In '75, two of XV''s rivet pullers had a brief, but passionate, meeting out of Karup. The lead crew carried out a text book ejection--I believe--and the other recovered to Karup. The farce begins. The recovered Bucc.is deemed to be Cat 5. ( please note this was by a to$$ah who drove non stop to Karup from Bruggen--to save the Air Force money and not claim any rates!--and who also said he could exist on the LOA of Kr9 per day
) A review decided the a/c was only Cat 3. Plan A. Fly 5 Eng + tools to Karup. Plan B Compress the above into a BL 1800---and drive up!. So, night stop in Hamburg, ---obviously and arrive at Karup. The LH L/E of the Bucc was like a piece of corrugated paper---BUT--when we folded the wing---it lifted perfectly and was removed with no complications and NO secondary structural damage. Replace wing and Bingo. Enter the recovery of the one in the sea phase----plus one Grimsby trawler, two MoD divers, and one permanently pi$$ed MoD person ( in his Jag !) who was paranoid about the funny bits in the rear being on public display when the wreckage was landed. This was quite amusing as, when we did land the bits, it was just like Spy vs Spy--a lot of people taking piccies--of people taking piccies etc.at a small fishing port. Speys make excellent crab pots btw
Denmark is a very hospitable Country and we had a very pleasant 5 week sabbitical---thank you XV---which was only spoilt by some shiny a$$e at Bruggen noting that the 1800 fuel comsumtion "seemed excessive"--BL 1800 speedo cables were prone to disonnection over a 4.5 day cycle OK !. One other memorable person was the Station M.O. ---dressed in uniform shirt----and wearing maroon flared cords----would have gone down a bomb at Waddo to judge from previous posts
Oh, and we got the LOA raised to Kr 28 per day as well !!
Also brought a Gnat back, same year, from the Tiger meet at Leck. Said Gnat driver, either through sexual frustration and / or confusion about the AAR capability of the Gnat, attempted to mate with an F-104--from behind. The pointy bit on the Gnat was well and truly crinkled--which must have made the landing interesting I suppose--but did provide us with another 10 day sabbatical whilst we put it on a low loader. In both cases however, the structural integrity of the Airframe reflected the skills of the designers and manufacturers given that there was no further damage. Either of these jog any memories at all ?