Hawker-Siddeley Andover

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Hawker-Siddeley
Aircraft Model: HS780
Aircraft Nickname: Andover
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane ME Turboprop
Category: Airplane
Class: Multi Engine Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown:
Date First Flown: 06/27/1989
Location First Flown: Boscombe Down, England
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Empire Test Pilot School. Evans

Aircraft Experience
As of: 06/06/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 1
Number of Times Flown: 1
Other Aircraft Models Associated:

Recollections: First stop on a USNTPS Staff Field trip which went to the UK (Empire Test Pilot School), Germany (German Flight Test Center in Manching), Switzerland (Swiss Test Center in Stans and Emmen), and France (French Test Pilot School–EPNER). My logbook says only “Evans”, so–in writing this recollection decided to see if I could figure out who that was and, at the same time, recall my memories of the flight. I searched on the SETP website for “Evans” and there was a single name from the UK, an ex-RAF bloke. So, I sent the following email:

Dr. Evans. This will start as a somewhat strange email but I hope you can help.

I’m an ex-Navy test pilot, currently a test pilot in the US for the FAA. Getting a bit older, I’ve started looking back on my flying career and am assembling recollections of the 180+ airplanes I’ve flown. Unfortunately, my log book is sometimes lacking in detail.

This is where (maybe) you come in!

Were you, perhaps, a Tutor at ETPS in June of 1989? I ask because, on June 27, 1989 I had the good fortune to fly Andover XS606 at ETPS while I was in Boscombe as part of a USNTPS staff field trip. My log book simply says “Evans”. So…I am hoping that’s YOU?

For what they’re worth, my two recollections from this trip were: (1) the Captain I was flying with was (I believe—and my apologies if I got this wrong!) fairly new to the Andover…but, thankfully, we had an Engineer who was an expert (if that’s correct, do you recall the name of the Engineer)….he basically told us what to do. and (2) I got to do a takeoff and landing FROM THE GRASS…in this relatively large airplane!

Thank you for any info you have and if I got the “wrong Evans”, I beg your pardon and wish you a good day.