From 'Treble One' Clive moved to Coltishall as the English Electric Lightning was introduced. In terms of performance this aircraft was a quantum leap from the Hunter, especially in acceleration and time-to-height. It was also missile armed with Firestreak and Red Top.
    By 1960 he had graduated from the Empire Test Pilots School (ETPS), then at Farnborough, where, to Clive's delight, an array of aircraft of all categories was available. He learnt how to evaluate aircraft performance, stability and control and handling qualities, and to assess suitability for the intended operational role.
    During the course an important exercise was to devise, execute and report a flight test programme on a type new to the pilot, commenting on its fitness for purpose and noting any changes that were required. The course was very hard work with theory in the morning, flying in the afternoon and report writing in the evening. Nowadays graduates are awarded a degree.
    His first posting as a test pilot (TP) was to the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Bedford. Here, typically, there would be some fourteen aircraft, including nine experimental types, to be flown by just four TPs; so, plenty of variety.
     Amongst those he flew were the Handley Page HP.115 slender 76.5 degree delta, the Avro 707C two-seat delta, the Short SB.5 with ground-adjustable wing sweep, the supersonic English Electric P.1 Lightning prototype, the BAC.221 ogee-winged conversion of a Fairey FD.2, the Short SC.1 lift-jet VTOL delta and the Hawker P.1127 vectored thrust V/STOL prototype, XP831.
    Much of the flying on the HP.115, the P.1 and the BAC.221 was Concorde oriented. Opinion in the USA was that an ogee-winged aircraft, the Concorde configuration, would be unflyable but the BAC.221 proved them wrong. To achieve the nose-high attitude required for take-off it had a long Fairey Gannet nose leg and Lightning main legs because, with the FD.2 undercarriage, there would not have been enough elevator power to raise the nose.
    The other major programme was VTOL research. The SC.1 was powered by five Roll-Royce RB.108 engines, one for propulsion and four for lift, and was controlled via reaction controls. There were two aircraft, one with a fly-by-wire system, the other conventional. This fully autostabilised aircraft was a "dream to fly jetborne".
    Transition from wing-borne to jet-borne flight required lighting the lift engines which needed the intake gills to be opened. The drag caused the SC.1 to slow and descend which was only arrested when the lift engines lit and came up to speed. Simulated blind landing research was also carried out.
    With the P.1127/Kestrel Clive took part in carrier the trials in HMS Bulwark and HMS Ark Royal. Further VTOL experience was gained on a visit to Dornier near Munich to test the Do.31 small hover rig in a joint trial with HSA Dunsfold pilots and engineers (including the Editor). DH/HSA Hatfield had been working on V/STOL transports, as had Dornier, so the two companies collaborated on the Dornier Do.31 testing.
    In France Clive flew the Breguet 941 STOL transport with its heavily flapped wing immersed in the slipstream from the propellers of four interconnected engines whose throttles were closed automatically on touchdown. It approached at 50 - 55 kn down an 8 deg slope and stopped in 100 metres; but it was mechanically very complex.
    The Hunting-Percival 126 jet flap aircraft was another slow landing type flown at Bedford. Some 30% of the thrust went to the jet pipe, 60% to the flap and 10% to the reaction controls. The consequence was, throttled back to slow down jet flap lift was lost so although the 126 could fly at 60 kn it was in a descent so you had to accelerate to land. The HP.115 slender delta could be flown down to 35 kn but at less than 90 kn it sank, so again, you had to accelerate to land at 120 kn.
    A DH Comet was used to develop a pilot's take-off director display allowing maximum performance to be achieved safely at increased all-up weights. This system was certified by the CAA. The Comet was shared with the Blind Flying Experimental Unit (BLEU) who 'owned' it so Aero Flight had to find a twin engined replacement.
    A Percival Sea Prince was located but the Ministry said they couldn't afford the capital outlay to buy it but they had on-charge a Vulcan which Aero Flight could borrow. The Vulcan cost £5,000 per flying hour; the Prince with two Leonides piston engines cost about £30 per hour to fly! With the directors installed the Vulcan gave airline pilots experience in using and assessing the system.   
    Work at the RAE involved several overseas trials including flying a two-seat Mirage IIIB 'flying simulator' equipped with a computer system making it handle like Concorde.
    In the USA Clive flew and assessed a B-25 simulating the HP.115 and a Bell helicopter simulating the SC.1. The latter was instantly tuneable; just land, adjust the computer in the pod, and go. Whilst in the States Clive 'flew' the 6 degrees of freedom NASA Ames simulator, and the Project Apollo Lunar landing and docking simulators. These 'flew' around inside a hangar on cables with counterweights, under computer control.
    He also visited Sweden to fly the SAAB Draaken and Viggen and was very impressed that such a small country found the money to develop such advanced fighters.
    To find out how airline pilots flew airliners he did a two week 'course' in Ireland with Aer Lingus on a Boeing 707. The highlight of this enjoyable exercise was flying the 707 at a local air show and doing a beat-up with, at the insistence of the Irish Captain, the never-exceed' bells ringing, followed by a steep pull-up and wing-over.
    After leaving as O/C of Aero Flight, Clive spent some time with the Ministry Procurement Executive on air defence systems before being appointed O/C Avionics Research Flight at RAE Farnborough. Here it was the systems rather than the aeroplanes that were under test. There were three Hunters covering avionics, fly-by-wire, and Institute of Aviation Medicine (IAM) work, with a fourth for general duties. There was also a helicopter fleet supporting armament systems trials, and a Comet 3B. This rather overpowered aircraft had spectacular acceleration on take-off and to relieve the load on the experimental TPs a very knowledgeable engineer flew with them to deal with emergencies.
    Clive was the UK project pilot on the three-nation Canadair CL-44 tilt-wing V/STOL programme flown at Patuxent River, Maryland. Canada provided the aircraft, UK the avionics and USA the flight test instrumentation and base. Initial training was at Montreal.
    The aircraft was very successful but again was mechanically very complex as illustrated by the flying controls. For VTO the wing, with twin engines and large propellers attached, was rotated nose-up to point vertically, so yaw was controlled by the ailerons in the slipstream, roll by differential propeller pitch, and pitch by a pair of contra-rotating propellers at the tail. In conventional flight with the wing horizontal the ailerons controlled roll, twin rudders yaw, and elevators pitch, so during the transition the control functions had to smoothly transfer between the two alternatives.
    By the end of this posting Clive was O/C Flying at Farnborough when he got the opportunity to take a Comet 4 to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, for satellite navigation trials and fly along the Grand Canyon.
    Next he was O/C 'A' Squadron, A&AEE, Boscombe Down. Here they were working on service release trials for Buccaneer, Harrier, Jaguar and Phantom developments and on initial service release trials for the Hawk. The objective was to set the limits to which the aircraft could be flown safely by the 'worst' service pilot; a relative term
     Harrier trials included vectoring in forward flight (VIFF) and ship clearances for deck operations using HMS Ark Royal, well before the advent of the Ski Jump.
    Whilst attempting a minimum launch speed take-off at maximum take-off weight Clive experienced a bow-down launch during which his Harrier got so close to the water that it raised a bow wave for some considerable distance. The deck launch officer near the bows signals launch when he anticipates that the bow will be rising as the aircraft reaches the end of the flight deck; but on this occasion the bow stopped early and sank again!
    He also flew the Buccaneer (excellent above 300 kn), the Phantom (awe inspiring), the calibrated Javelin and the good, old Hunter again. He was forced to eject from a Jaguar when he experienced a departure, the 'g' oscillating from +6.5 to - 1.75.
    He was invited by Brian Trubshaw to fly the Concorde on an intake test sortie and was impressed to be flying at Mach 1.35 - 1.5...with two engines at idle!
    Clive's last flight with 'A' Squadron was the first service release flight from Boscombe with the Tornado, having flown 'previews' at Munich and Warton.
    Clive's last posting in the RAF was as C/O Handling Squadron responsible for establishing operating procedures and writing 'Pilot's Notes'. He did a Lockheed Tristar conversion with British Airways as a part of this job.
    On leaving the RAF he joined Ferranti who were involved in developing a fleet AEW (airborne early warning) airship. A Westinghouse radar would be housed inside the envelope which contained the accommodation for the crew who would fly 30 day sorties before refuelling. It would have a 'glass cockpit', computerised flight management system and vectored thrust engine pods.
    Clive flew airships for seven years. More variety came with flying Charles Church's Spitfire, being part of the Primary Trainer Team with John Farley, as well as flying Venoms and Vampires, all on the airshow circuit.
    He has been a consultant with the ETPS, set up and run the 600 member ETPS Association and hopes to return to flying soon with a Swedish Hunter owner. and for DH Aviation with their Venoms and Vampire.
    The talk over, Clive took questions from the floor before Harry Fraser-Mitchell, who was an aerodynamicist on the HP.115, gave the vote of thanks for this most interesting and entertaining talk on an amazing career.