Forgive my late entry to this thread – I’ve only just been told of it’s existence and have had to re-subscribe to add to it.
Sept 68 saw me, a fresh faced 18yr old Halton brat posted to RAF Scampton. I should have know all was not straightforward when the level of Security Clearance needed caused me to have to wait an extra two months at Halton before I could take up my post at Scampton.
I thought I was being clever when I chose the trade of ground electrician – it seemed to cover such a wide range of skills and thus seemed more interesting than “just” airframes or engines. Little did I know that it was a passport to one of the hardest working trades in the whole of the RAF. Whereas the blackhand gang were focussed on seeing the planes out – then either sleep, play cards or play sport until they came back. I found a never ending stream of kit to be fixed. From domestic kettles and washing machines – through generating sets, invertors through MT and specialist vehicles to Paloust starters and even to Blue Steel itself. In fact anything that was vaguely electrical, electronic or hydraulic that wasn’t (at that moment) bolted to an airframe.
Thus in Sept 1968 I found myself working in the Blue Steel maintenance hangar at Scampton. Initially I was tasked with building a test rig that would allow testing of all the Blue steel electrical / electronic modules by simply plugging them into the rig – which simulated the full blue steel systems and allowed monitoring of the input/outputs from each module. Wherever possible this was coupled to some kind of measurement circuit that illuminated a green or red light to indicate the module was OK or not. I didn’t know it at the time, but the brass had already decided to retire blue steel and my gizmo was only used for 18 months.
When I wasn’t building gizmo’s, I was fixing all manner of strange stuff – including the special blue steel transporter vehicles, fire engines, runway de-icer’s, paloust starter trollies etc. One winter’s night I returned to my billet at about 02.30 to find RAF Police searching for me – and me being called over the station tannoy system. It transpired that I was needed to go fix a Blue Steel transporter vehicle that had broken down on the A1. Having worked till about 5.30 to get the transporter functional again – we found that the escorting fire engine had a problem which prevented the convoy from moving. By this stage both the RAF and civvy police were getting concerned about this large convoy blocking a major roundabout on the A1 (not to mention the Blue Steel sitting on the side of the road waiting for some drunk to run into it). Luckily we got them moving by about 7am – just before the rush hour. The subsequent enquiry resulted in a new SOP that required a technician to be on standby at locations along the convoy route such that they could respond within 30 minutes (They apparently had been looking for me for over 2 hours).
Someone mentioned the orange plastic baths full of water and pingpong balls - well I’ve had the extreme dis-pleasure of being thrown into one (fully clothed) when HTP splashed during a missile refuel on a transporter.
The strike command dispersals were supposed to be staffed by 2-3 technicians responsible for keeping the vehicles, aircrew sleeping caravans and other equipment fully serviceable. I spent 3 months at Boscombe Down where we each had our own vehicle and took turns to remain on standby within VHF radio range of Boscombe. Boscombe was mostly staffed by Royal Navy and my introduction to the drinking and initiation ceremonies of the dark blues – still fill me with disgust – all these years on.
I will talk about my 3 years at Goose in a separate posting.
Tom
