Phandet FI, the early days...

[wiggy]

The photos below were all taken Dec 82 to March 83 when 23 Sqn took over the Phandet baton in the Falklands from 29(F). As for the quality,apologies but they were taken before the days of digital cameras. I used a Kodak Instamatic, shipped the films back to the UK Easter 83 where they were processed and the prints have lived in a cardboard box for nearly 30 years. I finally got around to scanning them tonight....:hmm:....

As well as pics of some of the hardware and the Phandet area I've included a couple of snaps of some of my fellow inmates....I may or may not be in one of these pictures.......:oh:

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet10edit.jpg?t=1318182202
Yours truly taking on fuel, very early hours AM of Jan 2nd, 1983.

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet7edit.jpg?t=1318182160
View north towards Phandet line with rubberised hangars in background.

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet6edit.jpg?t=1318182172
Pucaras at the western end of Stanley airport in a sad state. Rumour had it that their ejection seats were deliberately fired by our own Army EOD people as a quick and easy way of making them safe. Stanley harbour in the background.

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet5edit.jpg?t=1318182177
Aircrew at instant readiness :rolleyes: outside Mk 1 crew room/TV room. Argentinian drop tank acting as a conversation piece. Steely eyed aviator on RHS has the presence of mind to feign interest, knowing he'll appear on Pprune one day.

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet2edit.jpg?t=1318182181
View south towards Phandet line with runway beyond it and southside dispersal in distance.

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phander1edit.jpg?t=1318182184
I've no recollection of taking this picture but it's notable that there are no AIM9s on the inboard pylons and it's carrying a centreline tank, not the gun pod, in other words it's not in the SOP Phandet fit. Was this an aircraft that had just landed from ASI?

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet8edit.jpg?t=
Another steely eyed aviator tries to strike a heroic pose but ends up looking like a complete.........

[McC]

Now look what you've started! Still, good flying, and my bank manager thought I had died as I didn't spend any cash for 4 months!

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/RS10.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/Untitled-4.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/HercAAR-1.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/Ramp2.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/QBirdStanley.jpg

[McC]

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/HercAARHarrier.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/hercAAR5.jpg

[Rhino power]

Superb pics guys! Myself being an absolute Phantom nut, pictures like these are a rare treat, so thanks for sharing and needless to say if you've got anymore, and not just from the FI then please post those as well. Its all well and good seeing photos taken by professional photographers, but nothing really compares to pics actually taken by the crews themselves, aircrew and groundcrew alike...

Thanks again, Dazza

[wiggy]

Ok, whilst I can't compete with the quality of McC's stuff, here are three more..

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet3edit.jpg

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet11.jpg

Arrested landing was the norm. If you look hard enough you can see the hook is under tension and you look really hard you can just see the line of the rubber doughnuts that were strung along the cable when it was rigged. We always pulled the brake chute, (usually just before touchdown), even for a cable engagement.

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet13edit.jpg

Not the best image I'll admit..but just treat it as artistic and imagine the noise.

I do have some more stuff, both FI and non-FI somewhere, I'll see if I can dig it out and get it scanned...

[McC]

Wiggy,

Good pics! In the pic I posted of the AAR basket with the F4 in the background, I believe you are flying that F4. Were we not on some middle of the night Herc escort trip?

[wiggy]

McC...

Could well be. My notes on the back of my first print ( the one of the C-130/F-4 tanking in twilight) say AM 2nd of Jan 83. My logbook says it was indeed a C-130 M.R.R. escort sortie ( I seem to recall the briefing we got at o'dark thirty was that C-130 MRR was providing top cover for one of our Oceanographic(?) vessels passing to the west of the islands ...never really sure I ever bought that story................)

Anyhow our F-4 was XV464, with R.M. in the back.

[McC]

Yep, same trip. Steve Graves and I. Do I recall trying to refuel from a Herc lights out? Or am I just making that up?

Pete

[McC]

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/Untitled-1v.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/Untitled-1e.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/F4Sunset.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/F4Patrol.jpg

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w70/mcc757/Falklands%201982/Untitled-5e.jpg

[Busta]

Hi wiggy and Pete,
First attempt at this, could go either way

T+9



http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/fIF42.jpg

[McC]

Shame we can't get sound!!!!

[wiggy]

Last of my Phandet stuff worth uploading at the moment, not much aviation content but stuff that might of interest or just bring back happy memories :yuk::yuk::

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet14edit-1.jpg
More of the wreckage left behind on the airfield.

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet16edit-1.jpg
View from the main road looking down the hill towards Stanley harbour. One of the two Bluff Cove vessels is tied up to the right, the ship with the red funnel moored in the background is the "Rangatira" :eek:

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet17edit-1.jpg

The Rangatira again. Our accommodation for the first few weeks of Phandet when we weren't sleeping at the airfield (which was every other night). A.K.A. "HMS Smelly" :uhoh:

http://i840.photobucket.com/albums/zz328/stephen09_photos/phandet18edit-1.jpg

The Rangatira was subsequently replaced by this oil industry accommodation vessel, the "Coastel".......FWIW she was eventually ended up as a prison accommodation block moored on the East River in New York....saw her on a river cruise there a while back and was so gobsmacked I blurted out the fact that I used to live onboard..........didn't get bothered on the cruise after that.

[McC]

The Rangatira! What a dump!

[wiggy]

Surely not McC, she's even got her own website...

Rangatira (http://www.bluestarline.org/rangatira.html)

[Drainpipe]

Oh, the joys of the FIs. Picture of myself and LJ sometime in the middle of '83. Photo taken by JB who was sadly killed not long after.



http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6219/6243338382_d3a600bde2_z.jpg

[Drainpipe]

More faces you may recognise. I bet they don't look like this now :eek:

I think I'm in one of them!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6096/6242820317_3a4deec3c1_z.jpghttp://farm7.static.flickr.com/6060/6243337884_5d8e10e828_z.jpg

[Drainpipe]

The arrival of another Coastel

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6158/6243338160_a71f2b2a5a_z.jpg

[BEagle]

Hi wiggy and Pete,
First attempt at this, could go either way

T+9



Goes better with the intake blanks removed, eh Busta ;)?

[Busta]

Hi Beags,

It went rather well as I recall, got to 400kts and 4000ft before I did anything, the only downside was the awful racket and Blackpool illuminations around the cockpit

Nothing matters very much, most things don't matter at all.

[Busta]

Just a few more.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/PD_0005.jpg

Albert did a high speed RTO at Ascension, followed by exciting AAR!

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/PD_0013.jpg

First view.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/PD_0092.jpg

I don't know how the opposition felt, but looking back it frightens me.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/PD_0021.jpg

Yours truly.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/PD_0118.jpg

Home made HAS?

[beamer]

Pete

If you have any general images of F1 and Stanley from the early days, I would be really grateful for any you would let me upload some - all mine lost a long time ago.

Beamer

[Mach Two]

The D Fit jet in Post #1 had indeed just arrived from ASI. I need to check my logbook, but I'm pretty sure it's the one I bought down. Nearly hit the tanker off the coast of Brazil when he turned left into me while I was answering a call of nature. Happy days!

[wiggy]

Busta

Thanks kindly for the group piccie, I don't recall that being taken but then again it's nearly 30 years ago, f*** that's scary. I showed it to the kids earlier tonight - I thought they would say we looked suitably heroic but after peeing themselves laughing they thought I looked "babyish" :*:* Strangely they also said something rude about the tall guy in the middle at the back but I forget exactly the words they used.......

Drainpipe

post #16

I bet they don't look like this now

Actually I see the guy on the RHS of your second picture at work now and then and he still does still look much the same ...b*****d! ( On second thoughts it's not you is it!!!)

post#15

JB who was sadly killed not long after.

Yep, went through the OCU (and more prior to that) with both J(?G) B and JG..even after all this time that one still hurts :sad:

[Busta]

Pete, as promised last Friday.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/PD_0091.jpg

Yourself.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/PD_0077.jpg


Wiglet.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff471/Tplus9/PD_0060.jpg

Some old boat.

[McC]

Christ! That made my kids laugh!!!

[wiggy]

Yikes..........

These days it's the same hairstyle but a different colour...still it'll give the kids a giggle.

Seriously busta thanks for that, sorry I didn't catch up with you guys earlier this month..promise to try harder next year.

[BEagle]

The 'old boat' in better days:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/LadyElizabeth.jpg

She is the barque 'Lady Elizabeth', now slowly rotting away in Whalebone Cove.