Base and Communications Flight, things of the past?

[chopper2004]

Just noticed over the years whether its RAF, USMC or USN or any other air arm, that communications flights / base / station flights seem to have withered away either due to post Cold War / Gulf War One.

Do Base Flights / Communications Flights still have a place today?

Cheers

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Do Base Flights / Communications Flights still have a place today?


Of course - in fact they form one of the four pillars of the 21st Century RAF. The others being Maritime Patrol, top-notch IT, and leadership.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

There are, of course, seven pillars of wisdom.
I suggest the 3 others are:
Flying hours
Time to do a job properly
A shared ethos (which cannot be obtained working alongside civvies who are paid min. wage, receive no on-going training and slope off at 4:30 on a Friday whatever the Monday requirements)

[PFMG]

To be honest I would struggle to find then on the station telephone directory. Never have got the hang of the daft BSW/FSW thingy. What was wrong with Ops Admin Eng wings?

[sisemen]

What was wrong with Ops Admin Eng wings?

Patience. All you have to do is wait until some bright spark re-invents the system that worked perfectly.

[Wander00]

Have to reopen Binbrook first (for the "youngsters", it was the "Binbrook Scheme" that introduced the three wing system - Ops, Admin and Eng)

[ian16th]

What was wrong with Ops Admin Eng wings

Was that anything like the Flying, Technical and Admin Wings we had in the 50's and 60's?

[BEagle]

Back in the days when we had an air force, there were quite a number of these communications squadrons. They flew from stations such as Andover, Bovingdon and Topcliffe (2 of which have since been pongo'd, the other is a prison) and would potter about the UK in Ansons, Bassetts, Devons, Pembrokes etc. carrying scrambled egg-hatted officers about. They went about their business in a quietly, professional manner until the axe-wielding bean counters decided that they had to go....:mad:

The last remaining comms squadron is 32 at Northolt - 4 x 146 and 2 x 125 plus a couple of helicopters......

And nowadays senior officers aren't even entitled to first class rail travel.

[Geezers of Nazareth]

There's still a 'Station Flight' at RAF Northolt .... is that the only one still active?

[CoffmanStarter]

I was very fortunate to bag a seat in a Pembroke C1 of 60 Sqadron at RAF Wildenrath many years ago. Night SCT for the crew followed by a few pints of Amstel on me ... a great bunch of characters :ok:

Can't remember names now :(

http://www.airpowerworld.info/transport-aircraft/hunting-percival-p-66-pembroke-c1.jpg

A great little aeroplane ...

Coff.

[Fareastdriver]

Back in the days when we had an air force, there were quite a number of these communications squadrons
I can remember when our, because I used to fly it, station Anson was nicked by 3 Group when they formed their 3 Grp Communications Flight.
This meant that the 3 Grp stations had to bid for an aeroplane if they had a reason to need it.
3 Grp staff, however, had no problem.

[Pontius Navigator]

Back in the days when we had an air force, . . . flew from stations such as . . . Coningsby with two Ansons and Master Pilots and the FSO to fly them . . . carrying scrambled egg-hatted officers . . .

And a whole V-bomber crew in one aircraft

Or a Bassett which could carry half a Lancaster crew and needed two just to flew 5 of us from Benson to Waddo.

[Laarbruch72]

BEagle, 32 Sqn have more than 2 x 125s, it's currently six I think.

[NutLoose]

Ahhh the Pembroke, as a young AC NL I learnt to Marshall with one of those at Saint Athans Coff, and was taught to swing a prop with a Bassett, again at Saints, thankfully never to be done again, even though I do piston stuff these days..

Pembroke a bit later on miraculously became a flier again and departed the school....
Nearest I ever got to one again was doing a Jag engine change next to one at Gut, it had flown in to do a medevac and threw a cylinder on take off covering the side in thick black oil and scaring the stretchered patient. Took them a while to fix as one of the guys doing it asked his mate to throw a screwdriver up to him and he never caught it.... It dissapeared straight down through the open cap into i think the oil tank lol... Took a couple of days to get it out and get the pot done :E

I also as a Civi i did repairs on the then BBMF Devon cowlings, all the intake scoops were age hardened and cracked, so we asked the RAF if they had new ones we could fit whilst it was stripped for paint.... Yes was the answer, we will sell them to you, you fit them, then bill us for them, needless to say that went down like a lead balloon and it never happened, so rather than a smart looking job it left with dirty great ugly patches nailed onto them before paint... Sigh


Didn't they used to put a couple of aircraft on a UK circuit near Christmas to help folks get home for the holidays in the 50's come 60's?

[Pontius Navigator]

Didn't they used to put a couple of aircraft on a UK circuit near Christmas to help folks get home for the holidays in the 50's come 60's?

That happened at ISK in the 70s even. I think that informal ferry service was one of the reasons PN joined the RAF and not the other Services. As a young cadet on summer camp at Topcliffe one Varsity trip visited several airfields dropping off and picking up airmen and officers as several airfields. I thought that is the way to go.

The rest of the plebs could spend hours travelling by train (pre-Beeching) but the elite could do he journeys in minutes.

[Blanket Stacker]

Lyneham used to sometimes lay on a Britannia for those going to Scotland & N. Ireland in the late 60s. A Benson Argosy did a flight to Ballykelly, via Topcliffe & Turnhouse, at a May bank holiday in, I think, 1966.

[sisemen]

At Benson in the early 90s 115 Sqn did a nice number in Christmas shopping trips to the Channel Islands and France. :ok:

[BEagle]

The RN 'Tilly' used to do regular runs between their various stations, using a Sea Heron and later a Jetstream.

Rumour has it that some senior RAF officer, let down by his own service, had to travel in a naval Jetstream and promptly demanded that Heron Flight should be disbanded. If it's true, then he must have been an utter ar$e!

In 1969, the RN flew me home from Lossiemouth to Somerset - the RAF alternative was about a day on the choo-choo. My chauffeur on that occasion was a RN Cdr flying one of Airwork's Sea Vampires.

Taking an aircraft for the weekend was once possible in the RAF provided that there was a reasonable excuse; I flew a Wg Cdr down to Dunsfold in a Hawk from Valley, then popped up to Scampton for the weekend where I left it parked for a static display before flying back first thing on Monday.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

One could still get a 125 ride as late as 1989. I remember 32 Sqn did a sweep-up trip on December 23/24th for all the deserving waifs and strays - I'd done an extra QRA to cover for illness, and got dropped off in London so's I could spend xmas with my girlfriend. I also flew as co- on the BBMF Devon a few times doing the odd 'support flight' that ferried a few people around.

Those days are gone....:(

[NutLoose]

At Benson in the early 90s 115 Sqn did a nice number in Christmas shopping trips to the Channel Islands and France.

I remember the Ten in the 80's doing a day trip to Disney World...... Florida!!
It was actually doing a Nav exercise so it was decided to offer it out to families on the station to take their kids, think they had to pay for a days ticket and hotels at the other end, then as the crew had their rest day the families enjoyed Disneyworld.
There was also the Annual yearly Ten to Legoland Denmark for disabled kids etc, Shell or whoever donating the fuel and the crew their time.. :)

I used to bum lifts on Pumas or Chinooks heading north on exercises, so i could go home on leave :) our Chinooks were better as i used to take my motorbike in them.... only got stitched up once (by 33 Sqn), we landed on to meet another Puma, I thanked them, off loaded my bag and set off for the main gate at Catterick to thumb it to Carlisle..... hang on this ain't Catterick i thinks as two Pumas promptly disappear off over the hill leaving me standing in some totally deserted Pongo camp up in the back of beyond (that was only used for range firing once in a blue moon), the sole occupant at the gate informed me Richmond was that way some 10 miles!!!! luckily the only car that passed the place in an hour stopped and gave me a lift... it was so out there one expected James Herriott to be driving it. I wondered why the bloody crewman was grinning as i left...


..

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Taking an aircraft for the weekend was once possible in the RAF provided that there was a reasonable excuse


This was happening until quite recently at Shawbury - only a couple of years back it was fairly standard for the Senior Service brethren to borrow a Squirrel to head to Cornwall and do their IF SCT on the way.

And Hawks from Valley used to do weekend stops not that long ago...I was lucky enough to get to Yeovilton and Odiham in my brief time on 4 FTS. Just a shame about the single-engine restrictions at Northolt...

[Fareastdriver]

As a young ATC cadet I used to fly to Jersey and back every Friday during school holidays in the fifties. My father was they only pilot in an Air Ministry department that was full of navigators. In those days aircrew had to do so many hours a year to qualify for flying pay and to this end there was an Anson available at Northolt.
I bought my first ever shaver, a twin headed Philips, from there without having to pay purchase tax.

[The Oberon]

Back in the 70's, there was always a pre-Christmas training flight from Lynham to Goose Bay in order bring out wives and family and repat the rest to UK. There was another "trainer" post New Year, in order to return everyone whence they came. There was also the Dulles school holiday runs.

[pontifex]

Once, as a lad in the fifties, I got bored in the summer holls so got on my bike and cycled up to Kenley in CCF/RAF uniform. Cut story short, got to fly to Farnborough in the stn flt Oxford. Don't remember pilot's name/rank or anything but he had to go to a meeting that lasted till mid afternoon. A guy in the black sheds saw me wandering around and took me all over also into the tower and to the wind tunnels. Only just made it back to the ac before the pilot arrived. Is it any wonder that I made aviation my career. What a pity it couldn't happen today!