Originally Posted by
BEagle
I recall MFF during an exercise at Wattisham in the early '80s. Dispersed to the ORP, whilst waiting for something to happen, we were treated to the sight of a MFF Hawk landing with the bang seat pole poking out of the rear canopy... Later we heard that it was because a fighter controller on a jolly had managed to eject himself.
A rather less than sympathetic comment came from a 'senior' F-4 mate - "A fighter controller? Best place for the beggars is the North Sea - with or without a dinghy!"
Rumour has it he had actually paid attention when learning the dingy drills. First heard the story when back seat rides at Valley were offered to the guys at the Radar site at Ty Croes in 92/93. When I made a comment that an ACM sortie would be cool, the SOpsO replied, Not going to happen, they don't allow them anymore after said Fighter Controller banged out. It was actually the second Pax bang out from a Hawk that safely landed in the space of a week. The first one was a Circus linely who banged out of a Red after the aircraft suffered a low level wire strike.