FL290-?
I was on duty as a controllers assistant in the Northern Dairies ops room when one of my colleagues took a handover from Midland (the a/c not only climbing out of their airspace but possibly still in the their overhead?) an unrestricted climb to an unspecified height , much to our surprise, was requested by the pilot. The aircraft was a Hastings of 1066 Flt out of our own airfield at Lindholme (Latterly HMP) I can't remember the year but it was probably'71. As far as I remember the a/c got somewhere in the region FL 290 - 310 . This was about 11:00 - 11:15. After coming off console I caught the 12:00 shift change bus back to Lindholme which was duly stopped at the traffic lights on the A614 whereupon that same aircraft we had been controlling came screaming? well, roaring down the runway at low level only to pull up and perform a "sort of" wingover type manoeuvre before turning downwind to land. I think the occasion was to mark the pilots last flight or similar. I'm sure there are others out there who can fill in the gaps in my memory.
A342