WESSEX AIRCREW CONFESSION

[KPax]

Heard today on Simon Mayo's Radio 2 Confession slot, a member of a Wessex crew at an East Anglian Airshow persuaded some overbearing American Aircrew that Pizza was invented by two Russians Piotr and Zara. Very funny to hear, any truth to the story.

[Janda]

No the Pizza was invented by the Italians of Naples. :D

[teeteringhead]

Some sources contend it was invented by the Greeks.....

....... classic SH banter by the sounds of it! :ok:

[B Fraser]

There was a large sign at Chicago O'Hare that made me laugh "Welcome To The Home Of The Pizza".


Aye right !

[Wander00]

Best pizza I have ever had is in a little Italian family run place in Vesterbrogade, just round the corner from son and d-i-l's flat in central Copenhagen. Absolutely brilliant

[Fareastdriver]

Worst one I had was in Rome. It had a semi-fried egg on top.

[The Oberon]

The best one for me was also a family run place in Palermo. The wine situation was novel, we asked for another carafe of the house white, the waiter returned with a 20 ltr. plastic jerry can and a funnel and refilled the carafe on the table.

[smujsmith]

Have to agree with Oberon. Best Pizza experience for me was in Palermo, accompanied by some serious red death, and followed by a large dose of Grappa. Result, I'm surprised I can still remember it :eek:

Smudge:ok:

[unclenelli]

This appears to have drifted to Italian cuisine rather than the gullible yanks.

2009
US Army (164th TAOG) took over ATC Basrah.
Their Lt came to me one day
"Say, I hear from my guys that you've been teaching to swear in English, so I've been taking notes. Let me get this right "'Ball-ox' is bad, but 'Dog's Ball-ox' is good. Huh?"

Later when the radar guys arrived, I recounted this exchange with a MSgt. I told him that life so far at Basrah under the Yanks had not been a one-way thing and that they had also taught us a lot about life in US of A.
"Apparently you have these burger places everywhere - "MacDougals" or something I think they said. Apparently they're everywhere! We have nothing like that in the UK. They tried to introduce it into the UK, but called it too unhealthy. We have the occassional Burger King in the big cities but that is all."

He took it hook, line, sinker, rod & copy of Angling Times.







Then revealed he had served 5 yrs at Mildenhall!

I think deliberatly misnaming McD as "MacDougals" was enough to plant the seed.

I remember when I left they didn't like me pointing out that they had spelt "Theatre" wrong on my coin & certificate!!! - a missed opportunity!

[Motleycallsign]

Not sure about cuisine, but I do remember convincing a young Army officer in Germany, that the Oil Cooler Fan drive belts were the 'rubber bands' that kept the tail rotor turning, and that the occasional puff of carbon escaping from the exhaust tubes occurred when the pilot ' changed gear '. Happy days!

[Herod]

I know of another young army officer who was convinced the Hercules, while on the ground, was propelled by a gearing between the engines and the wheels.

[Fareastdriver]

I remember a young Royal Air Force admin officer who thought the same thing except that it was the Beverley.

[ShotOne]

There has been a (genuine) proposal to save fuel by propelling transport aircraft on the ground by doing just that.

[salad-dodger]

Except that it's not quite just that. What you are referring to is electric motors to turn the wheels not hearing from the engines.

S-D

[k3k3]

Similar on 20 Sqn Jaguars, an army major asked how the wheels were driven and I told him the drive shafts went down through the oleos, and declutched when the undercarriage retracted.

[D John]

I read (maybe on pprune) about a US officer with his men in Nth. Norway one summer, he was rather cross about being given the wrong maps and told the norwegian officer that he wanted the correct maps on his desk by sundown, he was not very happy when told that sundown was in three months :)

Cheers, John

[unclenelli]

As well as the long-running story of E3's dispatching the disk and re-claiming it after it's sortie, is the story of the E3 itself.

It is well known that radiation affects the human body adversely, so the E3 is twin skinned with sheilding in between. (Hence the lack of windows.) This serves 2 purposes. It also allows the inner cabin to rotate, so when it enters an orbit, the inner cabin rotates, within the outer, to allow the floor to stay flat.


As believed by several USAFE members on board a jolly I was on in April 2004 over FYR.

[ShyTorque]

In the early 1980s we took an RAF Puma Det. to "Bad Tolz" in Southern Germany (later renamed "Col. A.J. Bo Baker Field" after the unit Boss, who died at his desk), for winter mountain flying training (or was it for skiing and beer tasting, hard to recall after all these years).

One of the crewmen, Sgt. Johny "Messtin", wore a nice tweed jacket and tie and smart trousers to dinner, as opposed to the rest of the crew who were dressed in the usual motley fashion. The "local" Americans were deeply intrigued by this and in solemn "explanation" were told that he was actually "Lord John of Camarthen" and only flew as crewman for fun.

They readily believed this (hook line and sinker) and they treated him like true royalty, which he obviously hugely enjoyed. But they had to be told the truth eventually, before we left. They were totally unwilling to unbelieve it.

LSH - wasn't it you who started this scurrilous rumour? :)

[The Oberon]

Not exactly titled gentry but there was a Vulcan Nav/AEO? named Colin ******. His name tag read Col ******. He always allowed the "mercans" to assume he was a Colonel and accepted the respect and privileges due to the rank.

[AdrianShaftsworthy]

Almost choked on my beer listening to one of the Reds informing a Noggy F16 driver at a Valley post display pxxx-xp that the way to generate different coloured smoke was to inject various brands of washing up liquids into the exhaust. Said Noggy seen busily writing down Fairy Liquid for green, Palmolive for red, etc, etc. :)

[Wander00]

AS - I hate you - almost poured coffee down my keyboard - best laugh for days