Knud Bartels spoke at TTHA (Tabulam and Templer Homes for the Aged), Bayswater.
How was a new aeroplane developed in a world before computers and flight simulators? Well, some one had to climb into the cockpit and try it out - live!
On Friday, our series of special talks, introduced us to the life of a German test pilot in the 1960s. Knud Bartels joined the HFB (Hamburger Flugzeug Bau) at a time when the air industry started up again after WWII. Because there were no test pilots in Germany, a Swiss, an American and Knud, quickly going for his pilot's licence, started up to see if the newly build HFB 320 - a jet suitable to fly businessmen to their engagements - could actually fly. "Wir wussten nicht mal, ob das Ding fliegen würde!" ('We didn't event know if the thing could fly!'), Knud remembers. It was a heavy aeroplane and difficult to control. As a model it was unusual because of its "Vorfeilung" - in laymen's terms: it was wider in the front than in the back and you could stand up in the cockpit.
Every manoeuvre had to be tested by the pilots.
They worked six days a week, from 7am to 7pm with hardly a break. "When we came down to re-fuel, we grabbed a quick cup of coffee, then we were off again."
In the morning, Knud would work out the program for the day and off they'd go. "There was no radio contact with the ground - they had no idea where we were or what we were up to, until eventually, we'd return!"
Unimaginable nowadays - in a world of fine-tuned air traffic safety.
Sadly, both the Swiss and the American test pilots with whom Knud started off, were killed in separate incidents. Miraculously, Knud survived. And lived to tell a fascinated audience about his career.
The HFB 320 was commercially not successful, and eventually Knud was 'leant' to the VFW (Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke) and became a program director for the airbus, responsible for teaching airbus purchasers how to fly and maintain their aeroplane. This job took him and his wife, Waltraut, to Toulouse in France and later, to Jakarta, Indonesia. When it was time to retire, they had lived as expats for too long to simply slip back quietly into being German citizens. They embarked on yet another adventure and moved to Australia.
Knud Bartels is an entertaining story teller. He told us about a career most of us knew little about, and he managed to tell us about technical details in simple and easy to understand language! Thank you, Knud!
Knud and Waltraut are about to fly again - albeit, though they both held pilot licences, they will not take to the rudder themselves but trust a younger man or woman to fly them safely to Germany where they are visiting relatives.
Still, their fellow passengers will rest assured that there are two experienced 'spares' among them - ready to take over should the need arise.
How was a new aeroplane developed in a world before computers and flight simulators? Well, some one had to climb into the cockpit and try it out - live!
On Friday, our series of special talks, introduced us to the life of a German test pilot in the 1960s. Knud Bartels joined the HFB (Hamburger Flugzeug Bau) at a time when the air industry started up again after WWII. Because there were no test pilots in Germany, a Swiss, an American and Knud, quickly going for his pilot's licence, started up to see if the newly build HFB 320 - a jet suitable to fly businessmen to their engagements - could actually fly. "Wir wussten nicht mal, ob das Ding fliegen würde!" ('We didn't event know if the thing could fly!'), Knud remembers. It was a heavy aeroplane and difficult to control. As a model it was unusual because of its "Vorfeilung" - in laymen's terms: it was wider in the front than in the back and you could stand up in the cockpit.
Every manoeuvre had to be tested by the pilots.
They worked six days a week, from 7am to 7pm with hardly a break. "When we came down to re-fuel, we grabbed a quick cup of coffee, then we were off again."
In the morning, Knud would work out the program for the day and off they'd go. "There was no radio contact with the ground - they had no idea where we were or what we were up to, until eventually, we'd return!"
Unimaginable nowadays - in a world of fine-tuned air traffic safety.
Sadly, both the Swiss and the American test pilots with whom Knud started off, were killed in separate incidents. Miraculously, Knud survived. And lived to tell a fascinated audience about his career.
The HFB 320 was commercially not successful, and eventually Knud was 'leant' to the VFW (Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke) and became a program director for the airbus, responsible for teaching airbus purchasers how to fly and maintain their aeroplane. This job took him and his wife, Waltraut, to Toulouse in France and later, to Jakarta, Indonesia. When it was time to retire, they had lived as expats for too long to simply slip back quietly into being German citizens. They embarked on yet another adventure and moved to Australia.
Knud Bartels is an entertaining story teller. He told us about a career most of us knew little about, and he managed to tell us about technical details in simple and easy to understand language! Thank you, Knud!
Knud and Waltraut are about to fly again - albeit, though they both held pilot licences, they will not take to the rudder themselves but trust a younger man or woman to fly them safely to Germany where they are visiting relatives.
Still, their fellow passengers will rest assured that there are two experienced 'spares' among them - ready to take over should the need arise.
