Events you never thought would happen.

[Roadster280]

I'm sat in a bar in Buenos Aires, on a work trip, and couldn't help but cast my mind back to 1982.
I was 14 in 1982, but I can recall it like yesterday. The country pulling together, the shuttle diplomacy. The famous words of Brian Hanrahan. Ian MacDonald. Even the text of the signal announcing victory "Be pleased to inform Her Majesty...". All of it through the eyes of a 14 year old Airfix Boy of course. I never thought I would end up in Buenos Aires.
This set me thinking. On my technically last day in the mob (though in reality I had been out for 12 weeks), I was in Moscow. Completely unthinkable when I took the Queen's Shilling 15 years previously.
Perhaps I am getting old! What a sobering thought.Any more out there?

[movin' up]

"through the eyes of a 14 year old Airfix Boy"

I didn't know airfix made boys. Did they have as many fiddly bits as the planes? Could they really see?

Credit where its due, you must have put him together well, my models never lasted as long as 14 years, bits kept coming off with every dogfight!

;)

[SASless]

One year after standing in the Oval Office at the White House....found myself standing in the Great Hall in Beijing.

[bakseetblatherer]

Yep, sitting QRA in Lithuania; and flying around Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in a semi tooled up F3.
Weird having the guys guarding your HAS using AK's and proper 'russian' style wooly hats with the ear flaps!

[Not Long Here]

Walking around Red Square on an Open Skies visit after having spent most of my service career on Nimrods with the consequent indirect day to day dealings with the Soviets.

Then saying ........ enough is enough, both from a country and RAF perspective...... and moving to NZ.

[rudekid]

Found myself thinking about being kidnapped and beheaded in Birmingham by some British citizens. Didn't think that was something that I'd see!

Thought the days of wearing civvies to/from work and checking under my car were long gone...

FundaMENTALism. My favourite!

[Dark Helmet]

Bruggen '88 or '89, I recall carrying out a demonstration OTR in my HAS for a group of Russian officers who were on a visit. It seemed very strange to me as I had spent all of my career ensuring that they didn't get far enough to see such things. When, after the OTR had finished, we were introduced to them, I told their leader of my thoughts; he laughed and agreed!

[Junglie]

Saluting the White Ensign at a Ceremonial Sunset on board HMS Fearless stood next to a Russian Naval Admiral (also saluting) in Sevastopol Harbour, moored next to two Sovremeny !! in 1999.

Looking over my shoulder to see two tooled up Polish MIG 29's on my wing as my wingmen during some MFFO training in 2004.

[dessert_flyer]

Being a young SAC in 1982 during the Falklands war, watching from the uk and feeling the elation along with the rest of the country and feeling that the battle was over, and then being there nearly 25 years later still waiting for the Argies to come back over the hill, or at least that was what they told me we were there for???

[Talking Radalt]

Lifted the first of the South Armagh OPs off it's tower when they all got taken down.
Bit heavier than JHSU estimated! :eek:

[Wader2]

Dark Helmet, at the same time, escorting the Russian CAS and the Norwegian VCAS in the E3 Sim at Waddo.

The base commander from Siauliak (Moss/Mainstay) was in attendance. Quite a rigmarol removing all the UK Eyes stuff as the Noggie was not cleared.

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Ta for that, Radalt - hardly seems any time at all since I put 2 of them in. They might've been heavy, but they flew beautifully all the way down from EGAA. Hope the MAWS didn't keep poking off flares while you were lifting them out - used to keep the sappers on their toes.

[Llademos]

Dark Helmet - must have been '89 as I remember it too - I was conscripted as an 'OIC' in a sports display, and remember noticing that the higher the rank, the larger the hat!

I also remember a staff major at IOT in 1986 declaring that Germany would be re-united in the next 5 years - we all thought he was barking.

Ll

[BEagle]

Welcoming 4 x Il-62s to Brize when Gorbachev came to chat with Maggie....then having coffee served by what we first took to be a Rosa Kleb clone - but who turned out to be a jolly matronly type who was i/c several delectable little stewardesses!

Watching 40 KGB peeps in identical macs disappear off to the Gateway for lunch - and 39 come back. They'd missed no. 40 having a leak in the loo and mistakenly left him behind - but the spooks thought he was snooping!

Asking a Russian if it was OK for the AOC to come and look round his Il-62.

Flying BBC, ITN etc....and TASS in a Vickers FunBus to welcome 2 x MiG 29s to Farnborough.













...and watching Scampton and Abingdon and Wattisham being abandoned to their fate as the RAF pulled out.

But learning that Kelvin Rucksack was going to be Stn Cdr at the Covert Oxonian Aerodrome was probably the biggest shock of all time!

[Wader2]

Sitting next to a Kazak Major, in the Mess of a secret Lincolnshire airbase, having coffee after lunch.

He was studying Exchange and Mart for Lada spares.

[27mm]

In a V Sqn F3, escorting the 2 x Mig-29s into Farnboro, along with Beags - around '88, as I recall. The Vickers Funbus provided a smooth platform to formate on, as we had several cloud layers to descend through - the Migs flew close on the Funbus and we flew on the Migs wing....

[Wyler]

Having a very boozy, funny and pleasant evening with a KGB Officer at a garden party at the British Embassy in Amman, Jordan.

His wife was drop dead gorgeous as well and I was so disappointed that I did not know anything worth him getting her to shag me for.:{ :{

[BEagle]

30 Aug 1988, in fact. Fun, wasn't it!

Mind you, the best part (or rather, parts) was having Flight's delightful Janice Low pressing against me as she took her photos out of the left flight deck window....:E

Ironic that the Fulcrum A was '10' and the Fulcrum B was '53' - both old Brize Norton sqn numbers!

Unfortunately, one of the F3s kept trying to get between us and the MiGs - contrary to the brief. But the films made the 6 o'clock news on BBC and ITV!

[Wader2]

Mind you, the best part (or rather, parts) was having Flight's delightful Janice Low pressing against me as she took her panties out of the left flight deck window....:E

Isn't old age and dyslexia a wonderful thing.

[BANANASBANANAS]

In a bar in Buenos Aires in 1995 (now employed by UK Charter Airline) and getting ratted with a load of Argies who had been conscripted in 1982. Terrific night out.:ok:

[Dan Winterland]

Flying for Air China five years after leaving the RAF.

[Maple 01]

27mm, I was the Intercept Control Assistant on that! (main job making sure there were enough Polos on console) The controller was WO Gordon K*****, nice bloke, a bit scary and about 1,000 years old, eck, that means I've worked for BEags too!

Two years later standing on the Berlin wall flicking the Vs to the Vopos -

Ask the younger generation and they'll say 'What's the Cold War granddad?' :(

[Roland Pulfrew]

Meeting an Su 27 on arrival at RAF Finningley after years of being chased by them and then meeting a Bear Foxtrot at Fairford after years of chasing them!

[BEagle]

'With', not 'for', Maple mon brave.

And I never thought I'd be working in Dresden either - and taking the pi$$ out of an ex-East German (who was chatting up the lovely Susanna on my right) by saying he must be ex-Stasi, judging by the amount of questions he was asking!

Or crossing the old Helmstedt Checkpoint Alfa heading east on the Autobahn at 150 kph the other day!


Wader2, sadly you were wrong..... But the contact with various warm round bits as she squirmed into the space between the seat and the flight deck sill was highly enjoyable. Co-pilot R'f'K and I had the same thought though - "While you're down there, Janice......."

Charming lass - and kind enough to look after 3 of us a few weeks later at Farnborough.

[Gainesy]

1) Being with aforesaid "Flossie" Lowe for a week in Bangkok when she said she was too tired to do any more shopping, lets go have a few beers by the pool instead.:uhoh:
Confirmed shopaholic that lass, but lovely in every sense.

2) Taking pics of F.3s and Hawks from a Tu-95.

[UnderPowered]

Landing at Bratislava, Slovak Republic, and being met at the foot of the ladder by a FROGFOOT pilot. I realised we were all the same when the first thing he did was tell me where the beer, food and strippers were. The second task was learning profanities in each others' languages.

Wierd to notice how all the TACANs ran out at the West German border.

Interesting to notice the SA-2 site at the end of the runway at Bratislava. And what is was doing to my RWR.

Sweet getting rub-a-dub-dubbed on 3 quid.

Nice seeing myself on the Slovak 9 o'clock news - "....szszchszchsz sczzchessczc NATO Fighter spzczch sczeczsh....".

[BEagle]

Getting a formal invite at the Hradec Kralove airshow, Czech Republic, which included the words "The Commander in Chief of the Czech Air Force invites you to a hangar party. Including food, beer, folk singing, striptease show......"

Can you imagine getting an invite at RIAT stating "Sir Jock Stirrup invites you to a piss-up and strip show"? That'd surely get the PC brigade and The Sun foaming at the relevant orifice!

'twas a good striptease show too - until the very attractive young Czech lady's modesty was protected by sqn zaps....and a 55 Sqn badge from one of the Victor team's flying suits ended up demonstrating the 'velcro effect'...:ooh:

[LFittNI]

Being in Berlin the night the Wall really crumbled. One year later, in Ostrava, being welcomed to sit in a Mig 21 and chat with some throroughly demoralised aircrew (who hadn't flown for months). They were also interested in selling any personal kit we fancied.......
Being shown around Pnomh Penh by a garrulous and contented guide, who turned out to have been General (President) Ne Win's Chief of Staff.
Tempus fugit.

[PlasticCabDriver]

Sitting at a barbecue in a Belgian hangar in what used to be Yugoslavia, having a burger and a beer with a 2 Yanks, a German, 2 Russians and 2 Hungarians from the comms site on the top of Goles mountain, discussing (well slurring at each other in a variety of languages none of us understood, but I think that was the general drift) how 10 years ago we would have been shooting at each other.

No strippers though.

Shame that.

[trap one]

Sitting in super secret Mig 21 somewhere in Germany the week before the wall came down. Then sitting in a Mig 29 at the Waddo air show in about 97. Controlling Mig29 Cap in Hungary during Kosovo air campain then being on 1 of the crews who controlled a Mig 29 shoot down.

[Yeller_Gait]

Having spent all my time on the kipper fleet having regular contact with the russian navy, to go to Poznan in Poland to participate in NATO Air Meet along with Poles, Czechs and Bulgarians was a bit of a shock.

Great exercise though, and a great place to visit.

Y_G

[ProfessionalStudent]

14 years after attesting at the CIO having been told "it will be easy to swap once you're in", marching up to get my wings...:) B:mad: ds

[L J R]

Being a current member of the aviation community for a quarter of the time when it turned 100.

[Tonkenna]

Still having a job over 17 years after getting my wings on the day the Berlin Wall came down (10 Nov 89!!!)... we were convinced we would be last in first out:rolleyes:

Still can't believe the mess that started 16 years ago in the sand pit is still going on... oh well:hmm:

And definitely can't believe I am still in after my first RO wrote in my 1st ever 1369 "Fg Off Tonkenna is more suited to a 60s commune than the RAF" :rolleyes: :D :D Spot on:}

Tonks :oh:

[changeitnot]

sittin' in the rooftop resturant in the Al Fallajh? hotel in Ruwi, with a German and his lovely Iraqi wife. What are you doing tomorrow? she says. Night before the shootin' started 1991. Doh!

[allan907]

Welcoming a East German Andoverski at the RAF Benson Families Day in 91? Then watching the crew flogging loads of gizzits to the punters to fund their new found capitalist existence back home.

Was impressed by the crane thingy at the rear of the aircraft.

[Safety_Helmut]

Staying in a five star hotel in the middle of Budapest, whilst there with the mighty 'rod operating from the local airbase (Tokol ?) Hungarian Air Force couldn't do enough for us, but how they managed with some of that kit ? Power set mounted on the back of a truck (a big truck), half a dozen (leaky)bowsers to do a refuel, and a fire truck that should have been in a museum.

S_H

[vecvechookattack]

Fling in a Mi - 24 and an Mi 26 in the same day. Both aircraft once considered the enemy and both fantastic aircraft...... a real pleasure I thought would never happen

[Art Field]

Climbing aboard, as captain, a Vickers Funbus, wearing a lightweight flying suit and headset, sitting in a comfortable seat, having an hot and cold running toilet, oven, fridge, knife, fork, spoon, cup of coffee et al after 25 odd years of bang seat, immersion suit, bone dome, sandwich box and pee tube but still getting plenty of fun flying, formation and foreign travel, indeed more of same. Sadly I believe those days have gone but the Funbus lives on.

[BEagle]

"Climbing aboard, as captain, a Vickers Funbus, wearing a lightweight flying suit and headset, sitting in a comfortable seat, having an hot and cold running toilet, oven, fridge, knife, fork, spoon, cup of coffee et al......"

But still someone else to work the HFs, eh Arters?

:p

[NURSE]

watching the army forget what its like not to have total air superiority and down grade the importance of GBAD

[ShyTorque]

"Flying for Air China five years after leaving the RAF."
Flying in a formation of five aircraft, one of which was flying the Ensign beneath.
Three weeks later, flying in the same formation in the same place, in the same aircraft, one of which was flying the HKSAR flag underneath.

[DSAT Man]

Sandy Wilson, now 'retired', being refused entry to MOD Main Building until his sponsor could come down from the top floor and verify his visit

[MightyGem]

Being in Germany when the wall came down. My son and daughter(14 and 12 at the time) were one of the first through when they tok the fence down near the village where my sister was living at the time. Taking a leisurely drive through East Germany a few months later. :uhoh:

[Yarpy]

Emigrating from Blighty, returning a while later for a look see and not recognising the country I once felt such patriotism for.:(

[Airborne Aircrew]

That Mig-29 would be this one... Yes, that's the BOB memorial Flight Spitfire and Hurricane... the Reds and a Pitts Special...

http://www.apm-home.net/images/Mig%2029%20Fulcrum,%20BOBMF.jpg

Accompanied by this

http://www.apm-home.net/images/Antonov%20AN-124%20Condor%20landing.jpg

The programme...

http://www.apm-home.net/images/The%20Programme.jpg


I do believe that this was Concorde's last official air display too...

[Flugplatz]

Mid 90s - At RIAT, watching from a distance as two Russian Officers showed two USAF Officers (all aircrew) round their visiting Backfire Bomber!! (peering in the cockpit, etc). I believe the USAF Officers where from the visiting USAF B1 Lancer. Also MiG 21 display, U2 in attendance and B52 flypast - having grown up being steeped in the Cold War (and gone through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin) it was incredible to see all this stuff together and everyone having a great time.:)

FLUG

[Fareastdriver]

Sitting behind the windscreen of a Chinese registered Super Puma, with a Chinese crew and getting paid in US$, thirty six years after sitting behind the same windscreen at Odiham in 1971.

[Dan Winterland]

Sitting on a towline over Croatia while our receivers were bombing a fellow European country and having MiG29s as our defending CAP!

[Like-minded]

Watching the flecks of pin point light from my Vulcan tapping into the adversary, the other pilot pressing his nose against the cockpit glass as I barrel rolled over his flaming chariot, the ejection seat finally firing with the flare of Saturnus and the adversary's body punched up to tumble over and over in the force gale 500 knot wind... my eyes tearing up with emotion as I carefully revectored and sucked him into the intake.

Booyah.

[Green Flash]

Hey, look evereyone - LM's back!

[snapper41]

Never thought I'd give an int brief to a Russian crew, but did just that for an IL-76 about to go into Sarajevo in 1994. They spoke no English, I spoke no Russian, so I'm not sure they got a full appreciation of the threat! They went in every day, and more often than not came back with fresh holes in the airframe.

[cliver029]

In 1983 sitting, no cowering in a Toyota Land cruiser in a drainage ditch between the two carriageways of the Baghdad to Basra highway, just north of Basra while Iraqi tanks fired in the general direction of Iran, that after having just been shelled by long range guns from inside Iran..... and then eight years later seeing the recce photos of the project we had been working on in Basra at that time (quite legitimately:hmm:), having been bombed at the start of G1!

[catbert]

Sharing an office at AFNORTH with a Czech Spetznas Col with a better Yorkshire accent than mine, and both of us briefing 24 visiting Russian Generals on the latest NATO Exercise! Who would have thought it.

[Wokka Doctor]

Briefing the Sqn techies that Project SLAM is the solution to the S**T SLA they live in...................................Hang on, it's still bad!

[Airborne Aircrew]

When I moved here to the States I never thought that I would think about moving back to Britain and come to the conclusion that it would be a bad idea... Unfortunately, for several reasons, this seems to have occurred...

A very, very sad reflection on our once great country...:sad:

[Bob Viking]

Taking an Argentinian Skyhawk pilot flying in the back seat of my trusty steed.
Ah those were the days.
BV:(

[LowObservable]

Viewing and photographing a full line-up of tactical AA and AG weapons at Kubinka in 1994, expecting to have my collar felt by the KGB at any moment, instead retiring to a hangar for a lunch of Red Banner Mystery Meat and MiG-25 pre-compressor cooling fluid.

[VinRouge]

CAS admitting that the Air Force is at breaking point. Oh no, sorry, must have dreamt that one

[Ken Scott]

Flying a camouflaged Brit Mil aircraft into Moscow airport in the early 90s (carrying a JACIG team going to count tanks) - the locals did stare a bit.

[DON T]

Serving at JHQ Rheindahlen on 9 November 1989 and hearing an officer from Gatow attending a conference reply after being asked whether the Berlin Wall would ever come down, 'Not in my time at Gatow'.

[biddedout]

On a recent European short-haul sector, seeing a C17, F15 and later an IL76 trailing two F4’s.

Had to explain to yoof sitting next to me what they all were.:rolleyes:

I bet he had never made an Airfix or sniffed balsa glue either. :8