View Full Version : A Dearth of Fast Jets
The skies over Worcestershire were once alive with military training flights.
My mother's home is a large L shaped bungalow and we always figured out that it must have been a waypoint for low flying mil a/c.
Gone are the A.10's from Alconbury. Ditto the 1-11's from Heyford.
The Boscombe BAC 1-11 can still be a nice surprise and the BZZ VC.10's are always nice to hear along with a few Hercs on the drop into Lyneham.
But fast jets......no more. Alas not even a Hawk seen in weeks.
But wait - less than 5 minutes ago, my faith in the Defence of the Realm has been restored.
A Gloucester Meteor just went over!!
whowhenwhy
3rd Mar 2011, 14:48
Ah yes, I well remember growing up in Worcestershire. Seeing the high level F111 transits, the A10s and all of ours floating around. Can still see very clearly a raspberry ripple Hunter being chased at low level by a similarly attired Hawk go over my school playing fields. It was just after Reagan ordered the strikes against Libya actually...
I'm Off!
3rd Mar 2011, 16:12
Get real fellas, no-one's house is used as a waypoint for low flying military jets...
engineer(retard)
3rd Mar 2011, 16:23
"Get real fellas, no-one's house is used as a waypoint for low flying military jets..."
Jones the harvester would disagree:
Aviation Photography - Where to go (http://www.targeta.co.uk/wheretogo.htm)
Waypoints
Well I'm not fussed one way or another - well I am really because I miss the action. During the last week of Harrier activity, one changed track right overhead and last week a DSTL whirly machine did as well.
Now having said it happened overhead....there is a wood very close by, and certainly something in the vicinity has to be a waypoint. We have witnessed it since moving there back in the 70's.
My father was a TP so in no way am I anti the noise or any other aerial intrusion:D When we lived near Filton he would blitz the house in a Vulcan, a Canberra, a Britannia or whatever he was flying at the time. Always good to see him!
Used to live under the LFA 7 - 4 link route as a kid, 1960's to mid 70's...and was fortunate enough to fly the self same route a few times as a "grown up" :8
"Get real fellas, no-one's house is used as a waypoint for low flying military jets..."
Waypoint, perhaps not, but I know for certain of one JP QFI who used his house as a target for some of his Group one phase one JP students.....:)
Bob Viking
3rd Mar 2011, 18:04
Waypoints, maybe not. Targets, almost certainly!
BV:ok:
teeteringhead
3rd Mar 2011, 18:15
Had a navigator on 72 Sqn many years ago, who was responsible for the training LL nav routes. Used his house as a turning point on one of them ... no-one was allowed to use that route, but he used the fact of the route as evidence for a rate reduction!! :ok:
Old-Duffer
3rd Mar 2011, 18:57
In about 1984, I had to do a job at Mildenhall and, as a courtesy 'tipped my hat' to OC RAF Mild...
Halfway through our little chat he was summoned next door to 'talk to the general'. Apparently, during an exercise the A10s from just down the road had selected a well placed house as their target and worked the place over during the exercise.
When I later commented that having a few low flying aircraft over the house was nothing to get too excited about, he agreed but then added: 'however, there were 36 of them'.
Old Duffer
The B Word
3rd Mar 2011, 19:15
"Get real fellas, no-one's house is used as a waypoint for low flying military jets..."
I think the Duke and Duchess of Rutland would beg to differ...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Belvoirmorris_edited.jpg
Belvoir Castle (pronounced "Beaver") has been a favourite for many a year - come to think of it Beaver is a favourite of most FJ Jocks :E
The B Word
MightyGem
3rd Mar 2011, 20:32
two F . ..Tomcats, out of Milden or Laken
Carrier aircraft??
soprano54
3rd Mar 2011, 21:40
You all seem to use the roundabout on the southern side of Tewkesbury, which is in my back garden! :eek:
whowhenwhy
4th Mar 2011, 05:28
around Tewkesbury they used to be setting up for a run on the water works at Strensham.
bonajet
4th Mar 2011, 06:52
In the mid 70s the link from Area 4 to 7 was our back yard and we were around Tewkesbury and north of Hereford rather a lot. The one or two aircraft that were acting as attackers on the main formation used to lurk around south of Ledbury. In 1975 we received, out of the blue, a hand drawn Christmas card from the landlord of the Slip Tavern in Much Marcle - see below:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/bonajet/JackFishXmas75.jpg
More of the same throughout 1976 and Jack Fish sent another:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/bonajet/JackFishXmas1976.jpg
He and his lovely wife came up to the squadron for a dining-in either in 76 or 77.
just another jocky
4th Mar 2011, 07:30
Waypoints....turnpoints....you'll be talking IP-to-target map soon. Sadly, legacy stuff these days. Navigation is taken care of by the kit, so no need to select anything unique, contrasting, vertical extent etc anymore.
And low level flying, very much becoming a thing of the past, certainly to the extent we used to 10-20 years ago. On my last tour, low level flying was the exception rather than the norm. Sad, but true. :(
Sorry GK430.
Gaz ED
4th Mar 2011, 09:27
No more waypoints in ROUTE?
I believe the number of waypoints available has increased lately for the Norfolk Land Shark, and that fixing is still practised to update MC nav solution.
Or does everyone just believe the IN/GPS and not bother to cross-refer?
just another jocky
4th Mar 2011, 10:12
I believe the number of waypoints available has increased lately for the Norfolk Land Shark, and that fixing is still practised to update MC nav solution.
Or does everyone just believe the IN/GPS and not bother to cross-refer?
Yes, lots more route waypoints, we have to go via somewhere still. What I meant was that unlike the 'old days', where the Navs would pour over the 1/2 mil for 2 hours whilst the pilots drank coffee are gone. Navigation is sooooo accurate and reliable that a waypoint can literally be a blade of grass in a field, as opposed to, say, a country mansion, or the Peheim Mast, or even the Shobdon magnet. :}
Fixing is still taught on XV(R), and some sqns even have the occasional 'Main Mode' day (pure IN/Kalman Filter), but it's just not necessary in 'IN Mode' (GPS/IN). The change of nomenclature from Navigator to Weapon System Officer is totally apt. Pilots can even change waypoints these days! :eek:
Gaz ED
4th Mar 2011, 10:41
Pilots changing waypoints!
Unheard of!
Understand a new stretchy, elastic RTE line is in the pipeline - how times change...
just another jocky
4th Mar 2011, 12:11
Pilots changing waypoints!
Unheard of!
Understand a new stretchy, elastic RTE line is in the pipeline - how times change...
Lots of things "in the pipeline". Whether they end up in the jets in the current climate is another thing. Focus is naturally on current ops, cos the improvements help to save lives.
<<the Peheim Mast>> Spot of UBEV anyone??:ok:
just another jocky
4th Mar 2011, 18:46
"Fox 2 on the pair of F4's orbiting the Peheim Mast" lol. They never lived it down! :E
Navigation is sooooo accurate and reliable that a waypoint can literally be a blade of grass in a field, as opposed to, say, a country mansion, or the Peheim Mast, or even the Shobdon magnet.
The Shobdon magnet - do tell? Did my PPL out there back in the '70's. Thought we only had to beware some folk to the south when we went off on early X country Nav Exs. (Otherwise they used to follow folks back and have words:= )