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Old 12th Feb 2018, 12:58
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Centaurus
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Australia
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One thing for sure and that was the angled glass front turret of the Lincoln Mk 31 once caused this writer a few seconds of angst when we were trying to illuminate a suspected surfaced submarine during a midnight exercise in the Timor Sea.

We had him on radar at 10 miles (a miracle on the ASV Mk 7 radar) and bored in to drop sonobuoys. Lincolns did not have searchlights so we couldn't illuminate the sub. We tried the landing light which was situated under the left wing but we were going like the clappers and that failed in a shower of sparks.

That left the Aldis light. At 500 ft on the radio altimeter the Tactical navigator tried shining the Aldis light through the glass panels of the nose aiming at the sea in the blackness ahead. It only succeeded in reflecting a bright light back into the cockpit wrecking any night vision and temporarily blinding the pilot (me). With that, the radar contact disappeared no doubt scared by what he thought was a bloody great gun firing at him. We pulled out at 200 feet and climbed back to safety. The contact was reported to base via HF radio. Our Navy denied having any of their subs in the area and put it down to whales copulating on the surface.
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