I met Tom at Duxford, where the Strikemaster is based, and was immediately taken by how safety-conscious he is. For example, despite the fact that none of the flight would be over water, Tom insisted that we both wear a life vest. Why? Well the Martin-Baker Mk.4 ejector seats are fully automatic once the handle has been pulled, and in the unlikely event of having to eject, the system should see you safely to the ground even if you are unconscious. However, if you were unconscious you might just wake up wishing you'd worn your life vest, as it would certainly offer some protection.

With the briefing over, I grabbed my gloves and helmet and followed Tom out to the jet. G-UNNY is a Mk.87 and is one of six that was delivered to the Kenyan Air Force in 1970. Tom pressed a button on the port side of the engine bay and an electric motor obligingly slid the large canopy open, allowing us to deposit our helmets on the ejection seats before beginning the walk-round. I walked around the jet with Tom while he pre-flighted the aircraft, and was duly impressed at its rugged construction. BAC designed the aircraft to be operated from relatively short, unprepared strips, but nevertheless I was amazed when Tom said that even at max gross the Strikemaster could get airborne in around 1,600 feet.
Once airborne, the Strikemaster possessed considerable striking power, due to the eight hardpoints under the wings, which could carry up to 3,000lb of weapons. The aircraft was cleared to carry a wide range of ordnance, including various bombs, three different types of rocket, 7.62mm mini-gun pods and 50-gallon napalm tanks. This imposing arsenal could then be backed up by the two 7.62mm machine-guns, loaded with 550 rounds apiece and mounted in the lip of each air intake. And I begun to wonder what we were packing today, as my eyes were drawn to what appeared to be a bomb hanging from each of the two inboard hardpoints. In fact, much to my relief, I was told that these are the tanks that carry the coloured diesel for the smoke system.

Initially I thought that we'd need a ladder to get into the cockpit, but I'd forgotten that as a counter-insurgency aircraft it might be operated from very basic forward airstrips. In fact, access to the cockpit is by climbing up from the back of the wing via strategically-placed walkways on the wings and on top of the air intakes, before stepping down onto the ejector seat. Having settled onto the right-hand seat and connected up my leg restraints, combined seat/parachute harness and oxygen hose I began to familiarise myself with the cockpit layout.
My initial impression was that the control stick seemed far too tall. However, I'd forgotten that the Strikemaster's controls are all manual, with no power-boosting at all. Consequently, and as I was soon to discover, at high indicated airspeeds the stick loads are quite high. Therefore, having a long control stick gives the pilot more leverage. In common with many other British fighter designs, the stick articulates at about the midpoint. The instrument panel layout is typical of an aircraft of this vintage, with a multitude of toggle switches strewn apparently at random across the panel.

Closer inspection reveals that the electrical systems and services are sub-divided into various groups with some degree of logic. The centre of the panel is dominated by the six primary flight instruments, with the mach meter, fuel, rpm, EGT and various other gauges mounted (apparently) wherever there was room! For the right seat pilot, the elevator trim wheel, throttle, HP fuel cock and flap lever are all situated on a neat centre console that extends aft between the ejector seats. I was particularly fascinated by the two large buttons (one red, the other green), which are used to extend and retract the undercarriage. For the left-seat pilot all of the controls mentioned above are duplicated and situated of the left side of the cockpit. With an ease born of hundreds of hours on type, Tom quickly strapped himself in and we then removed and stowed the safety pins for the Martin-Baker ejector seats.

Having ascertained that the ground power cart was ready, Tom pressed the starter button and waited for the engine rpm to stabilise at 42%. The Viper turbojet lights almost immediately and the needle of the EGT gauge literally springs across the dial, as its thermocouple tastes the twirling flood of flame that is spiralling through the engine. Having ascertained that the engine has lit satisfactorily and that all systems are functioning normally Tom waved the ground power unit away. In common with other military jets, a built-in warning system alerts the crew of hazardous failure conditions in certain systems. The warning system combines two sub systems, known as red and amber. The red system provides visual and audio warnings and indicates critical failures or malfunctions, such as an engine fire. The amber system provides only a visual warning. With all warning and caution lights out and the various gauges all indicating that the various systems are functioning normally Tom pressed a button and the canopy smoothly slid closed.

The pressurisation came on strong and having dabbed the brakes to check their effectiveness, we were soon trundling towards Duxford's runway 24 while Tom reviewed the ejection brief. The Strikemaster is equipped with Martin-Baker Mk.4 ejection seats that are fitted with canopy breakers as the canopy is not fitted with MDC (miniature detonating cord), which shatters the canopy should it fail to jettison. These seats are cleared for 0ft/90kts, which means that they possess a ground-level ejection capability provided that the air speed is above 90kts and the aircraft is in level or climbing flight. Therefore at speeds below 90 we would stop on the runway, while an emergency above that speed or in flight would require immediate ejection. Having ascertained that I fully understand that if he says "eject eject eject" it most certainly won't be a drill, Tom lines the jet up with the centreline, checks that the Strikemaster is correctly configured for take off and then passes control to me.

As briefed, I stand on the brakes and smoothly open up the throttle to 85% rpm, then release the brakes and as the jet bounds forward increase the power to 100%. Several pilot friends who trained on the Jet Provost had rather unkindly described the aircraft as having "constant thrust variable noise" but as the push in my back becomes ever more insistent I quickly begin to appreciate that the Strikemaster is a considerably more powerful aircraft than its training cousin.

As the nosewheel only castors, differential braking is required for directional control until the rudder becomes effective, but with the wind straight down the runway and no torque or P-factor to induce yaw, the jet tracks straight and true as the airspeed builds. The ASI and rudder start to come alive at about the same speed as the Strikemaster continues to surge down the runway.

Now, occasionally I have to fly several new types of aircraft a month, and one of the things I've learnt is to pay particular attention during a briefing whenever the same point is raised more than once. On this occasion, I'd noted that Tom had mentioned several times that on their first flight in a Strikemaster most people tended to over-rotate on take-off. Apparently, at Vr when they moved the stick back not much happened, they then applied a bit more back stick, which was too much. Therefore, as the ASI swept through 90kts I eased the stick back and waited a second. As Tom had briefed, after a momentary pause, the nose lifted and the Strikemaster flew itself off smoothly at about 105kts. A quick dab of the brakes to stop the still-spinning wheels, and I pressed the large red 'retract undercarriage' button while gently checking forwards to hold the aircraft down until we had 200kts.

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