the early 1930s, before spending the bulk of it as a signals officer. Holden also had his wings, but never served as a pilot. I read Porter’s comment as a joke between two RAF offic…
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Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#14Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#15> According to Holden, in a review before Air Marshal Kenneth Porter, he was asked whether he agreed that "With the limited flying experience I had, the test would have been better left to an experienced and current Lightning test pilot", which he answered in the affirmative, following which Porter related some of his own unfortunate flying incidents. I feel like there’s something between these lines that I don’t und…
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Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#16> According to Holden, in a review before Air Marshal Kenneth Porter, he was asked whether he agreed that "With the limited flying experience I had, the test would have been better left to an experienced and current Lightning test pilot", which he answered in the affirmative, following which Porter related some of his own unfortunate flying incidents. I feel like there’s something between these lines that I don’t und…
Flyboys will be flyboys.
Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#17> Holden ran down the runway, narrowly missing a crossing fuel bowser
TIL Bowser is an actual word, huh.
Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#18The de Havilland Comet (involved in this event) also has a famously dark history as the first passenger jet. This status was short-lived when square windows popped out of their frames at high altitude when the cabin was pressurized. The line had a much longer service life hauling freight. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Comet
That's enough of an oversimplification as to not really be true. They developed an issue with explosive decompressions, because at the time we didn't fully understand how cyclic stress caused metal fatigue. It is true that they had square-er windows than modern planes, but they knew that and added reinforcement. The stress concentrations inducing fatigue cracks were around square cutouts for an antenna, not the passe…
As Henry Cavill would say: “Wikipedia? You get your facts from Wikipedia?”
Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#19I would say it's worth reading Holden's account of it directly, which starts on page 3 of this PDF: https://web.archive.org/web/20210319185656if_/http://www.nzr...
Wow, that gives a whole new meaning to “ride the lightning” lol.
Re: Holden's Lightning Flight
#20Love this story. There is something interesting that nags at me though. - There's a test pilot on staff at the base, but they're not qualified for the Lightning. - There's a test that needs doing, which doesn't require a test pilot (unless something goes wrong). - There's no qualified test pilot available for the test, so Holden decides to run the test with someone who knows how to move the plane down the runway, but…
If I've read the original account correctly, there was no longer a test pilot on staff at the base at the time of the incident: "In my service, one of my postings took me to 33MU Lyneham where as the CO of a civilian manned aircraft storage unit, I had Canberra, Meteor and Lighting types, which were gradually being prepared for dispatch to various flying unit tasks. When the Meteor and Canberra types had been cleared…
Thanks! That makes it more understandable how he ended up in that situation.