Whats your shortest flight ?

[1771 DELETE]

Just to stop the FJ crews from being left out (although some Tornado`s crew have done uncomfortably long flights strapped to the seat with AAR), What is the shortest flight you have completed? Only one rule, Martin Baker did not do the landing.
I will start with 10 minutes on a Nimrod doing a pilots solo on the Nimrod, why it was called solo with 17 crew strapped in down the back was beyond me !

[Cows getting bigger]

32 seconds - a 'fastest cct' competition.

[Geehovah]

In the days of the F4 in 2ATAF the standard northerly departure from Wildenrath was via JHQ Rheindahlen, through the SAM sites to the POL at The Wesel. It took about 10 minutes at low level. On an exercise sortie we found an 8 ship coming the other way. After some (simulated) head-on shots and a bit of turning and burning (yes I was on 92 Sqn so beware) we fired out and RTB'd. A total of 19 minutes from wheels off to chute popped and not much fuel left.

The other notable day was when we had to demonstrate maximum sortie rate during APCs in Malta. The only way to do it was to fly ACT sorties just off the coast. As I climbed out of an F4 at 1030 AM after my 6th 20 minute trip (special dispensation from GASOs), SENGO asked me if I'd had a rough night on the pop because I looked tired.

[soddim]

Two minutes - multiple birdstrikes on take-off in a Lightning and a tight circuit.

[Motleycallsign]

05 Mins Wessex General Handling sortie, weather abort

[Wycombe]

10 mins in the (very plush) back of a Gulfstream 5 positioning from FFD to BZN during RIAT a few years back - much better than RTB'ing in a Sherpa!

Lyneham - Keevil, TALO'ing with Albert

[Shackman]

Wessex, Aldergrove, lift into hover, engine run down, land on. About 5 seconds!

[dagama]

1971 - Herc - Lyneham - Kemble - 5 minutes. Start of a great week supporting the Reds around the country.

[Old-Duffer]

About 10 seconds - cable break on take-off, South Cerney summer 1960, Kirby Cadet Mk 3.

But I suppose that dosen't really count!

O-D

[AQAfive]

Kinloss and Lossie RW are aligned such that with the wind from the east you can just take off, left hand down a bit, and land.
In the 80's Kin bolthole to Lossie meant movement of ac happened at weekend so no danger of FJ in your way. Our illustrious pilot, always one to try the unusual, tried to do it in less than 5 mins so he could put 0 mins in his log book and be correct. I think we failed and 5 it was.

[Wirbelsturm]

10 seconds, relocating from ships deck to jetty for flight deck maintenance. :rolleyes:

[Dengue_Dude]

5 minutes (rounded up) from Lyneham to Colerne - delivery on Duty Working Crew.

Then back by road . . . deep joy.

[ACW418]

Less than 5 seconds carrying out my quarterly SCT with one of my instructors who clearly hadn't read the Flying Order Book etc. In a Viking he pulled the cable release on me just after the wheels left the ground - not allowed to do that until 100'. P1llock!

ACW

[scarecrow450]

3 mins 20 seconds, a circuit of Kirknewton in 1979 in a Cadet ! But we were there all bleedin day for our 3 mins !!

[moggiee]

Boscombe to Brize in a VC10 - rounded UP to nine minutes.

[StopStart]

6 mins 37 seconds, Kabul to Bagram.

[NigelOnDraft]

I recall a long standing competition for Dishforth (RLG) -> Linton in JPs after a detached day, with the results coming in about 3:30? Not too sure about the time, but sure someone will remember...

NoD

[Rossian]

....nipped in to Deci at the end of an exercise sortie to replenish LOX; then gear down Deci to Elmas, 2mins cracking on a bit.

The Ancient Mariner

[essdee]

After reading previous posts I wouldn't claim the shortest. However, I did 3 seasons of display flying (1 on Lightning F1A & 2 on the Phantom) and have quite a number of 10 minute sorties logged, and at least one 5 minute sortie on each of those types. But one claim I will make is that of taking the greatest number of sorties to achieve 1,000 hours on the Phantom.
But you may be interested in the story of 2 junior pilots on 92 Sqn, who were scheduled for a 1v1 combat sortie on the first wave of the day (0830 take-off) in F2As (big ventral). The Boss, a gruff Scot, arrived in the Ops Room after morning met brief (also 0830) to see the 2 JPs busy filling in the auth sheets. Said Boss inquired none too gently why the .... they hadn't walked yet, to be met with the sheepish response that they were signing in! Since the Boss was hot on getting the monthly hours as well as a stickler for punctuality, the resulting conversation was decidedly one-sided.

[1.3VStall]

ED,

I can't remember a "Gruff Scot" boss of ninety-blue in the F2A era. Please elaborate.

[Monty77]

NoD. I accept your challenge. Unfortunately I cannot remember the time but definitely sub 3 minutes.

The wind had to be right for favourable runways, and the last thing you needed was a mate at 5 miles on a TAC to ILS cleared to land.
Best time to attempt was 1650L on a Friday to avoid interference.

That said, my shortest trip was an attempted landing on the Northerly runway at Leeming. I was in the back of a Tucano attempting to demonstrate to Navy stude in the front crosswind landing techniques. Stude's name was, let's say Zippy (because that's what his name was). Anyhoo, Leeming. Well designed with a massive North/South runway and a prevailing S/W wind. In we come with a stonking Westerly. 'I have control',

'Observe as I kick her straight and dip the left wing to stay on the centreline. Oh sweet Jesus! Cr"p!.

Now. Decision streams. A jet engine takes a while to spool up or down. Some are better than others. A turbo-prop will provide instant thrust or not. If you are over the threshold, make your mind up. I didn't. Airborne? Nope? Landing? You signed for it!

So as I thrashed the throttle back and forth it was everyone's guess as to whether it was going to be a crash or a landing, I elected to close the throttle. Luckily, it came up red, but I felt like a kangaroo and used 6000 feet.

As we taxied back in I pleaded with young Navy shaver not to 'fess to the crewroom. To his eternal credit, he kept his gob shut.

So I claim the shortest flight. 0.2 seconds was the shortest, er, bounce. You can still see the marks on the runway. Check that, flying suit.

Bye!

[Lima Juliet]

Shortest flight ever was about 3 seconds.

Just after rotate hit 3 Upland Geese - 1 in one engine and 2 in the other. Followed by a bit of a fire, a total loss of thrust and an overrun cable.

All in all about 3 seconds of airborne time in the Falklands...the engine cores looked like nibbled corn on the cob!

Brown G-pants all around, and that was before OC Air Wing nearly ran me over in a rush to get to the scene! :ok:

[E L Whisty]

'I can't remember a "Gruff Scot" boss of ninety-blue in the F2A era. Please elaborate.'

Is there another kind of Scot?

EssDee - PM me please - Squirrel. (Or I will tell them about the 5 minute sortie in the Phantom FG1, what I was casually observing from 6 feet behind you!)

[shaky]

Firq-Saiq Oman less than five minutes.

[India69]

Cosford, 1965,Sedbergh.Just refurbishe.Call "all out" as it lifts from the deck the wing starts to move violently up and down; plug pulled ! Someone had forgoton to properly attach the wing; pre flights did not involve trying to pull the wing off .
Flight time 3/4 seconds max; fright time seemed much longer.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

12 minutes rounded down to 10; Wattisham - Coningsby; Tornado F3, M0.99 all the way after the 56 disbandment do.
20 second press-ups obviously.
Civvy commercial floatplane licence - 37 landings in 1 hour, shortest flight about 5 seconds for an efato - it's easy when your runway is a thousand miles long (Colorado River)!

[cheesedoff]

5 Mins - Kabul to Bagram

[Legalapproach]

About 2-3 minutes Cardiff to St Athan in a Hawk circa 1981

[BEagle]

Brawdy to Chivenor. 5 min by Hawk, 5 hrs by road.....(Black Cat route...:\)!

[newt]

1.3VStall I think he means RSP!! And I might even have been there at the time:{

[Craven Moorhed]

3 mins 30 'ish : Mona 22 to Vly 32 (as it was). I Logged 10 mins, obviously !

[PlasticCabDriver]

Another lovely day down at Bessbrook, typical South Armagh poo weather day but Percy wouldn't take "No" for an answer so in good SH fashion "we'll have a look".

Lift & transition over Eastern Fence, go very nearly IMC almost immediately, reverse back over Eastern Fence, land, tell Percy that "No means no!", back into dismal dungeon for yet more tea made with UHT skimmed milk and crap daytime telly.

total flight time no more than 40 secs.

[Dan Winterland]

Slingsby Grasshopper - launched by bungee off the school playing fields with about other twenty members of the CCF RAF Section on each end of the rope providing motive power. A couple of the 'hops' (can't really call them flights) lasted a few seconds only. I did 5 and logged one minute!

Also managed a couple of 5 minuters in positioning VC10s between Brize and Fairford.

[November4]

Gib - Marrakech ...about 10 mins and intercontinental.

[just another jocky]

A guyI went through training with did 4 mins on his first solo in a Lightning. No belly tank, stripped out jet, so nervous he didn't notice, OMG acceleration, raise nose...damn I'm too fast to retract the gear, go vertical, get below gear speed passing 10kft to see the low fuel warning illuminate. Sorted the men out from the boys apparantly. :ok:

[essdee]

No banana for you on that occasion, Fox3, as the Wattisham-Coningsby record had already been set at a logged 10 minutes on 10 May 1979 in Phantom FG2 XT908 - and that included a PAR! The return flight on the same date was logged as 15 minutes, also with a PAR, but that was in the dark. The reason for the flights escapes me at this distance in time, but I'm sure it was legitimate and in the Service interest.

[Opsbeatch]

http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/infopop/icons/icon9.gif Shortest Flight
Less than 5 seconds carrying out my quarterly SCT with one of my instructors who clearly hadn't read the Flying Order Book etc. In a Viking he pulled the cable release on me just after the wheels left the ground - not allowed to do that until 100'. P1llock!

ACW

I had a low failure that amounted to about 5 seconds of flying followed by a few seconds of rushing through long grass....I guess the cable hadn't read the 'Flying Order Book' either...

OB

[PFMG]

Kinloss and Lossie RW are aligned such that with the wind from the east you can just take off, left hand down a bit, and land.
In the 80's Kin bolthole to Lossie meant movement of ac happened at weekend so no danger of FJ in your way. Our illustrious pilot, always one to try the unusual, tried to do it in less than 5 mins so he could put 0 mins in his log book and be correct. I think we failed and 5 it was.


Successfully achievd that stat. Started with a PABTO and gained clearance for straight in approach passed from KSS via Lossie TWR prior to rolling. Under 3 mins so could have logged 0 but it features in the log book as 5 mins.

[Biggus]

3 Dec 1984 Hercules CMk3 XV190. 0.05 Day. Cagliari to Decimomannu.


Did it again on 4 Dec 1984 (having been back to Leuchars in between). Both occassions logged as 5 minutes, but I don't remember what the actual flight time was.

[Croqueteer]

:cool:Shackleton Luqa Hal-Far 3mins, 146 famil cct at forence, 3mins airborne to touchdown timed on the wt switch.

[Ewan Whosearmy]

About 10 seconds for this guy:

http://www.aerodrome-gruyere.ch/video/touch-roll-touch/

[QTRZulu]

AQAFive

Did a very similar thing at the end of a bolthole once. We clocked it at 3.5 minutes but that got rounded up by the Nav to 5!

I think he was trying to get to 100 hours in his log book on the trip and actually needed 10 minutes but the P1 wanted to get to happy hour so landed straight in just to p##s him off!

Best of all we got rationed for it:\:\

[30mRad]

Approx 3 mins 30, but logged the SOP 5 mins.

First night solo at Linton-on-Ouse in the autumn, so fog an ever present problem. Briefed for a 60 min sortie - airborne, transit to Fenton, circuits various (normal and flapless IIRC), small bit of upper air work (steepies etc), radar recovery to Linton followed by more circuits.

Disappointed to receive the weather recall as the gear came up, so dutifully turned downwind and landed!

Meant I got to the bar earlier though!

[whowhenwhy]

About 45 seconds following EFATO in a Vigilant from 70-ish feet whilst trying to teach the take-off to Bloggs.

[QEI1]

5 mins as bomb bay caught fire just after take-off, quick 180 landed down wind as systems failing lucky escape!!

[Dan Gerous]

Two 5 min (approx) trips on Helis, both involving ships. One on a Sea King from Stanley to the Rangi, when the seas were to rough for the landing craft, and a Wessex from the Keren to Wideawake, to catch the flight home.

[mikealder]

I appreciate 28 minutes isn't very "short" but considering this was a Russian Antonov AN124 with cargo loaded it is probably the shortest flight an AN124 has made in one hop for a cargo haul (Nimrod XV246 RAF Waddington to BAE Woodford dec 2007) - Mike

[ACSfirstfail]

Tri* full power take-off at BHX at 123-tonnes.

10-mins flat to BZN.:ok:

[H Peacock]

About 10 sec in a Puma, left the No2 throttle at idle! Must have looked good as we peaked at 50ft before coming back down to where we took off from. Not sure what all the UAS pax in the back thought!

:ugh:

[Rigchick]

Leon

Shortest flight ever was about 3 seconds.

Just after rotate hit 3 Upland Geese - 1 in one engine and 2 in the other. Followed by a bit of a fire, a total loss of thrust and an overrun cable.

All in all about 3 seconds of airborne time in the Falklands...the engine cores looked like nibbled corn on the cob!

Brown G-pants all around, and that was before OC Air Wing nearly ran me over in a rush to get to the scene! :ok:

Next flight for that F3 was in an Antonov 124, alongside the Ttitanium fire jet. I did the intake inspection that sent it home!!!!!

Bring on the dancing Queen:ok:

[tarbaby]

Croqueteer

What kept you so long? We did same route, same time in an Argosy.

[saudih]

8 mins Canberra T17 "L" on her last flight prior to being scrapped, Wyton to Marham. I seem to remember we broke every limit apart from altitude..... huge circuit after a run and break at about 480 Kts...... That's what happens when you send 2 Flying Officers on a simple little sortie.......:=

[Hobo]

No really short by these standards, but if I may introduce a civil element, I did LHR-CDG 29 minutes airborne to landed, and Aldergrove to LHR in 38 minutes.

[sitigeltfel]

About 10 seconds - cable break on take-off, South Cerney summer 1960, Kirby Cadet Mk 3.

But I suppose that dosen't really count!

O-D

Same happened to me at HMS Condor. I don't think it lasted ten seconds, and the CFI said I couldn't put it in my logbook..:*

[newt]

The shortest in my logbook is 7 min in a Jaguar at Thumrait doing combat 1v1. Airborne as a pair and "Outwards turn for combat go"!!:ok:



And it was fun fun fun!!

[dctyke]

Around 92 I was on a 1(F) Sqn det stuck at Goose Bay with no AT to get us to Red Flag. The Sqn WO managed to 'hire' a 727 using the Sqn gold card (always thought it was funny to see a bill for many £ payed for by card on a plastic swipe machine at 30,000ft). The pilot asked our destination and was told Nellis to which as he landed as requested............. to be immediately surrounded by security wagons and nasty men waving guns at us. Eventually the stand-off was sorted and we took off again to land at Mc Carran, the 727 wheels hardly left the ground and we couldn't have been in the air for 5 mins!

nb, only time ever in 36yrs service that tea was served in a real porcelain teapot and cups/saucers.............. happy days.

[pedroalpha]

My shortest was around 1 second. I took off in a Westland Scout in Belize, felt a control restriction (no aft cyclic movement) and dumped it straight back down.

[rogerk]

2 minutes of aborted underslung load of sophisticated "comms" aerial.

An over eager Signals Sergeant leaned out from the railings of the radio mast and grabbed the aerial.

He was desperately clinging on to his new toy connecting him to 3000 pounds of Sioux in a very dodgy hover a few feet above his head to a 300 foot metal tower !!

"Drop load - go left"

Buggers didn't talk to us for a month !!

[PARALLEL TRACK]

Used to work with a guy who claimed to have done the whole ACT phase on the Lightning OCU in less than 1 hr. Did 5 trips in a Tonka in one day at Deci myself.

[ihoharv]

Herc XV209 March 84 - bit less than 3 mins.
Fun 4-week detachment ferrying torpedoes and associated boffins daily between Patrick, Andros and Canaveral. Flew in t-shirt & shorts most days, IIRC. Happy days..RIP Bob.

[lurkposition]

Calm evening - JP5a Barkston to Cranwell just under 3 minutes - but had to put 5min in the 700 and auth sheets!
Viper at full throttle just about the entire trip, poor little noisy thing.

[Ken Scott]

A few short flights in my logbook - first solo (Bulldog) was 5 mins (rounded), Elvington to Church Fenton (Tucano) also 5 mins, Brize to Lyneham (C130) in 8 mins (rounded to 10).

Not the shortest flight, but did a circuit at Newton in about 60 seconds in a Bulldog, inside the length of the runway & about 300 ft downwind.

[TOPBUNKER]

Again, not the shortest but KLAS Rwy 1 dct to KLSV Rwy 3 (in a C130) was certainly a swift and busy little trip.

Fun on the radios!

[Firestreak]

Approx 10 secs in a Hawk at Brawdy.

Just lifted off, big bang as Buzzard goes down the intake, engine quits (from ATC the flame/rubbish out of the back end was longer than the fuselage), hit the deck and with 4 heavy feet on the brakes we even avoided to barrier.

[Merged]

Less than 10 secs. Harrier performance hover check. Fire caption on as wheels left the ground. Hover Stop selected and a gentle return to earth achieved!

[MG]

Wildenrath - Bruggen = 2mins
Bruggen was on bolthole(ish) and the St Athan delivery crews weren't allowed to use the southern taxiway; only Bruggen based crews were. We had to pick up the clean jets from Wildenrath and bring them home. Only 2500kgs in the jet and it leapt off the ground.

[cazatou]

Showing my age:-

Strubby - Manby in a Varsity 1967:- 10 minutes.

[Lukeafb1]

Can’t claim it was me, but was sitting in the cockpit of a VC10 on the TASAF pan at Akrotiri in (about 1967), when two Canberra B(I)8s came hurtling down the runway (Squadron Boss as No 2). Just as they took off, No 2 moved into the efflux of No 1. He got about 20 feet into the air, wobbled and came down again. Skated across the bondu removing a few landing lights and slid to a stop a couple of hundred yards from the threshold, removing the main undercarriage. Both occupants exited the aircraft in a cloud of dust and stood staring at the mess. Total time airborne, about 10 seconds!
I was later told to go out and put the undercarriage locks in, so I did. Both legs about 100 yards from the wreck!!:ugh:

[Mick Strigg]

A Sea King sortie from HMS Invinvible: Lifted into the hover; Tail Trans Chip caption illuminated; landed on. Total about 3 seconds but the minimum of 5 minutes went in the logbook!

[pilgarlick]

Had to deliver a PR9 from Halfar, which we had been using while the Luqa runway was resurfaced, back to Luqa. Both were using the northerly runways so it was wheels off at Halfar to be on short finals for Luqa. About 20 seconds in the air.

[Pontius Navigator]

A Sea King sortie from HMS Invinvible: Lifted into the hover; Tail Trans Chip caption illuminated; landed on. Total about 3 seconds but the minimum of 5 minutes went in the logbook!

Interesting.

In 1968 we bolthold from Waddo to Coningsby; take-off on 21 and land on 08. The aim was to do it under 2 min 30 seconds to log the flight with zero flight time.

Our rules were to the nearest 5 minutes. Sounds like your rules were to the nearest 5 minutes above - hours hogs :).

How about the quietest time 'airborne'?

We took a Shack to Biteswell with John Elias as captain. We landed, shut down, and had lunch a la fresco on the grass outside the hangars. I guess we were shut down for 30 minutes or more but JE, building up his hours, said it was all one flight and duly claimed the time first take-off to final landing.

[MostlyHarmless]

Well, never thought I'd see the words "Quietest" and "Shack" in the same post.

[Pontius Navigator]

MH, may be because I was deaf (thank you for the pension payout) but I think I could remember birds chirping and butterfly wings fluttering.

We had another short trip in the Shack again - 40 minutes to land from a Pan which went something like this:

Handover from London to Wittering:

"What is the nature of your emergency?"

"Suspect engine fire, No 1 engine shut down, request immediate landing"

"Roger steer xxx descend to xxxx. Do you have uniforms?"

"Er no, just flying suits."

"Well you will not be allowed in the messes and will have to stay down town."

"*!!!, what?"

After due consideration of the sqn T&S budgets our Fg Off Captain opted for Cottesmore.

Safely on the ground we were told we could only use the scruffs bar in the mess. However we soon noticed that the Brits were in Jackets and ties, the Italians in open neck shirts and sweaters, and the Germans splendid in their orange flying suits. We joined the Germans.

Who said the RAF is nonsense now?

[bast0n]

How about the quietest time 'airborne'?


When both engines stopped in a Wessex V at 1000 feet over Cornwall:O

[mcdhu]

8 mins Lhr to Nht HS125!

mcdhu

[Pontius Navigator]

So plenty of sub 2 min 30 sec flights. What was the consenus, log 5 minutes or zero minutes?

[Mick Strigg]

If you had a flight, it had to go in the F700, Auth Sheets and Log Book. Therefore, if it flew, it flew a minimum of 5 minutes; you cannot have a flight in any of these documents that lasted zero minutes!

[VNE405]

Takeoff, fire warning, e-handle, dump 7000lb of fuel, land. 13 minutes....kiss the ground.

[Pontius Navigator]

Mick, sorry, but you are the only one to declare less than 2.5 minutes as 5 minutes. I would still like to hear from light blue and others.

Does any flight HAVE to be recorded with at least 5 minutes flight time?

[mcdhu]

Jenks, I'm aware that mine was not the fastest but can't remember who held it nor the time - can you?

These days I have to settle for BHD-LTN as the challenge - 41mins thus far as measured by the 'bus so no cheating. Can you remember the BFS-NHT record? I think set by Uncle M way back.

Sorry for the thread creep.

mcdhu

[tarbaby]

Can't give exact date and time due to log book missing, believed still lost in CAA dungeons, however someone is bound to know: 1981, C130, Gander-Lyneham in under 4 hours. Ground speed over 500kts most of the way. A short route check. Great fun watching 747s below at FL180 trying to get out of the wind.

[Beancountercymru]

Hawker Hunter F.58A G-PSST ..departed at 12:16 to St.Athan as "Flapjack 01"

Landing at 12:18 from Cardiff is "Flapjack 01" Hunter F.58A G-PSST


Source http://cardiffstathan.********.co.uk/2012/06/log-wednesday-06062012.html

And a good picture of the engine start as well

[ksimboy]

2 mins 30 secs Nellis to Macarran in Albert. Best part was that flight was over midnight and earned the brave crew 33 hours off as it was the 6th day . What a wonderful rule that was :D

[lurkposition]

bast0n - just seen yours. My quietest flight - Dusk, SMG, 900' SK3 double overspeed trip! Nice big runway for FL though!

[Floppy Link]

Just over 10 seconds - Ballykinler to Ballykinler - film crew needed a shot of the Wessex lifting for a trooping drills video, most of the other footage was static or internal with some air to air, flown by my Flt Cdr, but he must have trusted me not to crash it...thanks Glenn! :ok:


Edit: I think I got to log 5 minutes for that, need to check...

[Roland Pulfrew]

If you had a flight, it had to go in the F700, Auth Sheets and Log Book. Therefore, if it flew, it flew a minimum of 5 minutes; you cannot have a flight in any of these documents that lasted zero minutes!

Does any flight HAVE to be recorded with at least 5 minutes flight time?

My understanding has always been that flight times should be rounded to the nearest 5 minutes, therefore flight time of 0 - 2 mins 29 secs should be rounded down to 0 minutes. As long as auth sheets, F700 and log book tally not sure what the problem is.

My best effort was in very light weight Nimrod. PABTO from Lossie 23 to Land Kinloss 26 (in those days) where we were definitely trying for under 2' 29". Didn't crack it though (but only just) so 5 minutes is in the log book.

[SASless]

Sikorsky S-58T Revenue flight....Aberdeen....Aberdeen Harbor...and return. Cheated...doubled the flight time.... 0.2 round trip.

[Stuff]

Less than 2 minutes in a Tucano.

Lifted from Linton to find the cockpit filled with an overpowering smell of Tippex. Toggled down and 100% oxy made the smell far, far worse and started to feel quite light headed. Emergency oxy pulled and landing made. Subsequent investigation found that the main oxy bottle had been washed with 1-1-1 Trichloroeathane and it hadn't been properly rinsed out afterwards. The Doc then grounded us for 48 hours which gave a nice long weekend :D

[canard68]

Citation HOSM to Brough gear up gear down land.

[sharpend]

Can anyone beat this for the shortest flight from an overseas RN airfield to an overseas RAF airfield?: Halfar to Luqa, 10 seconds, in a Canberra B15 in 1968. It's just one runway now, but then a road separated the two.

I claim 5 minutes... always was an hours hog ;)

[ex-fast-jets]

How about.........................

Harrier field deployment in Germany, April 1974...............

1-4 Apr, 23 tasked sorties, total time 8hrs 30 mins.

Max permitted at the time was 6 sorties per day.

So I missed out on one!!

Anyone beat 23 sorties in 4 days with less total time??

[jindabyne]

Ask Bob Prothero

[Sven Sixtoo]

Numerous trips of 10 seconds or less in Sea Kings coming out of maintenance.

If all 3 wheels left the ground, it went in the logbook. Minimum entry 5 minutes.

Also one very naughty trip Navy Point spot 1 to spot 2. One thing was missing so it never got logged anywhere.

Iain

[Prangster]

'Tis but a rumour that they flew. Besides it aint got no engin. Hang on...don't let the bean counters know or they'll have them in the front line as an eco friendly pursuit ship

[WE992]

I think the Slingsby Grasshopper used by many CCF units at public schools would be them all. Normally launched by bungee the normal flight time was lucky to be as long as 20 seconds.

[fincastle84]

I was sitting in the routine nav seat on a crew trainer out of Kinloss & the pilots were filling the last hour with approaches & circuits. The fog rolled in rather quickly & embarrassingly Kinloss went out & we had to divert to Lossie.

We picked up the aircraft the next day with a 5 minute return to Kinloss. RIP.

[5aday]

Newcastle RW25 Engine failure at about 1500 ft in a single.
Very strong headwind so I declared, turned downwind left
and back on to RW25. About five or six minutes in the air and then closed
the runway for about 30 minutes. Made myself a bit unpopular
with a couple of inbound flights.

[Pontius]

Just to keep Mick Strigg happy; several 20 second press-ups in the puff jet. Individual flights 20 seconds, combined total of 10 minutes (or whatever) for the F700 :)

How about an engine failure in a Bulldog just after wheels off and a landing straight ahead? That must be up there with the 3 seconder :uhoh:

Shortest non-GA civvy flight, GLA-EDI in a 757, easterly-easterly runways, CATIIIB at EDI and a total flight time of 7 minutes.

[brit bus driver]

3 min 30 (rounded to 5) in a Tri* - Brize-Fairford positioning for RIAT.

[KG86]

0 mins.....

I was tasked to conduct an air test on a Wessex at RAF Odiham in the late 70s. Before I was due to lift, I had to conduct a Blade Track. This involved the engineers erecting a vertical pole, with tripod legs and steady wires, just outside the rotor disc, and then slowly rotating a canvas flag into the rotor tips. The tips had coloured chalk on the ends, so the flag would be marked with the tip paths (eg red blade up 1 inch, yellow down 2 etc).

Ac starts normally, all functionals completed, and I signal to the engineers to move the mast into position. The three of them push the heavy mast towards disk, to line up the tripod feet with chalk marks on the ground. Unfortunately, they hadn't noticed a step in the join between adjacent concrete slabs. One foot snags on that and, as the engineers keep pushing, the top tips over towards the rotor disc, and one of the steady wires contacts the tips.

Sudden twang, ac now vibrates, and emits a loud whistling noise as the four rotor tips are ripped off!

So I shut down, trudged back to the line office, to sign the ac in, and complete an incident report.

A wire strike, having never left my parking space, with zero flight time.

[Janda]

In 1976 I did 3 times 3 minute trips from Lossiemouth into Kinloss to relocate 3 different Nimrods. Officially 5 minutes was claimed for each trip. Spent about 3 hours on the bus travelling back and forth.