Originally Posted by
BEagle
'Baay' (Barry) was a real lounge lizard who used to drink in our local Somerset pub in the 1970s. Ex-FAA, buggers grips, cravat and blazer with rather an affected manner which he assumed would endear him to the laydeeez…
But his tale of flying an Attacker was quite amusing: "Eh was right overhead London one night when the dem engine flamed out and wouldn't relight. So eh managed to make it to Ford and landed orff a glide approach. Then to the wardroom for a stiffener or two!"
"Bugger's grips!" I have not heard of them in 60 years, but the last time was a Commander F......... RN {Rtd] who had a senior post in Met Oceanography and was i/c the Nautical branch [why we duplicated the Navy nobody told me]. His bugger's grips were magnificent, you could swing off them, but he was a creature of icy menace to youngsters so we avoided taking the proverbial.
Whereas taches, beards, stubble and the rest are commonplace, how many grips do we see in a year?. I am sure that I would notice, even if only to compare with the late Commander.
As for the Attacker, it was an ugly beast, unlike the Sea Hawk [much as Swift versus Hunter, obviously].