Free rides?

[Bridge23]

Could any serving pilots tell me if they are ever, under any circumstances allowed to take family or friends up in their aircraft? This specifically refers to current fast-jet pilots.

I would suspect they would not be allowed to for safety reasons and fuel costs, etc....but is there any circumstance known where this would be allowed?

I can think of few things more satisfying after many years of intense training than taking up a family member and showing them what you do daily!!!!!

[ranger703]

Only example I can think of recently was when a certain Tonka pilot took his 'Jedi' brother for a ride down Scotlands 'Star Wars Valley' and that was done as a PR/Charity trip.I believe the pilot has now left the services though.

Only other one I can think of were a Father/Son Buccaneer trip many eons ago.Father was a serving pilot,son was a serving Nav so I don't think that counts.

[Number2]

I thought you had to have a 'lumpy jumper' to get a pax trip in a FJ?

[stickmonkeytamer]

Not enough pax trips are given now due to the lack of servicability. If the Sqn's 2-seat aircraft were ever available, someone needed a check. I was always glad to fly someone when I had the chance, as long as they had earned it. The pax then understood what we did in the air and I found that they gave a better return for the sqn after that. Pax rides are an investment in our people.

SMT

[Wee Jock McPlop]

For starters, I never viewed pax trips as free rides and never took mine for granted. They were normally given to those that had, for some reason or another, earned them. Lumpy jumpers? Well you could say they......!!;) But Stickmonkeytamer has it spot on. It gave an albeit small number of groundhuggers the chance to understand what operating a fast jet really entailed. It helped me as an air trafficker understand their operating issues and, I think, made me a better operator for it. Indeed, I think a few current aircrew got their taste for flying as a result of such pax trips. Even in these times of ever-decreasing budgets, I believe pax trips are still good value - where appropriate.
WJMcP

[Pontius Navigator]

On this forum, not so long ago, there was a bit about a T* low level over Wales ~ that was a families outing IIRC.

The ANS used to use METS to fly families on their open days.

I have flown 2 brothers-in-law in a Nimrod - slightly different as one was a FLEM and the other an MEM(A).

[The Helpful Stacker]

My brother keeps asking if I'd like to go up in a Nimrod, but although I'd love to see what a Nimrod pilot does I don't fancy being pinged to serve tea and pies to all those crew members.;)

[QFIhawkman]

Family? You must be joking. I couldn't manage it in 8 years on tombs, which is more understandable, but even on Hawks I've so far had no luck. The flying programme just doesn't leave much room for it, and when there is the room, some local non-celebrity rugby player or page 3 muppetess manages to snaffle it in the name of either;
1) "Publicitee" for the station / RAF as a whole, or:
2) "Chariddee".

The latter I can uderstand. But the former?

Does anybody know someone who joined the Air Force because they saw Will Carling having a ride in an F4 once? The prosecution rests.


As an aside, a very nice Police chap on here (a flying observer) has been politely pestering me for ages now for a ride, and to be honest I can see the point from a deconfliction point of view. Their aircraft sometimes operates in the same valleys as mine. I do my best, but I just can't see it in the very near future because obviously the Mayor of Angelsey or Lorraine Kelly are far more deserving of the slot.

Blood boiling stuff.

[mutleyfour]

Probably not quite as thrilling but I did get my wife airborne in a Chipmunk during my Pilots course.

[Wessex Boy]

When I was at Shawbury in the late '80s we often use to fly the new ATC studes (especially lumpy jumpers) and we also used to use 'Familiarisation flights' as currency for getting additional services out of flight safety, MT, etc.
eg If we needed additional survival packs for an exercise the CO would ask me to have a chat with IC Safety Flight at the Sgt's Mess bar, buy him a beer and get his new starters over to the squadron in time for morning prayers....

[mlc]

Gazelle flight was part of the syllabus during my ATC course at Shawbury. Managed a few rides in a FRADU hunter whilst as Yeovilton. Loved it!

[LFittNI]

Slight thread drift, i.e. not family and certainly not friends, but the engineers did used to get trips "in the old days".
My one FJ trip was after spending ages coaxing a 74 Sqdn. (Lightnings era)pilot to really understand the full implications of Euler angles, from an avionics/mathematics/solid geometry point of view, rather than stick-monkeying (he was probably facing an exam or some such). A couple of months later I had an excellent trip up the East coast of Malaysia in the squadron T bird--buzzing the sub aqua club on Pulau Aur on the way.
Great stuff.

[Wessex Boy]

One of my course-mates at Finningley almost got to the end of AEOp training and then found that he threw up on every trip in the Nimrod, so he went to Farnborough for a few weeks and got to fly in fast jets to determine exactly what motion made him ill!! They decided that being a Rotorhead would be Ok for him...
We all thought about pulling that one...

[Flarkey]

a mate of mine sorted me out with a FJ trip at leeming, although it was in one of the little black planes with a spare seat in the back, not one of the pointy grey ones with big flamey engines. I think that is a bit more difficult to arrange.

It was a nice day out.

[A2QFI]

I was on a unit with a boss and 4 pilots and 5 a/c. For Remembrance Sunday the boss went to the city centre in his No 1 uniform and the pilots did the flypast with their wives with them. I also did a landaway once (Navigation CT training) and happened to go to a relatives house for lunch and he happened to get a 30 minute trip before we went home. No names or locations, to protect the guilty, and it was a long time ago!

[Pontius Navigator]

THS, take the trip. There is no way they would entrust a tray of tea to a novice or get you to make peanut butter and pilchard sarnis with marmalade.:}

[akula]

PN,

A TRAY of tea, more like a bloody hoofin' big teapot, that is full of lifeforms of interest to the Porton Down Brigade. It is this teapot that gives the Nockers their fantastically strong wrists:E :E


ALWAYS assume NEVER check

[The Helpful Stacker]

THS, take the trip. There is no way they would entrust a tray of tea to a novice or get you to make peanut butter and pilchard sarnis with marmalade.

Hey I'm no novice with tea, 6 years on TSW (Tea Supping Wing) pays testimony to that.;)

A TRAY of tea, more like a bloody hoofin' big teapot......

Don't they use the teapot to stop the a/c decompressing?:}

[ATCO17]

Was very fortunate on completion of JATCC to spend 2 weeks at Scampton on the ATC air experience course. Seven trips in the Tucano sim, followed by three in the aircraft. First trip GH, second, low-level navex and third, formation GH and aeros. A real privilage. Unfortunately, the money ran out after only about half a dozen courses!:ok:

[Tim Mills]

In those far off days when there were only 'slow jets' and 'even slower jets' I took my son for a ride in a Vamp T11. It was at Shawbury and we were supposed to be bashing the GCA circuit for the U/T controllers, but I imagine we sloped off to do the odd aero as well. He was in the ATC at school at the time, so it was legal, but I made him get his hair cut as payment; not sure he has ever forgiven me! Also the odd Chippie flight.

And I did hear tell of a Canberra instructor hiding his wife in a flying suit, electric hat, and all the other things the well dressed Canberra navigator wears, and take her for a tour of the Scottish low level route!

[MAD Boom]

"My brother keeps asking if I'd like to go up in a Nimrod, but although I'd love to see what a Nimrod pilot does I don't fancy being pinged to serve tea and pies to all those crew members"
Don't worry about it stacker, you're not cleared to handle in-flight refreshment - you need to complete the highly intensive week-long course before you can go solo on the teapot, tagged onto the end of the 6 month Nimrod OCU:
Day 1 - Theory: number of teabags required per pot (average 10)
Day 2 - Practical: Water Boiler famil
Day 3 - Practical: Teapot handling during extreme manouveres (MAD Comp/Radr Homings/Co-Pilot flying
Day 4 - Theory - Knowing who to 'accidentally' pour hot liquid over the AEO
Day 5 - Practical - Oven famil/Demonstrating the ability to cram it with as much cr*p as possible.
Followed by a full skills test: Aims-to make teaspoon stand up in pot, burn as many pies as possible, receive only 12/13 complaints about the service.
The Pilots/Navs complete the 'short course'
Day 1 - Theory: Galley avoidance techniques
Day 2 - Theory: Strange lumps in liquid recce
Day 3 - Practical: Sit on arse and wait for it to come to you

[Wyler]

1 Jan 2000, MPA.

My brother was over from NZ with wife and my Nephew. We spent the first morning of the new Century flying around the islands Low Level in the 1312 Flt Herc. Absolutely fantastic.
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Occasionally watch the video I took. Some of those shadows are VERY big.:ooh:

[Tim McLelland]

I've been reading this thread with interest, not least because I've scrounged rides in pretty-much everything the RAF's got, at some stage or other. It's fair to say that some lucky non-aircrew folks do still occasionally get given flights but it's even rarer these days than it used to be. Us civilian photographers and writers have a hard time getting many chances these days and even the occasional "celeb flights" don't pop up too often. I think the last one was the afore-mentioned Lorraine Kelly; a saga which frustrated me in particular as if it hadn't been for her, I would have gone instead! But you have to look at things in PR terms and although it's easy to scoff at these "joyrides" for celebs, you have to appreciate that it's often the only way you can get the RAF onto the TV (unless it's some mis-reported war zone story of course) as the television folks don't want to know unless there's some banal "angle" to make a story. Clearly, it's always a good thing to get the RAF shown in a positive light, so you can't blame the PR people for doing it once in a while. I guess it must seem a bit annoying to all the folks who are stuck on the ground day in and day out, supporting the aircraft but never getting to fly in them, but in wider terms, it makes good sense to pop poor ol' Lorraine in the back of an F3... surely, out of all the people who will have watched the TV coverage, there's a fighting chance that at least one person might have thought about the RAF as a career... so it's got to be worth doing?

[Pontius Navigator]

Akula, quite right, it was a long time ago. On the Shack we used a tray though as we could not manage a tea pot over the spars.

Mad Boom, you forgot something. It featured on both the knocker and exec courses:

Oven cleaning - checks before flight, checks before incineration and post flight cleaning. Not ot mention allowing extra time for cooking the pies after a MAD trap.

PS - knockers to clean and execs to find other more important trivia :)

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

There is, of course, the notorious legend of the UAS Bulldog stude on a solo sortie, who was spotted landing in a field near his parents' house by a QFI in a different aircraft...never quite established whether the landing was to drop off the stude's dad after a trip, or whether the stude was only about to pick his dad up...

To answer the original question: even in my rotary niche, we only get to fly family members on Families' Day - and even then, it's spouse/dependent children only, and they are carefully programmed to fly with a crew which doesn't include their aviator relative. From what I hear, the Fun Police have done a thorough job of preventing the tales related on this thread from ever happening again:(

[The Helpful Stacker]

To answer the original question: even in my rotary niche, we only get to fly family members on Families' Day - and even then, it's spouse/dependent children only, and they are carefully programmed to fly with a crew which doesn't include their aviator relative. From what I hear, the Fun Police have done a thorough job of preventing the tales related on this thread from ever happening again
Yesterday 17:55


Not sure if you are a plastic pig driver, master of the mighty wokka or care worker for the old maid of Benson but I must say my wife appreciated her trip up in a Chinook at the last Odiham Families Day. She had been badgering me for ages about wanting to fly in a helicopter and luckily the fun police have kept their hands off that small sliver of dependant perk.

[hobie]

I do my best, but I just can't see it in the very near future because obviously the Mayor of Angelsey or Lorraine Kelly are far more deserving of the slot.


now let's see ..... the Mayor or Lorraine ? ....... :confused:

http://members.fortunecity.com/noops222/lorrain_kelly0031.jpg

[ShyTorque]

I'm sure the Mayor of Anglesey deserves slotting.

Anyway, Lorraine Kelly has her own slot - I once saw it in another photo of her on the web.. :E

Got my wife flights in a Bulldog and a Puma some years ago - only constraint was that they didn't allow husband and wife to fly together (in the case of an accident, no-one wanted the kids). I flew someone else's wife.

More difficult to get them flights in FJs due to the aeromedical concerns.

[richlear]

As a young siggie between the OCU & 201Sqn in the early 80s I put myself about a bit. Made a few brass-neck phone calls, gave up some leave and have 4 trips in a Hawk, a couple of hours in a JP3 & a couple more in a JP5.

Good fun!

[oldbilbo]

A long, long time ago, when the world and Pumas were young, and I was a JO, I had the role of running a TacDet - a half dozen Landrovers, some tents, and some mixed Gunners and Engs - to provide support for a flight of four Pumas. We deployed to the moors of south-west Wales , and set up camp in a long narrow wood, the helos on the field out front, while the single-track road wound across the moor, over the humpy bridge and along the back of the wood.

The machines were away doing tasking somewhere, when one of the Gunners called into my Ops Tent, in the middle between the Eng Empire and the Rockies, to tell me a police van was approaching. So I put my hat on to go meet what turned out to be the local sergeant. Lots of handshakes and courtesy noises, he asking what we were doing and where the aircraft were, and me walking him down to the Eng end, with the big fire, where we cadged a mug of tea from the perpetual urn.

The police sergeant was introduced to the half-dozen SNCOs around the fire, conversation limped along as it does in such circumstances, and I had to deflect the heavy hint of 'I'd love a ride in one of those helicopters', for there wasn't one around. Then I became aware of a strangeness in the comments and discussion, and that we were distinctly unwelcome around the fire. So I drew the 'polis' away up to my Ops Tent, to look at the maps and stuff, and to ask the siggie to find out if any C/S was nearby. There was something wrong....

Anyway, one C/s did say he was just a few minutes away, so I asked him if he couldn't 'drop back to base'. He did, I asked him if he'd take the local bobby for a brief flight, and that was sorted after a quick safety brief.

No sooner had the Puma got airborne again and lifted over the hill, policeman on board, than I was straight back to the Eng fire with "WTF's going on?" They sheepishly pointed to the large lamb roasting on a spit over the fire....

The 'polis' was delighted with his flip, and was escorted back to his van without passing near the offending roast lamb supper, and went happily on his way.

That was one of the very few occasions I got a 'Thank you, sur!' from the Sqn Eng Section - and a big plate of roast lamb for supper.

:O:O:O

[BEagle]

Lorraine Kelly.....I don't think even 'Moulinex' would......:eek:

Re. free rides, it was often the case that SORF formation flights at Leeming would be asked to take a stn pax sandbag along for a ride in the lead JP. One pilot wasn't much impressed when told to take some lad along for a trip, just made sure he was strapped in, then ignored him.... It may be recalled that such trips leading refresher students around often culminated in a humdinger of a no-holds barred tailchase.

"How did your pax enjoy it?", he was later asked.

"No idea - he went to sleep at one and a half G and didn't wake up until we landed" came the reply!

He didn't take any more pax!

[FormerFlake]

When I was at Shawbury in 99 they offered flights during the families day.

At Brize they do regular Famlies Flights, but not on the C17.

[Vim_Fuego]

The last time we took a Nim down to Lyneham for one of thier 'wing days' they were flying the families for most of the day...

THS...I doubt you would be trusted with the pies...Certainly if you were on board with me there would be some manipulation of distribution to avoid the gopping 'Jock' pies...

[Take That]

Yes, it can be done, but sometimes 'slightly outside the rules'. Several years ago my partner was offered a Hawk trip from 4 FTS in reciprocation of status as a ATPL/SFO with a UK airline. Result: chundering within ten minutes of low level in Wales clad in an immersion suit as opposed to a collar and tie. How I enjoyed the subsequent respect for my day to day flying.

Bottom Line: Two seat FJ. Forget it. Cockpit time within the current yoke of CFT is too valuable. T-Bird: Try your luck - what have you got to lose.