Jobsworth airports weren't restricted to the world of civil aviation. Back in 1978, 7 of us had been at Goose Bay for 9 days with all the necessary cold weather clothing, flying clothing etc. etc. and were finally leaving the place in mid-Dec eager to get back to RAF Scampton. We were told that we had to be back by a certain time because Scampton would be closing then... That looked doable, but we were delayed on departure for some reason or other. We needed it to stay open for an additional 15 min, but despite the pleas over HF, they wouldn't agree and we were given a Grade One diversion to Waddington...and were told that transport would be waiting to take us to Scampton.
When we landed, all that was there to meet us was a Morris van (about the size of a Sherpa). After loading all our bags (7 crew plus all their kit) and squeezing on board, we were taken over to the Operations block and told that we had to get off and get on the 32 seat coach which had actually been sent from Scampton... Why couldn't it have met us at the aircraft, you may well ask? Because the driver didn't have an airfield driving permit for Waddington. Why couldn't a driver with such a permit have brought the bus to us? Because they were Waddington and it was a Scampton vehicle.....and never the twain shall meet, it seems.
The following day the Boss said he was glad that we were finally back - but where was our Vulcan? We told him, to which he replied "Go and get it...NOW!". As I was going on leave, another co-pilot was joe'd; off they went through the Lincoln traffic, generated the mighty steed, took off, left the wheels down, skirted Lincoln and landed 5 min later.
All because the air traffic jobsworths had refused to stay open for a mere 15 min. I wonder how much tax payers' money that wasted?
Last edited by BEagle; 1st Jun 2022 at 19:03.