Past Talks : OCTOBER 2023
Naval Aviator and Test Pilot by Chris Taylor
Those who watched television in the 1970s may remember “Warship”, a BBC series that depicted life on board the fictitious Royal Navy frigate HMS Hero. Our speaker Chris Taylor showed a brief clip from this realistic series, in which the ratings of the ship’s Wasp helicopter flight pulled the aircraft out of the hangar, spread the rotor blades and prepared it for flight. This was a nostalgic view for anybody associated with the diminutive Wasp aircraft of 829 Squadron and Chris was able to regale us with many anecdotes from those days. The TV series had been the catalyst that persuaded him to join the Navy, intending to become a helicopter pilot. He certainly achieved his ambition and claims to be the most experienced Test Pilot for the Lynx helicopter. He also claims to be the only qualified autogiro test pilot in Europe.
Chris said he had 400 types of aircraft in his logbook and showed his latest book “Naval Aviator”, published by Pen & Sword. In response to the question as to why he wrote books, he said that his father had been a clerk in the RAF in 1921. He had suffered a stroke at the age of 60, which left hm unable to speak. This sad event led Chris to start to write down anecdotes of his flying career in the RN. After failing to be offered a place to train as a pilot with the RAF, he joined the RN as a General List (career) officer and after completing training (which included a few hours flying the Chipmunk while he was at the Britannia Royal Naval College) he was appointed to a minesweeper, HMS Monkton, based in Hong Kong, for seagoing experience. His varied experiences there included attending a collision between a RN hovercraft and a Chinese patrol boat, which led to some tense hours faced with armed Chinese military before the situation was resolved peacefully.
Although his primary objective was to qualify as a naval pilot, his status on the General List meant that Chris had to complete lengthy warfare training, including gaining a Bridge Watchkeeping Certificate. After a spell in a Trials Ship, HMS Londonderry, to gain his Offshore Navigation Certificate, he was eventually appointed to flying training and gained his wings in the Gazelle helicopter. Once qualified, he was appointed in June 1983 to 829 squadron at HMS Osprey (RNAS Portland). The squadron was the headquarters and training squadron for all the RN’s Wasp flights, then embarked in Tribal, Rothesay and most of the Leander class frigates. Chris found that the Wasp a challenging aircraft to fly and thought it was probably over-powered for its role. With only five hours experience, he suffered a partial engine failure on taking off on a training sortie from a ship’s deck and ditched in (fortunately) calm water.
Once qualified as a Wasp pilot, Chris was appointed to HMS Plymouth, where he was quickly introduced to the complexities of flying the Wasp in challenging circumstances. When tasked to lift an underslung load, which proved to be overweight, he overstressed the aircraft’s gearbox, leading to his having to submit (“render” in naval parlance) an accident report, known as the A25. Later, when assisting the Officer of the Watch with the ship steaming in thick fog in the Baltic in company with other NATO vessels, he had to give the rarely-used command “Full astern both engines” to reduce the effects of a collision with a German frigate.
Chris was next appointed to command HMS Aurora flight, but was almost immediately told to switch to HMS Diomede, temporarily without a flight commander, for a journey to the Falklands Islands. He had an eventful trip to the South Atlantic, arriving in February and then hitching a ride in a Hercules back to the UK. Returned to Aurora, Chris had an enjoyable tour, with the ship in home waters before deploying to the Mediterranean.
Having regaled us with many Wasp anecdotes, Chris said that in1986 he was sent to join 702 Squadron at Portland for conversion to the Lynx. Once qualified, he was appointed to HMS Penelope, but before joining this ship he had a brief spell in HMS Arrow, which had been tasked to support the transit of HMS Warrior from its refit in Sunderland to Portsmouth. Chris was in Penelope when she was involved in a serious collision with a refuelling tanker and showed some dramatic pictures of the event.
This summary does not do justice to the flow of stories from Chris. Much more detail can be found in his book “Naval Aviator”, which supplies the background to his many experiences.