Not to be outdone

摘要

While based at RAFJever in Germany in the early 1950s, I came close to a nasty accident that would have put paid to my career and more than likely cost me my life. The de Havilland Vampire was a difficult aircraft in which to perform a decent slow roll at any altitude, but it was said that an American pilot, on an exchange posting in charge of a British Vampire squadron, used to carry out such a manoeuvre immediately after takeoff, and at the very low level of 50ft.