Military AircrewA forum for the professionals who fly the non-civilian hardware, and the backroom boys and girls without whom nothing would leave the ground. Army, Navy and Airforces of the World, all equally welcome here.
Of course unless you're flying single seat you're not really making the decisions are you? The guy, or guys, behind you are telling you where to go, how fast, and at what height.....
autopilot on - steer enabled - file updated by radar - aircraft adjusts heading - pilot goes "where are we going to now?" - nav/lead dry/whoever puts him out of his misery.... Maybe the bloke/woman signing for the jet in the F700 was the 'boss'?
In the early days(1970s) on 203sqn the aeroplanes were virtually brand new and I was the only singlee on the crew I flew with (crew 2) and also the most junior - so I did the rationing (I was told to). I decided to have a no tins policy (the amount of tins for sharing out after the trip was ridiculous on Shacks at BK and the on board food was really crap ) so in Malta every trip was catered for a full nine hours for fourteen bods (because the Nimrod was so new we invarioubly had guests though they never really ate anything as they were sat in ordnance trying to hold on to their innards) so as crew we enjoyed a wonderful diet of fresh fillet, [steak cooked on board (usually setting off the fire/mist alarms in the Aileron Hyd bay)] along with salads etc., along with fruit and joghurt for snacks. The mess used to make up some really wonderful sauces for us in flasks( bourguignon etc). MCT trips were usually better than some of the better restaurants downtown in St Juliens. After I was posted back to Kinloss, apparently it reverted (sadly) back to tins again as all of the crew were scalees and nobody could be bothered. The boss - at that time (Keefy) was at the pointy end but briefly I joined Soggys crew on 206sqn, - he was a Nav Captain and very good at it as well IMHO and in later life on 120 quite a few 'captains' were rear crew. Never an issue.
I think this is one of those few occasions when the Americans have it right over us, with their AC Commander and TACO positions in the aircraft.
Being up at the pointy end of a Nimrod meant that we were not in the best place to 'use' the aircraft. Even with the best situational awareness in the world, unless you sat in front of the TAC screen, you were not best placed to use the Nimrod to the best of its capability..
As a P1 Captain, I would always give up tactical responsibility to the TAC Nav who in turn would disperse that responsibility to the Lead Wet or Lead Dry depending on the sortie profile. A pilot captain is NOT the person for the job, but either the AEO or TAC Nav is.
Never had the arctic roll, but ate plenty of the DCSs, which probably accounts for my ever-so-lightly over weightless!!
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Lincolnshire
Age: 70
Posts: 9,345
Winco, this was also true of the AEW Shack and the E3. In the case of the former the PI/Captain thought he was in charge but it was the Taco that decided where they barriered, what height they flew and how long they remained on task. It was usually PLE.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Lincolnshire
Age: 70
Posts: 9,345
and if the back end hadn't come along for the ride there would have been no one to shut the door, make the tea, or to tell him where to go after he left the circuit
Last edited by Pontius Navigator; 9th Oct 2012 at 17:33.
Uccers (or Uckers) certainly, but video games???
