Blackpool revisited - at high speed! - Tony Cunnane's Afterthoughts

Written on 2 September 2011. While I'm still feeling a little guilty about what happened in June 1967 (read on), I thought I would salve my conscience by making this story available to a wider readership by putting it on my website. So here goes!

Those of you who were able to watch BBC and Sky News recently may have seen the reports from Blackpool about the opening of the renovated Blackpool Tower. Inevitably there were shots of the presenter and young children posing, warily, on the ‘glass floor’ right at the top with a sheer drop of about 500 feet down to the promenade should the glass give way.

For someone who has spent most of his career flying aeroplanes you may be surprised to hear that I'm frightened of heights when I’m far above the ground but still attached to it. For example, I always feel very insecure climbing a ladder up the side of my house or climbing up into the loft and yet I had no problem in 1968 parascending up to 1,000 feet above the ground at RAF Barkston Heath, near Cranwell, before gently floating down again, or parachuting from a DH Rapide biplane in 1964. In fact I was the first officer ‘student’ to jump with the then newly-formed RAF Sport Parachuting Club at Weston-on-the-Green, Oxfordshire, and that involved first clambering out onto the lower wing before letting go! That was exhilarating and I had no fear of the height because I was not attached to the ground 3,000 feet below. Sadly my squadron commander at the time, when he heard what I’d been doing, pointed out that should I get even the slightest injury that prevented me from carrying out my flying duties, I would be likely to lose my flying pay. Parachuting came into the ‘self-inflicted injury’ category. So that was the end of that after just three descents.

The first of my many visits to Blackpool was in July 1945 a few weeks after the war in Europe ended. It wasn't possible on that visit to go to the top of the Tower because it was still closed to the public, as it presumably had been throughout the war. I've never been to the top and I don’t intend starting now.

I did once, in June 1967, inadvertently fly very close to Blackool tower in a Hunter F6 (aircraft XF509) on a solo navigation training sortie from RAF Valley in North Wales. After an uneventful departure from RAF Valley, I set out across the Irish Sea at 250 feet and 360 kts aiming for Barrow-in-Furness in the Lake District. Suddenly forward visibility reduced dramatically in a totally unexpected heavy rain shower. I checked my map to make sure there was no land directly ahead and continued. There was absolutely nothing to see except the waves flashing by below. Then, without any warning, Blackpool Tower loomed out of the gloom where it shouldn’t have been - about 20 degrees on my starboard side at a range of only 3 or 4 miles – not far when flying at 6 miles a minute and well below the height of the top of the Tower! Clearly I had allowed the aircraft to drift about 15 degrees off my planned course whilst consulting my map. A quick zoom to 1,000 feet and the sunlit Lake District hills suddenly became clearly visible slightly off to the left!

After landing back at Valley my Instructor, Flight Lieutenant John Swain, was waiting to debrief me as was normal after every solo sortie. He wondered if I’d had any problem caused by the rain showers over the Irish Sea. I lied. I think he knew I’d lied. I felt bad about that. I learned about flying from that.

More about my advanced pilot training in Hunters on my main website here.