Urban Legend

[ExRAFRadar]

I am sat here reading the various threads when I had a thought. (stop laughing at the back)

When I was in ( 80's) there was a rumour that you could pitch up at a RAF base that flew long haul and if there was room on a flight you could hop on it.

All you needed was your passport and proof that you could get home on your own, ie you had the money. I think they charged a nominal fee.

There was a name for this exercise but for life of me cannot remember it.

Now is this just an urban legend or is my failing memory letting me down.

[ORAC]

You could never just pitch up, but there were indulgence fares and, yes, you had to sign to guarantee you could afford to get home by commercial means if, for whatever reason, the return half of the trip was cancelled or you were booted off.

(You could also indulge your car back from Cyprus at your own risk. There was the urban legend of the C-130 with a problem where the ramp was dropped and the indulgee car pushed out the back....)

[Smudger552]

I indulged my car back from Cyprus...what a bargain, one case of beer for the Movers. Arrived totally unscathed by the experience. Indulged myself a few time too......

[airborne_artist]

True - got a buddy of mine on an RAF VC10 flight home to Western Canada (he had dual nationality) in time for Xmas - think it cost him about £10, plus a bottle of best malt for me - must have been 1985. Not bad seeing as how we were both STABs.

[ExRAFRadar]

Cheers chaps - just an itch I had to scratch.

Don't know why I never took it up.

Ah well

[Almost_done]

Also you could jump on the Round Robin back in the 80's, very helpful if you were way up North and needed to get down South for a weekend.:ok:

[k3k3]

In the mid '70s I was working a shift system that gave me one week off in four, I used to travel from Lossie to Castle Donnington in an Alidair Viscount which had just dropped off the Scottish Daily Express (printed in Manchester) and hitch the rest of the way down to Pompey. I used the RN Clipper (Sea Devon or Sea Heron) to get back routing from Lee-on-Solent, Yeovilton, Culdrose, Brawdy, Prestwick, Turnhouse, Leuchars, and finally Lossiemouth.

All for free! Happy days.

[parker]

Back in the dim and distant (mid '50's) we used to call it "Supernumary Crew" - on could roll up, hang around, and hopefully get a flight to where you needed to be .... all for 'nowt.

[FJJP]

ISTR that the RN had a number of Herons at Yeovilton that used to run round the UK on Fri & Mon - would drop you off wherever you wanted to be [inc civi airfields]. Used it once or twice myself.

Ah! Them were t'days...

[Mead Pusher]

It might be cheaper to bring back the round robin if they start charging per mile travelled as mooted by the government...

[ExRAFRadar]

Now you got me intrigued.
What was the ‘Round Robin’? And did it ever stop off at 14MU :}

[adrian mole]

The only Round-Robin I knew was a Herc every Christmas Holiday which used to go around UK via about four or five Stations. You were not supposed to just 'turn up' for an Indulgence Flight but several used to and still managed to get on if there were spare seats. I managed to Indulge to UK from Singapore to get married - palputations getting back as the new wife received a telegram call-forward but I didn't....

It never went to 14MU 'cos you need a runway...

[Pontius Navigator]

Pair of likely lads on IX in Cyprus indulged to Honk Kong. Wives were not exactly impressed as it was strictly stag.

The stipulation was they had to be back the day before the return flight was due. To nobodies great surprise they were late :) .

Now I think they might have been operating that great Bomber Command rule.

"You could not go to Hong Kong unless you had been before"

They might have harboured a desire to take a Vulcan there or perhaps go for an interview with Cathy!

[Akrotiri bad boy]

I enjoyed a couple of "indulgences" from Lossie in the 70's/80's.

The "paper plane" used to offload at VASS in the wee small hours, by assisting in unloading the Daily Record you could qualify for a return trip to Squires Gate. My trip was on a British Island Airways HP Herald; southbound was a bit grim as there were no seats and had to brace between the flight deck seats for take off and landing. Return was more comfortable as it was possible to fashion an enormous armchair out of Daily Records (perhaps the best thing for 'em):E

The other trip was in the AOC's gin palace, a DH Devon, down to Turnhouse. Payment in kind was to empty the big cheeses ashtrays. Tremendous fun, just the two crew and myself hammering along the low level system.

:ok:

[diginagain]

Indulged a couple of times from Gutersloh to Calgary on the pretext of 'Adventure Training' in the Rockies. Due to the bear threat we spent our time in Banff's Legion Club.

Two colleagues indulged to Washington on a scheme to get as far away from the unit as possible, as a test of initiative. The whole squadron bomb-bursted around the World for a weekend. It took some of them two weeks to get back to the unit from places various, and the Boss had some explaining to do.

[buoy15]

I just managed to indulge back from Washington on a Vickers Fun Bus in 75
I nearly lost my seat as a DAMO Dolly was ushering all the Embassy senior officers wives to the VIP lounge to go shopping in Harrods for the weekend
I was in uniform with a NATO travel order on active duty - but was rudely informed that as aircrew, I had a low priority as I was below Wg Cdr level
UKMAMS are pond life and for years, have denigrated the ethos of the RAF

[Zoom]

buoy15
If you were on duty then your priority (Category A of A to E, if I remember correctly) would have been higher than any non-serving wives on a shopping trip (Category E) and your Category was regardless of rank. I've posted this tale here before but when I was in MOD a bunch of general rank officers went on a duty beano to the USA with their wives as indulgence passengers. For the return journey all of the wives were bumped off the VC10 to make way for some duty passengers - the RAF football team returning from a tour of North America!!! (I think official sports teams were Category D.) A hopping-mad general came steaming through my office on his way to giving my principal rice for the 'outrage' but he left with his tail between his legs and a flea in his ear (from my principal). The dear ladies had to pay to come home commercial. Laugh!!!
The Round Robins I remember from the 60s and 70s were Devons or similar that flew a regular route every morning delivering small spare parts, documents and the odd bod to a variety of bases. They were very useful as a way of getting u/s aircraft back in the air ASAP. I don't remember if they were organised on a RAF, Command or Group basis.
As an aside, does the DOMCOL programme still exist? This was the scheme where if a serviceman's parents were domiciled overseas he could claim a free return commercial flight to that country every 5 years. I think it applied only to unmarried personnel. I used that 2 or 3 times.

[batfink2]

These exploits make me feel immensely proud inside... and make me want to have been born 40 years earlier!

[Zoom]

Why, batfink? Who would want to be 40 years older? That would make me ........dead.

[endplay]

I am 40 years older and the good old days were good. I indulged my wife from UK to Cyprus and myself from Salalah to same for some meaningful conversation. Also did several trips from Germany to UK on the Northolt run and got my car delivered from Bruggen to Lyneham. It all just seems so much harder now.

[ImageGear]

Mid 70's, a mate indulged to Bermuda, since the place was so expensive, he had bought a tent in advance with the objective of "el cheapo" accommodation.

Unfortunately he arrived to be told in no uncertain terms that camping was not permitted on the Island and he was consequently lined up for immediate deportation. Recognising the depressed form of my mate, (He was in any case on terminal leave) the IO asked whether he had ever been a member of the Boy Scouts, to which my friend said he had.

No problem quoth the IO, that is the only category of camper permitted here, so get your shorts on and double down to the campsite.

One happy camper,

Imagegear

[Cambridge Crash]

ZOOM
I can confirm that DOMCOL was alive and well in the late 1990s. I took deferred DOMCOL back to New Zealand via Hong Kong in 96/97. BA Trooper to Hong Kong (sat in BA jump-seat into Kai Tak) and then transferred to CP Business Class flight to AKL. Upgraded to First Class (against my Socialist principals!) and made the most of it. Cathay Pacific were giving half bottles of NV Krug as prezzies to 1st class punters to celebrate 50 years of operation; most of them didn't bother to collect them so I staggered off the aircraft at Mangere with 6 bottles (all gift-wrapped) whilst the cabin crew giggled and murmured 'he he he, spot the upgrade!'


Indulgence travel within NZ was all the rage in the late 1980s. RNZAF Andover 'crew trainers' were put on for mates weddings and junior officer parties; the F27 Nav trainers used to trundle all over the place (including around Aussie) dropping people (myself included) at random, but convenient, airfields. Presumably the fun detectors cracked down on this - anyway both the Andover and Friendships have long gone!. One thing that used to grip light blue sh&t was the insistance from the army that their personnel were 'on duty' when proceeding to/from leave, and therefore would bump off us indulgees. Duty also extended to their overweight wives and snotty-nosed kids...but at least there was always a jump seat available and in such a small air force (and being aircrew at the time) it was always possible to know the crews and to get a seat. Also travelled a few times on VIP Andovers that were prepositioning, and the guys on the Cessna flight at Woodbourne were largely self-authorising...

[allan907]

Remember coming back from Sharjah on an indulgence (actually my mother had just died but they couldn't give me a priority compassionate for that). Anyway Kuwait Airways (courtesy of the COs Fund) to Muharraq then a Britannia C1 from there. The Brit was carrying aero engines and there were only a few seats in the back end and all were full with duty pax and the like. When we got to Akrotiri some Air Marshal was due to get on the flight and technically I should have been bumped. I watched as the movs staff quietly explained to him that rules or no rules he wasn't about to get on that particular flight.

The 'system' used to work magnificently sometimes.

[Krystal n chips]

Not sure about the round robin bit but certainly at Vallley had the pleasure whilst on duty crew of seeing in and out a VC10 a couple of times at Christmas which simply collected / deposited various pax from around the UK at that time of year---not a problem getting a seat as I recall from those who used it.

Did use the Danish equivalent whilst on a 6 week sabbatical at Karup however--a Dak to be precise :ok: --until the embryonic fun police at Bruggen went and objected on some tenuous grounds:* --so we, er, "adjusted" ;) the speedo cable on the 1800 we had as transport--and continued our grand tour of Denmark that way--where there's a will there's a way:E